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The Language Animal
The Full Shape of the Human Linguistic Capacity
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Brief Description
"We have been given a powerful and often uplifting vision of what it is to be truly human." -John Cottingham, The Tablet In seminal works ranging from Sources of the Self to A Secular Age, Charles Taylor has shown how we create possible ways of being,...
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The Language Animal
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From Sources of the Self to A Secular Age, Charles Taylor has shown how we create ways of being, as individuals and as a society. Here, he demonstrates that language is at the center of this generative process. Language does not merely describe; it constitutes meaning, and the shared practice of speech shapes human experience.
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Description
"We have been given a powerful and often uplifting vision of what it is to be truly human." -John Cottingham, The Tablet
In seminal works ranging from Sources of the Self to A Secular Age, Charles Taylor has shown how we create possible ways of being, individually and as a society. The Language Animal examines the foundation of this generative process.
For centuries, philosophers have been divided on the nature of language. Rational empiricists—Hobbes, Locke, Condillac, and their heirs—assert that language is a tool to encode and communicate information. Yet, this view neglects language's crucial role in shaping the thought it expresses. Taylor argues that language does not merely describe; it constitutes meaning. Nor is linguistic capacity innately possessed. We learn language from others, and our individual selves emerge from the conversation.
Taylor expands the thinking of the German Romantics Hamann, Herder, and Humboldt into a theory of linguistic holism. Language is intellectual, but it is also enacted in artistic portrayals, gestures, metaphors, tones of voice, and the shifts of emphasis and attitude that accompany speech. Language recognizes no boundary between mind and body. In illuminating the full capacity of the language animal, Taylor sheds light on the very question of what it is to be human.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780674303584
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 10 March 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: Harvard University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Width: 156.0mm
Height: 235.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 368
About the Author
Charles Taylor is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at McGill University. Author of The Language Animal, Sources of the Self, The Ethics of Authenticity, and A Secular Age, he has received many honors, including the Templeton Prize, the Berggruen Prize, and membership in the Order of Canada.
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