Charles TaylorIdentidad, comunidad y libertad.

Résumé

Given the current relevance of the debate between communitarists and liberals within the panorama of practical philosophy, I consider the study of Charles Taylor to be important. The present exposition is intended to be a systematic, critical approach to his figure and works. His philosophy reviews modern identity and criticizes the oversimplification that has occurred in some analyses of liberalism through the limits that can be put to such a doctrine. Several topics are addressed in this study: the epistemology underlying many of the modern proposals, the idea of person these theoretical constructions deal with, the priority of the notion of good over the notion of justice, the problems derived from the implementation of procedural justice, the problem of the recognition of differences and multiculturalism, the issue of whether the public sphere must be neutral about the diverse life options its citizens choose, the effectiveness of formal ethics, etc. This work sets out Taylor's criticism of liberalism as being the trend of Philosophy around which our society and the institutions of our time have been organized. The exposition of his thought shows the connections between the subject's identity, the community and the development of his freedom while pointing out some mistakes in the assumptions of those individualist liberal theories that have gone further than Modernity itself could have suspected. Some theories have promoted cannon of rationality that has degenerated into a corruption of the ideals that they intended to foster, resulting in the present degraded ways of individualism. A mistaken conception of rationality and the role the human agent plays in knowledge and action, has given rise to contradictions in some aspects of the present liberal individualistic culture, therefore developing a character that entices people to desire to better themselves. The project of this thesis intends to resettle individual and collective freedom in a suitable place, showing the inescapable interconnection between individual and common good.