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Idealism and Identity: George Grant and Charles Taylor Codtont the Modem Dilemma

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Idealism and Identity: George Grant and Charles Taylor Codtont the Modem Dilemma Idealism and Identity: George Grant and Charles Taylor Codtont The Modem Dilemma Robert Alexander Shotton Meynell B.A., Concordia University, 1995 Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (Political Science) Acadia University Spring Convocation 1998 O by Robert Alexander Shotton Meynell, 1998 National tibrary Bibliothèque nationale 191 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibiiographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wdlington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaON K1AON4 ûttawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive Licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retauis ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Table of Contents Abstract.. .... ..............Abstract..................,........,....Abstract..................,........,....Abstract..................,........,....Abstract..................,........,....Abstract..................,........,.... Abstract..................,........,....Abstract..................,........,....Abstract..................,........,....Abstract..................,........,....Abstract..................,........,....Abstract..................,........,....Abstract..................,........,......-......... ........................................................................ .-..........v Abbreviations. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. ..., .. .. .. --. .. ... ... ... .-... .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. --- - -.... ... .. .. .. .. -. .. .vi . r. Acknowledgments....... ... .. ... ... .. ..... .-. ... ... .. .. ....-... ................-..- - ....... ...... .. .. ...................... vu Chapter 1 : Introduction................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2: The Modem Dilemma and Hegel's Precepts................................................. 14 Chapter 3: Grant's Ontology and Methodology: The Foundation for Comrnunitarianism ............. ...... ................ .............................................. ................. ..........27 Chapter 4: Refuting Grant's Hegelian Vision ......... .. .. ... .. .. ........ .. .. .. ... .. .- .. .... ....... .. .. ... 62 Chapter 5: Charles Taylor: The Quebec Crisis Through An Hegelian Lens..................... 89 Chapter 6: Charles Taylor: Hurnan Agency and Herder's Philosophy of Language ...... 105 Chapter 7: Charles Taylor: Polyphony and Realpolitik ........................ ................ .... 12 1 Chapter 8: Conclusion ..................................................... ......-.. ............ ... ....+ .................. 139 Bibliography .............................................................................................................. 156 Abstract This thesis discusses the cornmunitarian political philosophies of two prominent Canadian thinkers, George Grant and Charles Taylor. By focussing on the Hegelian influence of their thought, the author argues that both Grant and Taylor have developed, via their assumed ontologies, artificial conceptions of the self in relation to community and culture. These ontologies led Grant and Taylor to defend inadequate theones about the just ordering of the state. The context of the discussion presented in this thesis ranges fiom the larger issue of the crisis of the modem age, to the particular impact of that crisis on Canadian cultural politics. It is widely believed that the modem age is experiencing a profound eschatological crisis. Previously established moral structures are being challenged by a secular scientific culture. The crisis is being experienced on persona1 and political levels. Philosophy, sociology, psychiatry, and art al1 contemplate the modem individuai's stmggle with anomy, alienation and existentid despair. In politics, this crisis is seen in ternis of cultural fiagrnentation, and/or the collapse of a moral foundation for theories ofjustice. Fragmentation is considered a crisis because it is difficult to constmct a state which reflects the diversity of interests and identities. The collapse of morality is feared because without a moral order there is no bulwark against tyranny. The philosophical debate regarding this crisis has resulted in the establishment of two factions, cornmunitarians and individualists. Grant and Taylor analyze Canada's crisis of identity in light of this larger philosophical dilemma. Both ground their analyses in significant ways in the philosophy of G.W. Hegel and both conclude by advocating state protection of cultural groups. nieir prescriptions are based on the importance of providing a moral context within which justice can be nourished. The author suggests that Grant and Taylor are mistaken in their championhg of cultural cornmunities. Rather he constnies humanity as a complex wt'o of interacting diverse cultural influences. References Given in Abbreviated Forms LN - Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism, George Grant (1965) PMA - Philosophy in the Mass Age, George Grant (1959) Acknowledgments 1 am grateful to my father for raising questions at the fireside atop Honeywell Hill and igniting the spark of philosophical wonder and political concem. I am also grateful to him for proof-reading rnuch of this thesis. I am grateful to my mother who arched over those new eyes the fnendly warld. Who displaced for him with Fer] slender figure, the surging abyss... Nowhere a creak you could not explain with a smile.' 1 am gratefùl to Dr. Greg Pyrcz for his generosity of spirit, encouragement and expert guidance. 1 am grateful to those Wends who brightened the days, and who went beyond the cal1 of duty in assisting me in my academic endeavours: Carol McQueen, Greg Clarke and Lisa Hammett Vaughan. 1 am grateful to the institutions which continue to value the quest for truth. 1 am grateful to George Grant and Charles Taylor for fûeling the fires that began those Honeywell nights. +. Rainer Maria Rilke, "The Third Elegy" Duino Elegies, trans. J.B. Leishman and Stephen Spender (New York, NY:W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1963), 37. APTB1: INTRODUCTION There are some recurring themes in modem contemporary art, philosophy, and politics. We often hear of the fragmentation of perspective, meaning, and society. At the same time, we hear about globalization or cultural homogenization. These assessments of the trends in modem culture are considered by different people to be either positive or negative developments; fragmentation and homogenization can be thought of as being either contradictory or complementary. Linked to these themes are the concems that we live in a post-moral world in which God is dead and the shallow anti-ethic of narcissism or consumensm guides of lives. In contrast, there is the common fear of the rise of the Christian and Islarnic fundarnentalism or the spread of pagan religious cults. Al1 these competing perspectives reflect people's desire to uncover the essential quandary of the modem condition, and usually each perspective claims to have the key to how we can address the true source of human suffering, and from there find effective solutions to the variety of social problems that plague us. It is often said that we modems are suffering because we have somehow gone off track, we have broken with nature in some fundamental way and we must try to discover where we erred. The one point on which they al1 agree is that they are struggling for freedom fiom the false order we have constnicted. 1 have no intention of boldly asserting the essence of modemity, nor do I daim to cornprehend what it means to be fiee. In my thesis these points are left a mystery, and much of my argumentation is based on the contention that the concepts of eschatological essence and fieedorn are elusive, if not chimera. In my thesis I analyze the arguments of two influential Canadian political theorists who have taken a stand on the larger themes 1 have listed, and who have attempted to examine a diverse set of philosophical, methodological and political issues fiom the perspective they have adopted. The particular issue that I am concerned with is cultural pluralisrn and ethnic diversity in Canada. It is fkom the point of this concrete political issue that 1 reach into the political philosophies of George Grant and Charles Taylor. My agenda in this thesis is multifaceted. On one level 1 am illustrahg that there are many similarities between Grant and Taylor and that this is due to their situatedness in a blyestablished Canadian intellectual tradition. In terms of my main argument however, 1 have two pnmary lines of criticism. Not only do 1 critique their political views concerning multiculturalism, but 1 also expose the errors in the fundamental premises of their philosophical perspectives. Indeed, 1 believe that by looking at the ontological and methodological foundation of their philosophies we can best comprehend
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