Charles Taylor Authenticity

In this passage from The Ethics of Authenticity the author Charles Taylor is writing on the topic of authenticity on what it means to for people to have unique lives and to be different from those in our society. In the first part of the passage Taylor points out that modern society believes that morality comes is rooted in our emotions and is found within ourselves. He claims that this morality within can often be drowned out by our passions in life and by our society around us (Taylor 51). He argues that our modern society believes that morality should not be affected by our society but should come solely from within ourselves not from our environment. This means that an individual can only discover what is moral by looking within and listening

He believed that the whole notion of looking solely within was absurd. He continued to argue that an individual was constantly being affected by the ones they loved and from their society in which they lived. That when they reason they are comparing it to the morality of those in their culture. They are basing their beliefs of what others believe in their society whether they realize it or not. Taylor put down the way modern society claims that significance is only relevant to the individual and how it is all just the opinion and feeling that the person has. Taylor says that this is insane because anyone can claim significance on anything. He also states that an individual cannot just feel as if something is significant, but rather, they have to have intelligent reasoning behind the significance. Taylor’s point is that our values and who we are is strongly affected by our society and we cannot define ourselves without first looking at where we attained our

This passage opened my eyes to how intense our society is about “finding yourself” and “defining who you are”. In today’s society we are raised to “follow our hearts” and “look within” rather than look at how we as individuals came to find our morals and our values to be able to make decisions. I believe that he is correct that we gain out values and our morals to an extent from our society and the culture in which we live. It would be silly to claim that a person would not be affected by the environment in which they live. It also claims such a huge role in our identity as a person. Whether we grew up in a good family environment or a bad one, those experiences become a part of who we are, and are a part of our identity and authenticity. It is important that he mentioned that those who we care and that matter to us are in constant dialogue with us and affect us throughout our lives. Because those experiences and things we learned are not only our identity from the past but continue shaping who we are throughout our lives. I also agree with how Taylor states that not everything can be considered significant. I feel that too often we let each individual claim things as important or significant just for empty conversation rather than actually backing up their reasoning behind the idea. I believe that for something to be significant it has to hold intelligent meaning. When I say intelligent meaning, I am saying that a