ABSTRACT
The work of Charles Taylor, like that of MacIntyre, involves a sweeping historical-analytical account of Western moral and political thought, and the sum and substance of his thinking can be understood as an attempt to counter certain pervasive strands of cultural thought. His work covers the rise of political culture from Plato to post-modernism, and liberalism per se appears as merely one strand in the web of modernity. Taylor explicitly names Rawls as the target of his critique only when discussing the priority of the right over the good. Moreover, unlike MacIntyre, Taylor does not reject liberalism tout court. Taylor's negative thesis is that contemporary liberal moral theory errs in the positing of a radical division between the self and its vision of the good. Positively, he argues that moral argumentation, and, indeed, the very concept of personhood, both presuppose a vision of the good.
