The article presents Taylor's analysis of contemporary malaise, focusing on his critique of the punctual self and political society that follows from it. The presumption that personal identity is only possible through interlocution referred to some normative order constitutes the nucleus of his argument and can be taken as the basis of Taylor's republicanism. In such a representation of democracy, attention is given to the concept of common good which expresses shared feelings and actions. In order to postulate intrinsic worth to any culture so that whatever is common can be said to be good, Taylor establishes a connection between language and culture which is criticized by me. I argue that it is possible to reject relativism without recurrence to fundamentalism, as long as one considers how impossible it is to recognize a radical otherness.
Republicanism; Charles Taylor; Self; Normative order; Common good