Tolle Lege: An Augustinian Journal of Philosophy and Theology

Hegel is often seen as a philosopher of history, probably because of the ardent desire to remain relevant. For Charles Taylor, rather than simply being an insightful history scholar, Hegel becomes very interested in resolving Enlightenment and Romantic tensions through a totally new ontology. Philosophers never write in vacuum. For this reason, Taylor makes us battle with serious issues, at times cogent philosophy and he at least gives us the intellectual background to comprehend the who-what-wheres-and whys of the goals of Hegel. This study explores the philosophical trajectory from G.W.F. Hegel’s concept of Sittlichkeit (ethical life) to Charles Taylor’s notions of recognition and the modern social imaginary, employing a hermeneutic method to interpret their continuity and divergence. For Hegel, Sittlichkeit represents the concrete realization of freedom through participation in family, civil society, and the state, sustained by mutual recognition within ethical institutions. Taylor, drawing on this heritage, reformulates recognition as a moral and political necessity in the context of modern pluralist societies. His concept of the social imaginary extends Hegel’s insights by emphasizing the lived background of practices, norms, and expectations that structure collective life. The hermeneutic approach adopted here situates both thinkers within their historical and cultural contexts while uncovering the dialogical threads that link them. The paper argues that Taylor’s framework may be read as a reinterpretation of Hegel’s Sittlichkeit, adapted for the challenges of modernity: cultural diversity, secularization, and globalization. While Hegel locates ethical life in the rational structures of institutions, Taylor underscores the fluid, historically contingent imaginaries through a hermeneutic lens. This study demonstrates how the dialogue between Hegel and Taylor illuminates contemporary debates on identity, justice, and human flourishing. In sum, Taylor’s analysis of recognition and the modern social imaginary can be seen as a critical extension of Hegelian ethical life for the 21st century.

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