This week, we will look at the first half of Charles Taylor’s essay “The Politics of Recognition.” Choose one question below and prepare an oral response.
1. What is the importance of recognition in today’s world, according to Taylor? What are the effects of non-recognition or mis-recognition? What social transformation accounts for the development of the politics of recognition?
2. Summarize Taylor’s account of authenticity. If this trend is, as Taylor observes, “part of the massive subjective turn of modern culture,” what role, if any, does he see for others? How does this notion figure in terms of both personal identity and equal recognition?
3. Compare and contrast what Taylor calls the politics of universalism and the politics of difference. According to Taylor, how does the latter grow out of the former? What do they share? How do they conflict?
