Establishing Theory of Ethics in Modern Era; Exploring Charles Taylor's the Principality of Ethics Theory

In the history of modern thought there are two turning points. The first one is philosophical-epistemological revolution of Descartes. The appearance and expansion of Descartes philosophy was equal to the decline of the Middle Age's worldview, the birth of human subject and essential changes in debates and subjects of different scientific branches. His philosophy was based on modern-age thoughts such as liberalism, democracy, human rights, scientific rationalism, Legal Positivism in new social relations and institutions. Thus ethical norms and judgments were changed unprecedentedly. The second tuning point which took place in the middle of the twentieth century turned many thoughts of Enlightenment Age into mirage and illusion. Charles Taylor, one of contemporary philosophical turning representatives, believes that Descartes naturalistic epistemology leaded to dominance of the relativist, hedonistic, atomistic and nihilistic interpretation of moral act and deviation from the ideal of modern ethical principality. In addition to absolute advocating of self-actualization and self-honesty, he seeks to find a deeper understanding of life in the framework of inevitable moral goods. The aim of this research is to contemplate coherency and adequacy of ethical thought of one of the prominent figures in contemporary moral philosophy. This article shows that return of Taylor’s moral theory to romanticism tradition to revive the ethical studies is not clear and it is more virtue-oriented religious than the ideal of modern principality. Also, get help from various sources for justifying the ethics of principality increases the ambiguities and inconsistencies of Taylor’s theory. Since Taylor was an analytic philosopher, the methodology of the article is critical-analytic.