The Importance of Understanding Mr. Charles Taylor's Concept of

Book excerpt: The purpose of this essay, is to reveal the importance of understanding Mr. Charles Taylor's concept of "genuine respect" in contemporary society. Before we can begin to understand the importance of this concept, we first must realize, that all individuals and cultures, in relationship to one another, are very different and distinct from one another. To surrender oneself to this first idea, that all human individuals and cultural groups are not the same, is the first step in understanding the importance of this concept of "genuine respect". It is only after we are convinced, that all human beings and cultures have different idea's of "the good", that are not inferior to one another in status, that we can then proceed, to understand Mr. Charles Taylor's concept of recognizing other human beings and cultures with a "genuine respect". Now that we are convinced of this first idea, we can now go on to conceptualize the definition Mr. Charles Taylor gives to the word "respect". To Mr. Charles Taylor, there are two types of "respect".