查尔斯·泰勒对世俗时代精神状况的剖析与反思

Charles Taylor's Analysis and Reflection on Spiritual Condition in a Secular Age

查尔斯·泰勒从观念论的角度对西方世俗社会的形成过程及其精神状况做了深刻的剖析。在《自我的根源》中,他追溯了现代自我认同的形成。他将现代性的展开看作自然主义哲学与表现主义哲学的较量,这一较量在当前政治哲学中表现为自由主义与共同体主义的辩论。在《世俗时代》中,他通过对世俗性叙事的重构进一步剖析世俗时代的精神危机,认为这些危机源于现代西方人对自我认同的错误理解。泰勒对西方世俗化问题的研究可以为我们理解世俗时代的精神状况提供一种穿透性的视角。

Charles Taylor makes a profound analysis on the formation of western secular society and its spiritual condition from the perspective of idealism.In Sources of the Self,he traces the formation of modern self-identity.He takes the development of modernity as the contest between naturalism and expressivism.Such contest is embodied by the debate between liberalism and communitarianism in contemporary political philosophy.In A Secular Age,through the reconstruction of the secular narrative,Taylor further explores the spiritual crisis in a secular age.He thinks the crisis derives from westerns＇ misunderstanding of self-identity.His research on western secularity could provide us a penetrating perspective on spiritual condition in a secular age.