Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity

1. Introduction

Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (1989) is Charles Taylor’s extensive attempt to explain how the specifically modern Western sense of self has come to be, and what moral assumptions quietly underlie it. Rather than offering a systematic treatise in moral theory, the book combines philosophy and intellectual history to trace the “sources” that confer depth and authority on contemporary ideals such as autonomy, dignity, authenticity, and the value of everyday life.

Taylor’s central claim is that persons are always situated within what he calls moral space: a background of distinctions between higher and lower, better and worse, that orients their sense of who they are. Modern identity, on his account, cannot be understood purely in psychological, sociological, or procedural terms; it is constituted by strong evaluations and by reference to horizons of significance that agents often take for granted.

The work intervenes in late‑20th‑century debates about liberalism, communitarianism, secularization, and naturalism by arguing that even apparently neutral or “value‑free” self‑understandings depend on substantive, historically shaped moral ontologies. It proposes a long, multi-stranded narrative beginning with ancient philosophy and Christianity, passing through the Reformation and Enlightenment, and culminating in Romanticism and the ethic of authenticity.

Because of its scope, Sources of the Self is read not only in philosophy but also in theology, political theory, and cultural studies. It is frequently described as a landmark in efforts to reconnect normative moral philosophy with the history of ideas, and it functions as a key precursor to Taylor’s later investigations of modern social imaginaries and secularization.

2. Historical Context and Intellectual Background

Taylor composed Sources of the Self in the late 1970s and 1980s, a period marked by renewed questioning of the liberal, individualist conception of the person in Anglo-American philosophy and political theory. Communitarian critics of liberalism, debates over value neutrality, and discussions of identity politics and multiculturalism formed part of the work’s background.

Philosophical and Political Milieu

In moral and political philosophy, figures such as John Rawls, Robert Nozick, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Michael Sandel were reshaping discussions of justice, community, and the self. Taylor’s project develops alongside:

Intellectual Predecessors

Taylor’s narrative is informed by:

• Hegelian notions of historical development and recognition.
• Phenomenology and hermeneutics (e.g., Heidegger, Gadamer) in its focus on lived moral experience and interpretation.
• Classical sources (Plato, Aristotle, Stoics) and Christian theology (especially Augustine and Aquinas) as foundational for Western inwardness and moral order.

Debates on Modernity and Secularization

Social theorists such as Max Weber, Émile Durkheim, and Talcott Parsons had already framed modernity in terms of rationalization, differentiation, and secularization. Taylor situates his story within, but not identical to, these accounts, focusing less on institutions than on changing self-understandings and moral ontologies.

Interdisciplinary Context

The emergence of identity as a key category in sociology, psychology, and cultural theory—alongside poststructuralist critiques of the unified subject—also provides an implicit backdrop. Taylor’s emphasis on the historical formation of identity engages these discussions while resisting radical anti-essentialist positions.

3. Author and Composition of the Work

Charles Taylor (b. 1931), a Canadian philosopher educated at McGill and Oxford, is known for contributions to political theory, philosophy of mind, and the history of philosophy. His earlier work on Hegel, language, and action theory significantly shapes Sources of the Self.

Taylor’s Intellectual Trajectory

Before Sources of the Self, Taylor had:

• Published Hegel (1975) and Hegel and Modern Society (1979), developing a sympathetic yet critical engagement with Hegelian historicism.
• Written on action and interpretation, emphasizing that human agency is always self-interpreting and embedded in cultural frameworks.
• Engaged politically in debates about Canadian federalism, nationalism, and multiculturalism, which informed his sensitivity to plural identities and shared horizons.

These strands converge in Sources of the Self as Taylor attempts a comprehensive historical reconstruction of modern moral identity.

Composition and Development

The book was written over roughly a decade, during which Taylor held academic posts at McGill University and elsewhere. It synthesizes ideas first tested in lectures, articles, and conference papers on moral theory, the self, and modernity.

Place in Taylor’s Oeuvre

Proponents often regard Sources of the Self as a pivotal work in Taylor’s corpus, inaugurating a series continued by Modern Social Imaginaries (2004) and A Secular Age (2007). It crystallizes his method of combining philosophical argument with deep historical genealogy, and it articulates in mature form concerns about recognition, authenticity, and the embeddedness of agency that appear throughout his later writings.

