Narrative identity: Human as a ‘self-interpreting animal’. Charles Taylor’s concept of narrative identity

• Authors: Bociek, Klaudyna

Abstracts

EN

The article is devoted to the concept of narrative identity created by Charles Taylor, a contemporaryCanadian philosopher of politics and religion. This approach places particularemphasis on the meaning of temporal perspective and ethical horizon in the process offorming personal identity, and also stresses its dialogical nature. Subjectivity is thereforeinseparably connected here with a certain horizon of realized and affirmed good, whereasthe subject perceives his way of living as a continuous narration. The essence of a thesisproposed by Taylor, who wishes to remind the postmodern individual of what constitutesthe fullness of his/her identity, is therefore a belief, that ‘human is a self-interpreting animal’– a being, whose identity depends on the way in which he/she defines himself/herself. The human person can and should be involved in enriching identity transition, and activatingforgotten moral reserves.

Keywords

EN

narrative identity; Subjectivity; Ethics; morality; understanding

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Gdański
• Journal: Miscellanea Anthropologica et Sociologica
• Year: 2016
• Volume: 17(2)
• Pages: 63-70

Contributors

author

Bociek, Klaudyna