Radicalizing and De-Radicalizing Charles Taylor

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article aims is to clarify two opposing interpretations of Charles Taylor’s philosophy against the backdrop of the current crisis of liberal capitalism. The first, de-radicalizing reading, insists that liberal modernity is reformable and radical transformation to a post-capitalist society untenable. The second, radicalizing reading, underscores the possibility of transcending liberal-capitalism but paradoxically through the fulfillment of liberalism’s own values. Where de-radicalizers see in Taylor’s philosophy an attempt to stabilize the existing order, radicalizers perceive it as offering resources for a new kind of democracy. The goal is not to determine which – if either – of these readings matches Taylor’s self-understanding but to bring into focus the dynamic tensions available to readers of his astonishingly rich political theory.