SPECTERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: Charles Taylor and the Problem of Historicism

  1. Peter Woodford*

Article first published online: 17 JAN 2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9795.2011.00514.x

Issue

Journal of Religious Ethics

Journal of Religious Ethics

Volume 40, Issue 1, pages 171–192, March 2012

Additional Information

How to Cite

Woodford, P. (2012), SPECTERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: Charles Taylor and the Problem of Historicism. Journal of Religious Ethics, 40: 171–192. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9795.2011.00514.x

Author Information

  1. Stanford University

*Peter Woodford is a Ph.D. student in Modern Religious Thought, Ethics, and Philosophy at Stanford University currently working on a dissertation on the “philosophy of life” and theories of religion and culture in late nineteenth-century Germany. He works in nineteenth-century European philosophy and religious thought, and more broadly in Continental Philosophy, theories of religion, and ethics. Peter Woodford, 2020 N. Lincoln Park West, Apt. 15A, Chicago, IL 60614, peterwd@stanford.edu

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 17 JAN 2012
  2. Article first published online: 17 JAN 2012

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (91K)

Keywords:

  • historicism;
  • Charles Taylor;
  • normativity in religious studies;
  • A Secular Age;
  • Wilhelm Dilthey;
  • secularization

ABSTRACT

This paper identifies and analyzes the problem of historicism in Charles Taylor's work overall, but with particular emphasis on his most recent publication, A Secular Age. I circumscribe the problem of historicism through reference to the nineteenth-century German philosophical tradition in which it developed, in particular in the thought of Wilhelm Dilthey. I then trace the structural similarities between the notions of history to be found in the thought of Taylor and Dilthey and how these structural similarities raise worries associated with the problem of historicism. I argue that the structural aporia of historicism evident in Taylor's work brings to light a live philosophical problem that is basic to theoretical debates in the study religion.

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (91K)