On Charles Taylor’s Thought Of Authenticity

Authenticity is not only an important thought in the fields of philosophy,art and morality,but also a contemporary far-reaching mass culture.It often appears in daily life in the form of films,television and books to teach people to "be yourself".The philosophical meaning of authenticity comes from its daily meaning,but it is higher than its daily meaning.It mainly refers to self authenticity and self uniqueness.From the perspective of genealogy,authenticity can be divided into inner sense mode and creationism mode.The former takes the internal and external categories as the core,which aims to emphasize the feeling of loyalty to the heart and pursue the "feeling of being" integrated with nature or God;The latter takes self creation as the core,denies the internal self and pursues an aesthetic way of life.Both models have the possibility of falling into individualism and narcissism.In order to save the authenticity and demonstrate the authenticity as a moral ideal,Taylor criticized the internal sense model and Creationism model from the three dimensions of hermeneutics,language philosophy and Recognition theory,reconstructed the authenticity,and turned the authenticity from the perspective of liberalism to the perspective of communitarianism.In the aspect of hermeneutics,Taylor aims to criticize the lack of horizon of significance of the past authenticity theory;In linguistics,Taylor criticized the past theory of authenticity for neglecting intersubjectivity and the correct construction method and media of authenticity;In terms of Recognition theory,Taylor criticized the past authenticity theory,which regarded society and state as instrumental institutions serving individuals.The three dimensions of Taylor’s thought of authenticity are intrinsically related:the existence basis of hermeneutic demonstration of authenticity,that is,the horizon of significance;How to obtain the horizon of significance of linguistic argumentation authenticity through language media;Recognition theory proves the universal and social conditions for the authenticity to obtain the horizon of significance.Hermeneutics dimension is the general direction and methodology for Taylor to solve the problem of authenticity.Linguistics is the concretization and realization of the general method,and Recognition theory is the standardization,socialization and institutionalization of the general method.The three dimensions complement each other and are inseparable,which reflects the three-dimensional structure of Taylor’s thought of authenticity.From the perspective of Hermeneutics,authenticity needs a horizon of significance.The horizon of significance is the field of the construction of self-identity and authenticity,and it is also the background that makes self-identity and authenticity meaningful.Authenticity to the horizon of significance is "Da-Sein" to "Lichtung" and language to "life form".The reason is that "engaged agency" takes precedence over "disengaged agency" in time and logic,and endows people with "preunderstanding views".One of the "preunderstanding views" is closely related to good and constitutes the moral space for people’s survival.Taylor calls it the moral ontology.Another "preunderstanding views" is related to the normative concept and image of the way of social existence.It is not only the meaning background and collective consensus of social practice,but also the guiding light of social practice.Taylor calls it social imagination.The process of constructing authenticity from the perspective of meaning,that is,Taylor’s so-called "self interpretation",is not only to explain the importance of objective things,but also to explain the strong evaluation of first-order desire.From the perspective of language philosophy,language is not only the medium of authenticity,but also its construction and realization.In addition to the function of designing,language also has the functions of expressiveness,constitutionality and narration.The three make language a way to realize authenticity,and also make authenticity expressive,constitutive and narrative.The importance of language expressiveness to authenticity lies in the embodiment of the overall values of the language community,the expression of a strong evaluation,and the accurate expression of personality.The constitution of language is important,not only because language constitutes the implicit space of authenticity — — shared attention,but also because language constitutes the explicit space of authenticity ——public space,but also because language directly constructs footings.The narrative of language refers to self narration,but self narration is not "self monologue",but takes society and history as the meaning background,constructs self-identity coherently and dynamically according to the language of the community,and realizes authenticity.From the perspective of Recognition theory,authenticity needs the recognition of the others.Recognition theory is the generalization,standardization and institutionalization of the construction of authenticity.The recognition of love provides the "original explanation" of desire and cultivates the original meaning vision of authenticity;Equal recognition provides a specific way to construct the authenticity——equal dialogue,which not only ensures that the individual personality is respected,the true self-image is not distorted and oppressed,but also ensures the realization of self authenticity;The recognition of difference originated from the theory of equal dignity,defended the authenticity with the theory of universal potential and value community,and created a new direction of multiculturalism.More importantly,Recognition theory endows authenticity with three new dimensions: self-confidence,self-esteem and self-respect.The three are interrelated and inseparable,which together constitute the rich connotation of authenticity.Taylor’s thought of authenticity has an inestimable position in the history of western thought.Taylor not only demonstrated the authenticity as a moral ideal from three aspects to solve the theoretical difficulties of the inner sense model and the creationism model,but also corrected some errors of liberalism on self-identity to a certain extent.The significance of Taylor’s thought of authenticity lies in demonstrating the nature of personal virtue and social virtue of authenticity,in solving some problems of modernity,and in leading the new trend of multiculturalism.However,Taylor’s thought of authenticity also has three theoretical difficulties,including unable to completely solve the inherent contradiction of authenticity,easy to change into relativism and his own position of idealism.If the inner sense model and creationism model belong to the authenticity from the perspective of liberalism,Taylor’s authenticity belongs to the authenticity from the perspective of communitarianism.Liberalism and Communitarianism have their own ends,which is difficult to completely and effectively solve the problem of authenticity thought.Reconstructing the thought of authenticity with Marxist practice theory not only retains the rationality of Taylor’s thought of authenticity and overcomes its theoretical dilemma to a certain extent,but also can surpass the theoretical shackles of liberalism and Communitarianism and create a new direction of the thought of authenticity.It includes getting rid of the stereotype of idealism,realizing the unity of authenticity,self discovery and self creation,and realizing the organic unity of individual and society.Authenticity is both self discovery and self creation;It is not only expressed as personality,but also inseparable from intersubjectivity;It is not only rebellious and revolutionary,but also social and traditional.In addition to retaining the reasonable characteristics of authenticity,the theory of practice gives a new characteristic of authenticity — — revolution,highlighting the critical function of authenticity to unreasonable social systems.