4. Structure and Organization of Sources of the Self

Taylor structures Sources of the Self into five main parts, each corresponding to a major strand in the historical development of modern identity. The organization is both chronological and thematic, moving from conceptual clarifications to historical reconstructions and back to systematic reflection.

Overview of Parts

Narrative Movement

The book opens with conceptual analyses of how identity is tied to evaluations of the good, then turns backward to ancient and medieval sources, proceeding forward through early modernity to Romanticism. Taylor alternates between:

• Chapters focused on particular thinkers (e.g., Augustine, Descartes, Locke, Kant, Rousseau, the Romantics).
• More synthetic chapters describing shifts in background “pictures” of the self, nature, and moral order.

Thematic Recurrence

Certain themes recur across parts:

• Inwardness: traced from Augustine through Protestantism to modern subjectivity.
• Moral sources: successively rearticulated under Christian, rationalist, naturalist, and expressivist frameworks.
• Tensions in modern identity: repeatedly highlighted as earlier sources are transformed, displaced, or obscured.

The organization thus supports Taylor’s dual aim of providing both a historical narrative and a philosophical clarification of the modern self’s underlying moral commitments.

5. Central Aims and Overarching Argument

Taylor’s central aim in Sources of the Self is to explain how the modern Western sense of identity has been shaped by a series of historical transformations in underlying moral sources, and to argue that these sources continue to structure contemporary moral experience, even when they are no longer explicitly acknowledged.

Main Aims

1. Articulate the dependence of identity on the good: Taylor seeks to show that understanding who one is necessarily involves orientation within a field of qualitative distinctions about what is worth pursuing or admiring.
2. Reconstruct the genealogy of modern identity: He traces how ancient, Christian, Enlightenment, and Romantic frameworks have contributed to modern ideals such as autonomy, dignity, and authenticity.
3. Critique reductionist accounts: The work aims to challenge naturalistic and proceduralist views that portray moral life as reducible to preference, utility, or formal right, arguing that they overlook the depth of our evaluative commitments.

Overarching Argument

The book advances a cumulative argument with several components:

Taylor does not present this as a strict deductive proof but as a layered, interpretive argument. Proponents note that the narrative is meant to make modern moral experience more intelligible to itself by revealing the often forgotten backgrounds that give it depth and coherence.

6. Key Concepts: Moral Sources, Strong Evaluation, and Moral Space

Three interrelated concepts—moral sources, strong evaluation, and moral space—form the conceptual backbone of Sources of the Self.

Moral Sources

Moral sources are the deeper backgrounds—religious, metaphysical, or humanistic—that confer weight and authority on moral claims. They provide an ontology of the good: assumptions about what is genuinely higher, more fulfilling, or more worthy.

Examples discussed in the book include:

Strong Evaluation

Strong evaluation refers to assessments that rank desires, motives, or life-orientations as higher or lower in worth, not merely as different. Such evaluations help constitute identity: who a person understands themselves to be is shaped by what they regard as truly admirable or contemptible, noble or base.

Taylor distinguishes strong evaluations from:

• Weak evaluations, where choices are made on grounds like efficiency or immediate preference without claims about higher worth.
• Purely instrumental judgments that lack claims to qualitative superiority.

Proponents of Taylor’s view hold that strong evaluation is unavoidable in serious moral life, including when agents reflect on their own priorities and character.

Moral Space

Moral space is the structured field of questions and distinctions about what is better or worse, higher or lower, within which agents orient their lives. It includes contrasts such as:

• Self-fulfillment vs. self-indulgence
• Courage vs. cowardice
• Authenticity vs. conformity

Taylor argues that agents cannot make sense of their lives without some orientation in this space. Different historical epochs and cultures articulate moral space in different ways, drawing on different moral sources. This notion allows Taylor to connect individual self-interpretations with large-scale shifts in background moral ontologies.

7. Inwardness and the Affirmation of Ordinary Life

In Sources of the Self, inwardness and the affirmation of ordinary life constitute two major strands in the genealogy of modern identity, treated especially in Part II.

