Original scientific paper
Charles Taylor and the Possibility of Individualism about Identity
Andrej Keba
; London School of Economics, London, United Kingdom
Abstract
Even thought the concept of personal identity enjoys great popularity in normative
debates about the public standing of culture, nationalism, and civic
equality, the concept itself remain very unclear. In various disciplines, including
sociology, social psychology, and psychoanalysis, that concept has different
meanings, which stands in the way of its unambiguous use in political
theory debates. An important obstacle to the clearer delineation of the concept
of identity is methodological, and concerns the disagreement over the correct
approach to studying identity. One of the most influential participants in
this debate is Charles Taylor, who argues that identity cannot be defined as a
property of individuals, but only as a property of social groups. If plausible,
this view undermines all variants of the liberal approach to identity, which all
maintain that the worth of identity must be understood in relation to the rights
and interests of individuals. This paper examines the plausibility of Taylor’s
argument, and defends the possibility of individualism about identity.
Keywords
Charles Taylor; culture; individualism; personal identity; value; holism
Hrčak ID:
57665
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2010.
Visits: 2.553 *