Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre on the Rise of Secular Modernity: Five Common Themes

Charles Taylor has continually argued, ever since his early work in phenomenology and philosophy of mind and action, that a deeply entrenched set of preconceptions about the nature of knowledge impedes modern reflections on human anthropology. His work has now culminated in A Secular Age (Harvard, 2007), his narrative of the rise of Western secularism. This paper highlights five themes from A Secular Age and compares them with the same or similar themes found in Alasdair MacIntyre\u27s After Virtue trilogy. It briefly explores similarities and differences in the ways in which these two authors integrate the themes into their larger narratives. The five themes are