Inwardness

Taylor traces modern inwardness to Augustine and subsequent Christian spirituality, where the inner domain of will, conscience, and affect becomes the privileged site of encounter with God and truth. This emphasis is later intensified in:

• Medieval and early modern devotional practices that focus on examination of conscience.
• Reformation doctrines stressing faith, personal conviction, and individual relation to God.

Over time, the locus of ultimate significance shifts from external cosmic orders and hierarchies to the inner life of the subject. Taylor links this to later secularized forms of subjectivity in which authenticity and self-knowledge are paramount, even when explicitly religious reference has receded.

Affirmation of Ordinary Life

The affirmation of ordinary life denotes a major moral revaluation in which everyday activities—work, family, economic production, domestic affection—come to be regarded as central spheres of ethical significance. Taylor identifies several contributing developments:

In contrast to older ideals of heroic honor, aristocratic glory, or monastic contemplation, modern moral culture grants pride of place to the diligent worker, responsible parent, and citizen engaged in productive, worldly tasks.

Taylor argues that the combination of heightened inwardness with the affirmation of ordinary life helps to shape characteristic modern self-understandings: individuals experience their everyday roles as morally serious and bound up with deeply internalized responsibilities and aspirations.

8. The Naturalist Turn and the Punctual Self

Part III of Sources of the Self analyzes what Taylor calls the naturalist turn, a shift in early modern thought toward explaining the world—including human agents—in terms modeled on natural science. This turn reshapes conceptions of the self and its moral ontology.

The Naturalist Turn

The naturalist turn involves several related changes:

• Mechanistic world-picture: Nature is interpreted as a realm of matter in motion governed by causal laws.
• Fact–value separation: Descriptive accounts of the world are distinguished sharply from evaluative or theological claims.
• Moral psychology in empirical terms: Human motives and behavior are increasingly explained via sensation, desire, and association, rather than by participation in a cosmic order of the good.

Taylor associates this shift with figures such as Descartes, Locke, and later Enlightenment thinkers, though he emphasizes that their positions differ significantly.

The Punctual Self

Within this context emerges the ideal of the punctual self: a self conceived as a point-like, disengaged consciousness capable of surveying and controlling its own desires and environment from a stance of rational detachment. Features of this conception include:

Taylor links this punctual self to Cartesian epistemology and to Lockean accounts of personal identity based on consciousness and memory. Proponents of his reading claim that this model underwrites modern ideals of self-control, instrumental rationality, and procedural justification.

At the same time, Taylor argues that the naturalist turn and the punctual self presuppose earlier Christian and humanist notions of inwardness and dignity, even as they reinterpret them within a more “flattened” moral space that sidelines qualitative rankings of higher and lower goods.

9. Nature, Sentiment, and Alternative Moral Ontologies

In Part IV, The Voice of Nature, Taylor examines strands of modern thought that resist or reinterpret the naturalist and rationalist picture by locating moral insight in nature and sentiment. These currents generate alternative moral ontologies that are neither straightforwardly theistic nor reductively naturalistic.

Moral Sense and Sentiment

Thinkers such as Shaftesbury and Hutcheson posit an internal moral sense or sentiment that allows humans to perceive moral qualities (e.g., virtue, benevolence) as immediately pleasing or displeasing.

These views challenge purely rationalist accounts (e.g., some readings of Kant) and purely naturalist reductions by insisting that moral value is an objective aspect of reality, disclosed through feeling rather than detached reason alone.

Nature as Moral Source

Taylor discusses how appeals to nature function as a moral source:

• Nature is seen as inherently ordered toward benevolence, harmony, or human flourishing.
• Sentiment and sympathy are understood as natural capacities that attune agents to this order.
• Moral norms are justified by reference to what is “natural” in a richer sense than mere biological fact.

Rousseau is a central figure, depicting natural human goodness as corrupted by social institutions, and locating authenticity in recovering or expressing one’s natural sentiments. This yields an ontology in which moral truth is discovered not in abstract reason or revealed law but in attunement to inner feeling and to an idealized conception of nature.

These developments, on Taylor’s account, open the way to Romantic expressivism and modern authenticity, while also constituting a distinct, affect-centered alternative to both strict theism and strict naturalism.

