Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity

This is 535 pages of difficult intellectual history, of morals and the self. I wish I had a course based on this book in college! This is an author's work of love, trying to tease the threads of moral sentiment that have led to our modern identities.Buy a couple of highlighters. Plan to take notes. This is not a book for dilletantes. You will get an extremely high level of instruction and understanding.I must say that at some level, the title of this book is ironic. Nowhere does Taylor references psychology at all. There is no self-psychology in this book. This is history. If you want psychology, you will have to look elsewhere.PS I got this reference from Fukuyama's book on political identity. Best referral I've ever had.

Very in depth study of the moral ontology which underlies many of our convictions about morality. Taylor weaves through a history of philosophy which stretches from Plato up to modern theories of rights and individualism arguing against the worldview, sometimes associated with science, that we can view the world in a thoroughly detached and neutral manner. Taylor has been an important philosopher in discussions surrounding secularism, practical reason, critical theory, human rights, recognition, and finding meaning in the modern age.

I have never read a contemporary book of philosophy with so much attention. Every page Taylor writes is filled with remarks that either enlighten aspects of our moral life or ask very serious questions about it. He claims that contemporary philosophical trends lead us to ignore many of those aspects, and he convinced me that he is right. (As a keen walker, then, I am also fascinated by the parallel that he repeatedly draws between understanding our moral instincts and finding an orientation in a new, unexplored landscape.) I wish I had read this book when it was first published

Be prepared to be called out and exposed. No more room for convenient rationalizations and judgments - ignorance. Identity, what is it and where does it come from - the good, the bad, and the reason? I love this book!The author is concise and traverses the themes that constitute what we believe to be the Self, and Taylor ensures no psychological stone unturned from religion, theology, cosmology, and psychology (the ramparts of philosophy).Anyone smartly provoked by inner demons such that Freud and Jung unraveled will appreciate these added viewpoints.

Great book quality, very fast delivery!