Loving your Neighbor in a Secular Age: Agape in the Philosophy of Charles Taylor

Dr. Sergio Gadea Caballero

doi:10.5771/9783495991220

Summary

Solidarity with those who suffer is a core value of the West, yet the philosophical basis for altruism is becoming increasingly tenuous. This work examines agape, or Christian love of one's neighbor, as a source of motivation for altruism in a pluralistic and secular society. It draws on Charles Taylor, paying particular attention to moral realism, historical account of secularization, and politics of recognition. The volume thus provides an exploration of the role of religion in the public sphere and an original introduction to the work of the Canadian philosopher. This title is also available as Open Access.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2026
Copyright Year: 2026
ISBN-Print: 978-3-495-99121-3
ISBN-Online: 978-3-495-99122-0
Publisher: Karl Alber, Baden-Baden
Series: Religion in Public Life. Studies in Political Theology and Political Philosophy
Volume: 1
Language: English
Pages: 398
Product Type: Monograph

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1. Table of Contents
2. Acknowledgments
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1. 1.1. The meaning of agape
2. 1. 1.2.1. Incarnational love or dialectical love?
  2. 1.2.2. Specific love or universal love?
  3. 1.2.3. What a theory of moral motivation grounded in agape must account for?
3. 1.3. Taylor on altruism and the role of agape
4. 1.4. Taylor and the “catholic attitude”
5. 1.5. Outline of the study
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1. 2.1. Mapping Taylor’s moral realism
2. 1. 2.2.1. Strong evaluation and moral motivation
  2. 2.2.2. Incommensurable Goods and the Orientation of a Life
3. 2.3. Is the articulation of agape qualitatively distinctive?
4. 2.4. Enrique Dussel’s critique from the perspective of the alterity and liberation
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1. 3.1. First slippage: interiority
2. 3.2. Second slippage: ordinary life
3. 3.3. Third slippage: the utility of the good and the rationalization of agape
4. 3.4. Fourth slippage: historical exceptionalism
5. 3.5. Fifth slippage: expressivism
6. 3.6. The fate of agape in the age of pluralism
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1. 4.1. Taylor’s theistic hunch at the end of Sources of the Self
2. 4.2. Taylor’s Best Account (BA Principle)
3. 4.3. The moral maps of Modernity
4. 4.4. The Best Account for the sake of the weak?
5. 4.5. Some critics against Taylor’s theistic argumentation
6. 4.6. Is agape (just) a romantic inspiration?
7. 1. 4.7.1. Resonance and the Good Samaritan
  2. 4.7.2. Addressing two difficulties
8. 4.8. The Good Samaritan in Charles Taylor’s account of agape
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1. 5.1. The Axial Religions
2. 5.2. The novelty of Christian agape
3. 5.3. Reform and the eclipse of agape
4. 5.4. The Renaissance civility
5. 5.5. Providential Deism
6. 5.6. The expansion of exclusive humanism
7. 5.7. The Nova Effect
8. 5.8. Altruism in the 19th Century ‘Open Space’
9. 5.9. The Age of Mobilization
10. 5.10. The super-nova effect and the Age of Authenticity
11. 5.11. Evaluating Taylor’s historical account
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1. 1. 6.1.1. Evaluating Illich’s position
  2. 6.1.2. Corruption or Mutation?
  3. 6.1.3. Institutionalization as nomolatry
2. 1. 6.2.1. Moralität and Sittlichkeit in Taylor’s perspective
  2. 6.2.2. Civil society and the role of charitable institutions
3. 6.3. The imaginary of solidarity and moral transformation
4. 6.4. An argument in favor of the non-translatability of agape
5. 6.5. The place of agape in social philosophy
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1. 7.1. Recognition and agape
2. 1. 7.2.1. The dialogical nature of identity
  2. 7.2.2. Inarticulation as a danger for recognition
  3. 7.3.3. The way out of the struggle: holistic liberalism and the articulation of collective goals
  4. 7.3.4. The fusion of horizons
3. 7.3. The Good and the Right
4. 7.4. Agape and the end of violence
5. 7.5. The question of transcendence and politics
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1. 1. 8.1.1. The eschatological perspective of agape
  2. 8.1.2. The ambiguity of Taylor’s concept of transcendence and the catholic attitude
2. 1. 8.2.1. Martha Nussbaum and the Mutilation of Transcendence
  2. 8.2.2. Friedrich Nietzsche and the lack of articulation of the good
  3. 8.2.3. Agape as a fuller account
3. 1. 8.3.1. On the significance of hermeneutic interpretations
  2. 8.3.2. On the admiration towards moral exemplars
  3. 8.3.3. On the use of subtler languages
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1. 9.1. Agape as a motivational source for loving the neighbor: Strengths and weaknesses
2. 9.2. Evaluating the presence of agape in Taylor’s philosophy: Consistencies and ambivalences
3. 9.3. Taylor and the catholic attitude: an integral and undamaged account of humanity
4. 9.4. Taylor’s contribution to the debate on the motivation towards altruism and the reinforcement of the call to love one’s neighbor
BibliographyPages 349 - 398 Download chapter (PDF)