10. The Expressivist Turn and the Ethic of Authenticity

Part V of Sources of the Self explores the expressivist turn, in which Romantic and post-Romantic thinkers advance the idea that moral and spiritual truth is realized through the original expression of an inner potential or voice. This underlies the modern ethic of authenticity.

Expressivism

Expressivism holds that each person or culture has a distinctive way of being that ought to be articulated and brought to expression. Taylor associates this view with thinkers such as Herder, Goethe, and the German Romantics.

Key features, as described by Taylor, include:

Expressivism extends earlier appeals to nature and sentiment by giving them a more radical individual and creative inflection.

Ethic of Authenticity

From expressivism emerges an ethic of authenticity, defined by the imperative to be “true to oneself.” According to Taylor’s exposition, this ethic involves:

• A demand to discover and live out one’s own original way of being.
• A suspicion of mere social conformity and external authority when they conflict with inner conviction.
• A continuing reliance on broader horizons of significance that enable judgments about what counts as a worthy or trivial self-expression.

Taylor argues that authenticity is a serious moral ideal, not simply a license for relativism or self-indulgence. However, he also notes that, in some contemporary forms, authenticity may be detached from robust moral horizons, leading to more subjectivist or consumerist interpretations. The expressivist turn thus both deepens and complicates the modern understanding of identity and moral obligation.

11. Philosophical Method: Genealogy and Interpretation

Sources of the Self employs a distinctive philosophical method that combines genealogy with interpretive analysis. Taylor does not merely offer historical description; he seeks to illuminate the structure of contemporary moral experience by tracing its formation.

Genealogical Approach

Taylor’s genealogy differs from, but is influenced by, earlier genealogical projects (such as Nietzsche’s or Foucault’s):

• It reconstructs a long-term narrative from classical antiquity to the present, focusing on shifts in background moral ontologies.
• It aims less at debunking than at making explicit the often forgotten sources that continue to underwrite modern values.
• It treats historical developments as interpretive articulations of moral experience, rather than as purely causal determinants.

Hermeneutic and Phenomenological Elements

The method is also hermeneutic and phenomenological:

Taylor interprets major thinkers (Plato, Augustine, Descartes, Kant, Rousseau, Romantics) as articulating implicit moral sources and pictures of the self that structure their epochs.

Relation to Systematic Philosophy

Rather than building a formal theory, Taylor advances a diagnostic and explanatory project. Proponents describe his method as:

• “Best-fit” interpretation: proposing historical narratives that make contemporary moral intuitions more intelligible.
• Non-foundational: eschewing ultimate proofs in favor of persuasive, historically informed elucidation.

Critics sometimes question the selectivity or coherence of this genealogy, but it is widely regarded as central to the book’s philosophical impact, allowing it to connect normative claims with deep historical context.

12. Engagement with Liberalism, Communitarianism, and Naturalism

Although Sources of the Self is not primarily a work of political philosophy, it engages indirectly with key late‑20th‑century debates about liberalism, communitarianism, and naturalism.

Liberalism and Communitarianism

Taylor’s emphasis on historically embedded horizons of significance and shared moral languages intersects with communitarian critiques of liberalism. He argues that:

• Individuals are constituted by social and historical contexts; they cannot be understood as fully self-sufficient choosers.
• Moral and political reasoning presupposes thick background conceptions of the good, not just neutral procedures.

Later commentators interpret Sources of the Self as providing philosophical underpinnings for Taylor’s nuanced, “perfectionist” form of liberalism, in which the state may implicitly rely on certain views of the good while respecting pluralism.

Engagement with Naturalism

The book offers an extended engagement with moral naturalism and related forms of reductionism:

• Taylor examines attempts to ground morality solely in empirical psychology, evolutionary theory, or social science.
• He contends that such accounts tend to “flatten” moral space by translating qualitative distinctions of higher and lower into neutral descriptions of preference, adaptation, or social function.

Nevertheless, Taylor distinguishes between:

He argues that even naturalist moral theories usually presuppose deeper moral sources—such as ideals of human flourishing or respect for persons—that they do not fully acknowledge. This engagement positions Sources of the Self within broader discussions about the limits of naturalistic explanation in ethics and the philosophy of mind.

