Description: The focus of this course is language & how it creates Western communities. We will consider diversity & culture in American society by investigating the nature of language & how it constructs political & professional discourse communities. Method or perspective is as important as the topic. The course relies on the work of one author, Charles Taylor. His works illustrate a contemporary pragmatist method & outlook.

Charles Taylor currently teaches in the law school at Northwestern University & is an emeritus professor at McGill in Canada. For many years he was a professor of social & political theory at Oxford University. Two features make Taylor an attractive choice for us.

 Taylor writes much of his work for a general academic audience. His work is highly readable and non-technical. This is not to say it is easy; quite the opposite. Taylor's essays are exemplary for their clarity & style.

 Taylor is an important contemporary thinker & writer. Like Richard Rorty, Taylor uses pragmatism or neo-pragmatism (aware of postmodernism) to explain the nature of language & Western society.

We will analyze & discuss in class most of the essays in Philosophical Arguments, about half of those collected in Philosophy & the Human Sciences, & also read the recent short book, Modern Social Imaginaries. Half of the essays treat language as such, the other half examines how language socially constructs values & communities.