Charles Taylor’s Discussion with Naturalism

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to trace Charles Taylor’s considerations concerning the issues of human identity and to show the main points of his anti-naturalist position. The Canadian philosopher’s criticism of naturalism consists, inter alia, of the identification of man’s constitutive axiological horizon – the conceptual framework, prior to any reductionist conceptions of human nature. One of the topics of the paper is to present Taylor’s thoughts within the tradition of Husserl's phenomenology and the hermeneutical philosophy of Gadamer and Heidegger. The above said category of conceptual framework is compared with Gadamer's notion of superstition (Vorurteil).