13. Relation to Theology, Christianity, and Secularization

Sources of the Self assigns a central role to Christianity, especially Latin Western Christianity, in shaping the modern identity. It also contributes to debates on theology and secularization, though without offering a theological treatise.

Christian Moral Ontologies

Taylor interprets Christian thought as providing key moral sources for modern notions of personhood and dignity:

• Augustine’s emphasis on inner conversion and the will grounds a deepened concept of inwardness.
• The doctrine of humans created in the image of God supports an egalitarian notion of human worth.
• Agape—divine and human love—supplies a powerful ideal of benevolence and unconditional regard.

These elements, according to Taylor’s narrative, are later transformed and sometimes secularized in humanism, Enlightenment ethics, and modern ideals of respect for persons.

Christianity and Modern Transformations

The book also explores how:

Taylor suggests that modern secular moral frameworks typically inherit and reinterpret Christian themes rather than break from them entirely.

Secularization

While Sources of the Self predates A Secular Age, it anticipates Taylor’s later account of secularization by:

• Describing how belief in God shifts from a taken-for-granted background to one option among others.
• Highlighting the persistence of “Christian” moral intuitions (e.g., universal human dignity) within ostensibly secular outlooks.
• Arguing that secular moral orders often rely on inherited theological moral ontologies that are no longer explicitly acknowledged.

The book thus contributes to ongoing debates about whether modern secular ethics can sustain its ideals independently of religious sources, without offering a definitive theological verdict.

14. Critical Reception and Major Debates

Sources of the Self has generated extensive commentary across philosophy, theology, political theory, and social theory. Reception has been mixed but predominantly appreciative of its ambition and interpretive richness.

Positive Assessments

Many commentators praise:

• The breadth of the historical narrative, covering figures from Plato and Augustine to Kant, Rousseau, and the Romantics.
• The integration of analytic-style conceptual clarity with Continental-style historical and hermeneutic sensitivity.
• The rehabilitation of concepts such as moral sources, strong evaluation, and authenticity as serious philosophical topics.

The work is frequently described as a landmark in the study of modern identity and moral philosophy.

Major Criticisms

Critics raise several recurrent concerns:

Ongoing Debates

Scholars continue to debate:

• Whether Taylor’s account of modern identity is overly normative or descriptive.
• How his genealogy compares to alternative narratives of modernity (e.g., Weberian, Foucauldian, postcolonial).
• To what extent his emphasis on moral ontologies can be reconciled with pluralism and deep disagreement in contemporary societies.

These debates have made the book a central reference point in discussions of identity, recognition, and the moral shape of modernity.

15. Legacy and Historical Significance

Since its publication, Sources of the Self has come to be regarded as one of the most influential philosophical works on modern identity and moral experience in the late 20th century.

Influence on Philosophy and Political Theory

The book has:

• Shaped debates about communitarianism and liberalism, providing a sophisticated account of the self’s embeddedness in social and historical contexts.
• Influenced discussions of recognition and multiculturalism, with its emphasis on the importance of shared horizons for self-understanding.
• Contributed to renewed interest in the moral significance of authenticity and ordinary life, beyond purely economic or legal categories.

It is widely assigned in graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in moral and political philosophy, as well as in intellectual history.

Impact on Theology and Religious Studies

Taylor’s account of Christian moral sources and secularization has been taken up by theologians and scholars of religion:

Interdisciplinary Reach

Beyond philosophy and theology, Sources of the Self has informed work in:

• Cultural studies and literary theory, especially in relation to Romanticism and authenticity.
• Sociology and anthropology, in explorations of identity formation and moral frameworks.
• History of ideas, as a comprehensive narrative of Western moral self-understanding.

Place in Taylor’s Corpus and Broader Scholarship

The book is often seen as the first major installment in Taylor’s broader inquiry into modernity, followed by Modern Social Imaginaries and A Secular Age. Its legacy lies not only in specific theses but also in modeling a way of doing philosophy that integrates historical genealogy, hermeneutics, and normative reflection. Proponents and critics alike continue to engage with its categories and narrative, ensuring its ongoing significance in contemporary debates about who we are and how we came to be that way.