Varieties of Humanism for a Secular Age: Charles Taylor’s Pluralism and the Promise of Inclusive Humanism

Phillip Williamson Schoenberg

doi:10.18290/rf.2016.64.4-9

Phillip Williamson Schoenberg University of New Mexico

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18290/rf.2016.64.4-9

Keywords: Charles Taylor; transcendence; humanism; Christian humanism; philosophy of religion; secularity

Abstract

I argue that Taylor’s engagement with secularity demonstrates his deep concern for preserving key humanist insights, an abiding commitment to moral pluralism, and the sincerity of his religious faith. Taylor insists on transcendence as the best hope for securing the continued commitment to the moral legacy of humanism in the west, but while he personally advocates a renewed Christian humanism, his notion of transcendence is amenable to other interpretations, including non-religious options, and so allows for a potential overlapping consensus on humanism from what Taylor calls the “transformation perspective.”

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