•  10
    Taxation: its justification and application to global contexts
    In Helmut P. Gaisbauer, Gottfried Schweiger & Clemens Sedmak (eds.), Philosophical Explorations of Justice and Taxation: National and Global Issues, Springer. pp. 219-236. 2015.
    This article focuses on the justification of taxation, in other words the principled rather than the technical aspect of taxation. We first show how democracy is on the one hand required for legitimate taxation, and how on the other hand democratic communities are dependent on taxation, and argue there is no vicious cirle. We then present a typology of ways of justifying taxation, according to which taxation can base its legitimacy on (1) meeting basic needs, (2) financing public goods, (3) redi…Read more
  •  98
    Seen to be done: The roots and fruits of public equality (review)
    Res Publica 16 (1): 83-88. 2010.
    What is the ethical basis for democracy? What reasons do we have to go along with democratic decisions even when we disagree with them? When can we justly ignore democratic decisions? These three questions are intimately connected: understanding what is ultimately important about democracy helps us to understand the authority of democratic decisions over our personal views, and the limits of such authority. Thomas Christiano’s ambitious new book, The Constitution of Equality, aims to provide suc…Read more
  •  202
    Strong Evaluations and Personal Identity
    In Christian Kanzian & et al (eds.), Persons: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Alws Society. pp. 127-9. 2002.
    This paper examines Charles Taylor’s claim that personal identity is a matter of strong evaluations. Strong evaluations are in this paper analyzed as stable preferences, which are strongly identified with and which are based on qualitative distinctions concerning the non-instrumental value of options. In discussing the role of strong evaluations in personal identity, the focus is on "self-identity", not on the criteria of personhood or on the logical relation of identity. Two senses of self-iden…Read more
  •  2
    "The Nordic welfare states have arguably been successful in terms of social solidarity – although the heavily institutional and state-driven solutions as opposed to community- or family-based ones in various issues from child to elderly care may have made it seem as mere ‘quasi-solidarity’ in comparison to more communitarian ideals. This essay approaches such social solidarity in terms of Axel Honneth’s recognition-theoretical framework – arguing that there’s much more potential in Honnethian id…Read more
  •  2
    This Chapter discusses the questions of (8.1) Acquiring moral beliefs and knowledge: normal cases, (8.2) cases of missing knowledge, (8.3), Moral disagreements.
  •  12
    On the Scope of ‘Recognition’: The Role of Adequate Regard and Mutuality
    In Thomas Kurana & Matthew Congdon (eds.), The Philosophy of Recognition, Routledge. pp. 319-342. 2010.
    A conflict arises from two basic insights concerning what recognition is. I call them the mutuality–insight and the adequate regard–insight. The former is the idea that recognition involves inbuilt mutuality: ego has to recognize the alter as a recognizer in order that the alter’s views may count as recognizing the ego. There always needs to be two–way recognition for even one–way recognition to take place. The adequate regard –insight in turn is that we do not merely desire to be classified as …Read more
  •  42
    Culturalist Moral Realism
    In Arto Laitinen & Nicholas Hugh Smith (eds.), Perspectives on the philosophy of Charles Taylor, Acta Philosophical Fennica. pp. 115-131. 2002.
    In this paper I defend a ‘culturalist’ but nevertheless non-relativistic moral theory, taking Charles Taylor’s writings on this topic as my guide.1 Taylor is a realist concerning natural sciences, the ontology of persons and the ontology of goods (or meanings, significances or values). Yet, his realisms in these three areas differ significantly from one another, and therefore one has to be careful not to presuppose too rigid views of what realism must be like. Taylor’s moral realism can be calle…Read more
  •  8
    From Recognition to Solidarity: Universal Respect, Mutual Support, and Social Unity
    In Arto Laitinen & Anne Birgitta Pessi (eds.), Solidarity: Theory and Practice, Lexington Books. pp. 126-154. 2014.
    This chapter examines whether solidarity can be understood as a form of mutual recognition; or possibly, as a social phenomenon, which combines different forms of mutual recognition. The emphasis is on the connection between the thin principle of universal mutual respect, and the thicker relations between people, more sensitive to their particular needs and contributions, which social solidarity involves.
