Individualism : Charles Taylor and Veritatis splendor

Abstract

In this essay I wish to tackle the problem of individualism as seen through the eyes of the contemporary philosopher Charles Taylor and Veritatis Splendor, an encyclical letter which voices the teachings of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. The problem of individualism is one of the foremost concerns of contemporary deliberations about moral behaviour especially in the context of popular debates about the value of action in modem times. One might say that more than ever, today, individualism has become simply a matter of doing what one wishes and desires without any referral to any higher principles rising over or above human aspirations and desires. The result of such a way of thinking however all too often ends up encompassing conflicting tensions where a general sense of moral and spiritual ambivalence and malaise sets in. For many of us it is an orientation which produces a confused state of mind, not knowing how to behave or how to decide about moral decisions. Charles Taylor's seminal works Sources of the Self and Ethics of Authenticity constitute, in my mind, a major, vital and valid intervention in this debate.