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Biographical note of Charles M. Taylor, C.C., Ph.D.

Co-Chair, Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences

Author and philosopher Charles Taylor is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University. He obtained a B.A. in history from McGill (1952). A Rhodes Scholar, he pursued his studies in political science, philosophy and economics at Oxford University, where he obtained a B.A. (1955), an M.A. (1960) and a Ph.D. (1961).

Professor Taylor has taught in numerous institutions, including Northwestern, Berkeley, Stanford and Yale, Frankfurt University in Germany, and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He also held the Chichele Chair of Social and Political Theory at Oxford University. His research focuses, in particular, on modernity, pluralism, multiculturalism, the question of identity, and secularism.

He has written 20 books, including Hegel (1975), Hegel and Modern Society (1979), Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity (1989),The Malaise of Modernity (1991), Philosophical Arguments (1995), Multiculturalism : Examining the Politics of Recognition (1997) and A Secular Age (2007).

Dr. Taylor has obtained numerous awards, including the Prix Léon-Gérin awarded by the Québec government (1992) and the prestigious 2007 Templeton Prize for progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities. He was made a Grand officier of the Ordre national du Québec and a Companion of the Order of Canada.