Beyond the Lecture: Charles Taylor on Democratic Degeneration

Beyond the Lecture

On November 16, the renowned Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor was at the American Academy to deliver the 2017 Fritz Stern lecture, “Democratic Degeneration: Three Easy Paths to Regression.” Taylor’s talk addressed a concern held by increasing numbers of thoughtful people in recent years: that democracy is sliding backwards—losing ground internationally to authoritarian rule, voter apathy, and the slogans of populist rhetoric. To understand more about Taylor’s thoughts on the subject, we arranged a discussion between him and American Academy fellow Dilip Gaonkar, a politial theorist at Northwestern University and Taylor’s decades-long colleague at the the Center for Transcultural Studies. We recorded their discussion at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, in Potsdam, where Taylor was a short-term fellow. Host: R. Jay Magill Photo: Ralph K. Penno