Medina, C. 2014. La fenomenología del lenguaje y el concepto de la razón práctica en el pensamiento de Charles Taylor. Cinta moebio 50: 53-69

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Phenomenology of language and the concept of practical reason in the thought of Charles Taylor

Dr. Carlos Medina (carlos.medina@uv.cl) Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Administrativas, Universidad de Valparaíso (Valparaíso, Chile)

Abstract

Taking as a starting point Taylor's concept about man as a being of meanings, this article examines, in particular, the way that Taylor elaborates his conception of the practical use of reason, recovering some fundamental notions of the phenomenological tradition and hermeneutics, relating to language, such as, the idea of the background, and the incarnated situation of man. Considering that, ultimately, the background is a horizon of previous reference, from the ontological point of view, to the subjective domain of reason in the human agent, the analysis of Taylor ends up favoring certain approaches of contemporary philosophy such as, Heidegger’s existential analytic that aims at leaving aside, paradoxically, the premise of the subject. If we consider this indication, a challenge that remains, then, to the future development of the ways of understanding moral philosophy and philosophical anthropology, is how to link the analysis of the moral problem, in a subject of senses, with the ontological theory of the background that is, however, a-subjective.

Key words: Taylor, phenomenology, language, practical reason, background.