Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor is one of the greatest political philosophers of our time. He was born in 1931 in Montreal and studied at McGill and Oxford universities, where he earned his doctorate. In 1961, he was appointed as a professor of political science and philosophy at McGill University, where he is now an emeritus professor. An expert on Hegel's work and a leading figure in communitarianism, he is best known for his studies on recognition, ethics, multiculturalism, and the concept of identity. With multiple identities himself—being Anglo-Canadian from his father and French-Canadian from his mother, an active leftist citizen, and a devout Catholic—his work is influenced by various thinkers such as Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty, Durkheim, Tocqueville, and the Frankfurt School. He has practically engaged with the issue of cultural differences; thus, the Quebec government appointed him as co-chair, alongside historian Gerard Bouchard, of the Commission de consultation sur les pratiques d’accommodement reliées aux différences culturelles. Additionally, he has been actively involved in politics as a member of the social-democratic New Democratic Party and ran as a candidate in federal elections four times.