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Description
Taylor is one of the world's pre-eminent experts on Hegel and brings to his reflections on nationalism and federalism the fruits of a more universal philosophical discourse rooted in the Enlightenment and before. Its hallmarks are terms such as recognition, self-determination, atomism, and modernity. Notwithstanding his long involvement in philosophical reflections, Taylor has avoided the role of the disengaged intellectual, always remaining close to political action and debate in Canada. To his philosophical discourse, therefore, is added a sensitive knowledge of Quebec society from the vantage point of an English-speaking citizen with profound roots within it. Taylor suggests that it will be necessary to think in terms of deep diversity if Canada is to stay together in the twenty-first century. Eight of the essays, published between 1965 and 1992, are drawn from the Queen's Quarterly, edited scholarly books, a research study for the MacDonald Commission on Canada's Economic and Political Future, and an English translation of his submission to Quebec's Bélanger-Campeau Commission. The concluding paper was written specially for this volume.
Editorial Review
"Taylor is Canada's leading political philosopher and the present collection constitutes a magisterial set of reflections on the Canadian predicament going back almost thirty years ... I have little doubt that the readership for this volume will be large and diverse, tapping not only an academic audience but a lay public as well. In these stormy times, with Canada threatening to go the way of Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, or the ex-Soviet Union, Taylor's views deserve the broadest possible dissemination." Philip Resnick, Department of Political Science, University of British Columbia. "The book displays a remarkable understanding of the political and social forces that shaped the Canadian constitutional debate of the last quarter century." John C. Courtney, Department of Political Studies, University of Saskatchewan.