  •  3
    Social esteem, based on contributions the common good, or to the good of others, is an important phenomenon, and following Axel Honneth, it can be seen as an important subspecies of interpersonal recognition, side by side with respect and love. In this paper we will contrast two accounts of this phenomenon, hoping that this kind of cross-illumination will prove useful by clarifying a number of conceptual questions and options that one needs to be conscious of indiscussions about esteem as a form…Read more
  •  1
    In this Chapter (ch 5 of Strong Evaluation without Moral Sources), as well the following chapters, I defend a hermeneutical but nevertheless non-relativistic moral theory, taking Charles Taylor’s writings on this topic as my guide. Taylor is a realist concerning natural sciences, the ontology of persons and the ontology of goods (or meanings, significances or values). Yet, his realisms in these three areas differ significantly from one another, and therefore one has to be careful not to presuppo…Read more
  •  7
    Perspectives on the philosophy of Charles Taylor (edited book)
    Acta Philosophical Fennica. 2002.
    The essays in this volume offer a range of new perspectives on Charles Taylor's philosophy. Part one addresses key metaphilosophical themes such as the role of transcendental arguments, the critique of representationalism, and the dialectics of Enlightenment. Part two critically examines Taylor's views on personhood, selfhood and interpersonal recognition. Part three discusses issues in Taylor's moral and political theory, including the nature of his moral realism, his theory of modernity, and h…Read more
  •  2
    This is the introductory chapter to a book. This study has two parts. The first part concerns some central concepts in philosophical anthropology and the second part some of the central questions in ethics. One of today’s leading philosophers, Charles Taylor (b. 1931), suggests with his notion of “strong evaluation” that these two areas should be studied in tandem: the self and the good are interrelated, and the nature of persons is intertwined with the nature of values.1 Strong evaluations, i.…Read more
  •  1
    Recognition, Acknowledgement, and Acceptance
    In Heikki Ikaheimo & Arto Laitinen (eds.), Recognition and Social Ontology, Brill. pp. 309-347. 2011.
    In this chapter I distinguish between a) recognition of persons, b) normative acknowledgement and c) institution-creating acceptance. All of these go beyond a fourth, merely descriptive sense of the word “recognition,” namely identification or re-identification of something as something. I distinguish four aspects of "taking someone as a person": R1 A Belief that the other is a person, and can engage in agency-regarding relations.R2 Moral Opinion that the choice whether and when to engage with pe…Read more
  •  2
    Any view stressing the relevance of the engaged perspective for value realism must face the fact of diversity of moral views. There is significant intercultural diversity in people’s beliefs about values. Skeptics like Mackie argue that the diversity results from there being nothing for people to know, or at least nothing they can know. In this chapter I try to show that engaged value realism is compatible with universal, unrestricted validity of values. In 6.1 and 6.2 I discuss various possible…Read more
  •  12
    Interpersonal recognition: A response to value or a precondition of personhood?
    Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 45 (4). 2002.
    This article suggests first that the concept of interpersonal recognition be understood in a multidimensional (as opposed to one-dimensional), practical (as opposed to symbolic), and strict (as opposed to broad) way. Second, it is argued that due recognition be seen as a reason-governed response to evaluative features, rather than all normativity and reasons being seen as generated by recognition. This can be called a response-model, or, more precisely, a value-based model of due recognition. A …Read more
  •  6
    On Identity, Alienation and Consequences of September 11th. An Interview with Charles Taylor
    with Hartmut Rosa
    In Arto Laitinen & Nicholas Hugh Smith (eds.), Perspectives on the philosophy of Charles Taylor, Acta Philosophical Fennica. pp. 165-195. 2002.
    HR/AL: Professor Taylor, what are you working on these days? CT: Well, several things. One of the things I am working on is something I was lecturing this fall at the New School University, and that I have called ‘modern social imaginaries’. It is an attempt to understand western modernity in terms of the different ways in which people imagine their social existence. These imaginaries are a condition for new kinds of practices that are characteristic of modernity. This research is an internal pa…Read more
  •  185
    Recognition and Social Ontology: An Introduction
    In Heikki Ikaheimo & Arto Laitinen (eds.), Recognition and Social Ontology, Brill. pp. 1-24. 2011.
    A substantial article length introduction to a collection on social ontology and mutual recognition.
  •  52
    Today and tomorrow: Review of Charles Taylor by Ruth Abbey (review)
    Radical Philosophy 30 108. 2001.
