Jacob Levy (editor) - Interpreting Modernity

I NTERPRETING M ODERNITY

I NTERPRETING
M ODERNITY

Essays on the Work of Charles Taylor

EDITED BY
DANIEL M. WEINSTOCK,
JACOB T. LEVY, AND
JOCELYN MACLURE

McGill-Queens University Press
Montreal & Kingston | London | Chicago

McGill-Queens University Press 2020

ISBN 978-0-2280-0143-0 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-2280-0144-7 (paper)

ISBN 978-0-2280-0282-6 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-0-2280-0283-3 (ePUB)

Legal deposit third quarter 2020

Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

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We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

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LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Title: Interpreting modernity : essays on the work of Charles Taylor / edited by Daniel Weinstock, Jacob T. Levy, and Jocelyn MacLure.

Names: Weinstock, Daniel M., editor. | Levy, Jacob T., 1971 editor. | Maclure, Jocelyn, 1973 editor.

Description: Essays collected in this volume were originally presented at a conference organized in Charles Taylors honour on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20200247379 | Canadiana (ebook) 20200247557 | ISBN 9780228001447 (paper) | ISBN 9780228001430 (cloth) | ISBN 9780228002826 (ePDF) | ISBN 9780228002833 (ePUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Taylor, Charles, 1931 | LCGFT: Festschriften.

Classification: LCC B995.T3 I58 2020 | DDC 191dc23

Set in 11/14 Sina Nova with Futura and Caecilia Std

Book design & typesetting by Garet Markvoort, zijn digital

CONTENTS

Introduction
Charles Taylor: A Biographical Sketch

DANIEL M. WEINSTOCK, JACOB T. LEVY, AND JOCELYN MACLURE

PART ONE
Epistemology, Philosophy of Mind, and Philosophy of Language

SHAUN GALLAGHER

HANS J. SCHNEIDER

RICHARD J. BERNSTEIN

PART TWO
Religion and Modernity

TARIQ MODOOD

RONALD BEINER

PART THREE
Moral Agency and the Self I

JOHN CHRISTMAN

NANCY J. HIRSCHMANN

PART FOUR
The Interpretation of Modernity

MICHAEL ROSEN

WILLIAM E. CONNOLLY

PART FIVE
Moral Agency and the Self II

KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH

JOSEPH HEATH

NIGEL DESOUZA

PART SIX
Political Philosophy, Recognition, and Multiculturalism

CCILE LABORDE

RAJEEV BHARGAVA

MICHELE MOODY-ADAMS

PART SEVEN
Canadian Politics

JEREMY WEBBER

Conclusion
A Conversation between Charles Taylor, Jacob T. Levy, Daniel M. Weinstock, and Jocelyn Maclure

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This volume arises out of a 2012 conference Charles Taylor at 80; most of the papers here were presented in draft form there. The conference was the culmination of a four-year grant from the Fonds de recherche du Qubec, Socit et Culture (FRQSC) to Montreals Groupe de Recherche Interuniversitaire en Philosophie Politique (GRIPP). We thank our colleagues in GRIPP for their contributions and participation, and the FRQSC for financial support for the conference and for GRIPPs ongoing programs. The conference and subsequent work toward publication was also supported by grants from the Templeton Foundation to the Research Group on Constitutional Studies at McGill, and from Quebecs Secrtariat aux affaires intergouvernementales canadiennes, and by additional contributions from lAssociation des tudes canadiennes; the Centre de recherche en thique de lUniversit de Montral and the Vice-rectorat la recherche, la cration et linnovation, lUniversit de Montral; the Centre for Global Challenges at York University; McGills Faculty of Arts, Department of Political Science, and Research Group on Constitutional Studies; the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences; le Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire sur la normativit; and le Groupe de recherche sur les socits plurinationales. Pierre-Yves Nron did the primary organizational work for the conference. Maud Gauthier-Chung, Martin Blanchard, and Louis-Philippe Caron Lanteigne contributed valuable additional organizational support.

We wish to thank Michel Bastarache, Guy Laforest, and Julius Grey who, along with Daniel M. Weinstock, contributed thoughts at the conference on professor Taylors important role as a public intellectual, in a public discussion ably chaired by the late Gretta Chambers.

We especially wish to thank professor Taylor for his memorable willingness to engage extemporaneously with the speakers, and to discuss issues ranging from the philosophy of mind and language to Canadian politics.

This book would not have come to fruition without the indispensable research assistance provided by Muhammad Velji, liot Litalien, and Alice Everly. Thanks for additional assistance to Abbie LeBlanc and Ewa Nizalowska.

We are grateful to the following publishers for permission to reprint material that was initially published in whole or in part in the following works.

Richard Bernstein. Taylors Engaged Pluralism. In Pragmatic Encounters, 8799. New York: Routledge, 2016.

William E. Connolly. Third Interlude: Fullness and Vitality. In The Fragility of Things, 1408. Duke University Press, 2013.

Ccile Laborde. Protecting Freedom of Religion in the Secular Age. In Politics of Religious Freedom, edited by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan et al., 26979. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Tariq Modood. State-Religion Connections and Multicultural Citizenship. In Religion, Secularism, and Constitutional Democracy, edited by Jean L. Cohen and Ccile Laborde, 182203. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015.

I NTERPRETING M ODERNITY

INTRODUCTION

Charles Taylor: A Biographical Sketch

DANIEL M. WEINSTOCK, JACOB T. LEVY, AND JOCELYN MACLURE

The essays collected in this volume were originally presented at a conference organized in Charles Taylors honour on the occasion of his eightieth birthday. They are by former students, colleagues, and academics who in one way or another have been influenced by his work, and also by the way that Taylor has, throughout his career, been able to write works that have placed him at the very pinnacle of academic achievement with a deep and ceaseless commitment to public engagement.

Taylor was born in Montreal in 1931 in a bilingual family. He obtained a BA in history at McGill University and received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford, where he received a BA in philosophy, politics, and economics, and a DPhil in philosophy in 1961. During his time at Oxford, he was awarded a prestigious fellowship from All Souls College. Taylor began his academic career in the department of philosophy of the Universit de Montral, where he taught from 1963 to 1971. He moved to McGill University in 1973 and was a professor in the departments of both political science and philosophy. From 1976 to 1981 Taylor held the Chichele Chair in Social and Political Theory, one of the most prestigious chairs in political theory in the English-speaking world. He has also held numerous visiting appointments at universities in North America, Europe, and beyond.

Throughout his academic career, Taylor maintained a commitment to civic engagement. At Oxford, he was one of the founding editors of the Universities and Left Review, which would eventually become the New Left Review, to this day one of the most important vehicles for progressive ideas and arguments. Upon returning to Canada in the early 1960s, he became a frequent contributor to