Taylor and Polanyi on Moral Sources and Social Systems

Abstract

This chapter turns more directly to political philosophy. D.M. Yeager notes a divergence between Polanyi and Taylor’s philosophical anthropology and their concomitant understanding of the political structures needed to preserve liberal democracy. While Polanyi trusts more the spontaneous formation of coalition, Taylor sees that individual desires can act as a centrifugal force that tears at social cohesion. Yeager shows how Polanyi’s insights and Taylor’s can balance and complement each other, and how, for both, moral values are at the core of social theory.