    The Philosophy Now series promises to combine rigorous analysis with authoritative expositions. Ruth Abbey’s book lives up to this demand by being a clear, reliable and more than up-to-date introduction to Charles Taylor ’s philosophy. Although it is an introductory book, the amount of footnotes and references ought to please those who want to study the original texts more closely. Abbey’s book is structured thematically: morality, selfhood, politics and epistemology get 50 pages each. The focus…Read more
  •  8
    Social Equality, Recognition, and Preconditions of Good Life
    In Michael Fine, Paul Henman & Nicholas H. Smith (eds.), Social Inequality Today, . 2003.
    In this paper I analyze interpersonal and institutional recognition and discuss the relation of different types of recognition to various principles of social justice (egalitarianism, meritarianism, legitimate favouritism, principles of need and free exchange). Further, I try to characterize contours of good autonomous life, and ask what kind of preconditions it has. I will distinguish between five kinds of preconditions: psychological, material, cultural, intersubjective and institutional. Afte…Read more
  •  6
    In this chapter I pursue the connection between humans as strong evaluators and humans as strongly valued. The connection is, quite simply, that strong evaluators are valued because they are strong evaluators. Yet, this valuing is of two kinds: someone’s achievements as a strong evaluator can be esteemed, or he can be respected as a person. Personhood is a specific kind of moral status, but it is based on personhood in the descriptive sense. Taylor’s views on persons can be seen as trying to inc…Read more
  •  2
    Solidarity
    In Byron Kaldis (ed.), Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Social Sciences, Sage Publications. pp. 948-950. 2013.
    An encyclopedia entry on "solidarity". Around the 1840’s the term was adopted in German and English, and was politicized, adopted to social sciences, and came to be used in a broader meaning of emotionally and normatively motivated readiness for mutual support, as in the slogan “one for all and all for one”. In rival meanings, the concept has been used in four main contexts: first, in the context of explaining or understanding the nature of social cohesion, social order, ‘groupness’ or the ‘glue…Read more
  •  2
    In this chapter I discuss Taylor’s claim that strong evaluation is inevitable for human agency: without a framework of strong evaluations human agents would be in a crisis which Taylor calls, perhaps misleadingly, “an identity crisis”. With a broad brush I introduce some of the essential background in first three sections, and scrutinize the inevitability of strong evaluation more closely in the last three sections. I introduce first the distinction between the engaged perspective, which in Tayl…Read more
  •  2
    Practices as ‘actual’ sources of goodness of actions
    Philosophy and Public Issues - Filosofia E Questioni Pubbliche 57-70. 2015.
    This is a contribution to a special issue of "Philosophy and Public Issues" focussing on Michael Thompson's Life and Action. I first discuss the nature of actuality, then the distinction between acting on a first-order consideration and a second-order consideration, and the possibly related distinction between expressing a practice and merely simulating it. Then I turn to the topic of varieties of goodness.
  •  107
    Charles Taylor, a secular age (review)
    Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 13 (3): 353-355. 2010.
    Charles Taylor has written three big books on the self-understandings of modern age andmodern individuals. Hegel (1975) focused on one towering figure, and held that Hegel ’ saspirations to overcome modern dualisms are still ours, but Hegelian philosophicalspeculation is not the way to do it. Sources of the Self (1989) ran the intellectual historyfrom peak to peak, stressing the continuous presence of modern tensions and cross- pressures between Enlightenment and Romanticism. A Secular Age (2…Read more
  •  7
    Group Minds and the Problem of the First Belief
    Balkan Journal of Philosophy 2014 (1): 43-48. 2014.
    ABSTRACT. This article presents theories of group belief with a problem. It is conceptually and psychologically impossible for there to be a believer with just one belief. For conceptual reasons, a single belief could not have any content without the background of other beliefs. Or even if it could, it would for psychological reasons be impossible for the believer to know or understand the content of its sole belief. With certain plausible assumptions, however, groups would at some point of ti…Read more
  •  10
    Recognition and Social Ontology (edited book)
    with Heikki Ikaheimo and Arto Laitinen
    Brill. 2011.
    This unique collection examines the connections between two complementary approaches to philosophical social theory: Hegel-inspired theories of recognition, and analytical social ontology.
  •  2
    The Just (review)
    Radical Philosophy 30 105. 2001.