Charles Taylor and a Hermeneutical
Understanding of Meaningfulness
Nicole Note and Pieter Meurs
Interdisciplinary Centre Leo Apostel,
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Summary
Meaningfulness is generally considered essential to human life. What meaningfulness implies, however, is difficult to delineate. In this paper, we focus on the philosophy of Charles Taylor and his account of hermeneutics. We discern important components of meaningfulness: situatedness, orientatedness and articulacy are necessary to understand the world as horizontal rather than flattened. Meaningfulness is also related to our capacity to take a step back and look at our lives from a distance.
Introduction
It is not easy to articulate thoughts on the meaning of life because its significance is largely ramified into broader terms such as spirituality, atheism, or religion, having different meanings for different people. Yet most people acknowledge that there is a something in there - some meaning - that is crucial for everyday life. Without a broader sense of meaning, a nihilist turn seems all too close. In this paper we want to indicate what is decisive about meaning. We will not discuss the so-called Meaning of Life but rather explore what may contribute to making life more meaningful. It is not possible to provide ready-made formulas, but only general principles that can serve as guidance. The philosophy of Charles Taylor works with this point. We start from his ideas to articulate our phenomenological background in a way that allows us to perceive some of the key components of meaningfulness. We believe that Taylor’s conception of the self and of meaning not only criticises the modern-day understanding of self and world, but also opens up the possibility for questioning meaning and identity. Furthermore, we think Taylor’s hermeneutical approach is indispensable when talking about meaning.