Reviews for Philosophy and the human sciences

The average rating for Philosophy and the human sciences based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-12-08 00:00:00 thomas walker I read only the political philosophy section. There is too much to say so I won't say anything. I couldn't help but notice the debt he has towards George Grant (after reading all of Grant's books this summer). A number of the historical narrative he gives to explain our present situation are taken from Grant, although often with significant modification. The only example I can name off the top of my head is "legitimacy crisis," which retells some of the same stories from "Technology and Empire." Taylor also seems to respond to Grant, too, in "atomism." Although this essay is an attack on Nozick (and perhaps the most famous of such) it also directly quarrels with Grant's conclusion, in "English-speaking Justice," that liberalism has no means of justifying its own moral assumptions. Between the two of them, I think I prefer Grant. Taylor is clearly the better philosopher and historian of ideas, and I'm grateful for the cogency of his arguments. However, Grant gives the sense of passionately understanding how he himself fits into that history. Taylor seems to speak about history from a great distance. Thia gives his essays an almost chilly effect.

Review # 2 was written on 2021-01-30 00:00:00 Scott Weiler After a slow start, I found it strangely congruent with my studies of Kant's deontology the very same evening as I finished the final essay in Taylor's somewhat anachronistic collection of essays.