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Misreading One's Sources: Charles Taylor's Rousseau
Author(s) -
Marks Jonathan
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
american journal of political science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.347
H-Index - 170
eISSN - 1540-5907
pISSN - 0092-5853
DOI - 10.1111/j.0092-5853.2005.00114.x
Subject(s) - individualism , resistance (ecology) , reading (process) , politics , general will , philosophy , sociology , epistemology , law , political science , ecology , biology
This article challenges Taylor's defense of community by criticizing his reading of Jean‐Jacques Rousseau. Taylor, who adheres to the old charge that Rousseau is at bottom a totalitarian, neglects several points of resistance to the claims of the community that are present in Rousseau's political thought. Such points of resistance prove, on close examination, to be unavailable to Taylor. Taylor inadvertently offers a theoretical attack on individualism and a foundation for social tyranny more powerful than any to be found in Rousseau's thought.