The Philosophical Genealogy of Taylor's Social Imaginaries: A Complex History of Ideas and Predecessors

The deepest sources of Charles Taylor's use of the concept "social imaginaries" are often related to political philosophy or social anthropology (Anderson, Castoriadis). The purpose of this article is to show that they also form part of Taylor's struggle to overcome the epistemological construal in modern philosophy and culture. Taylor locates the concept "social imaginaries" in the Kantian tradition, identifying their role to that of transcendental schemes. However, there remains a central difference between Kant's transcendental schemes and Taylor's social imaginaries. To elucidate that difference, this article will track the philosophical genealogy of Taylor's concept of "social imaginaries" in three steps.