When Romantics Remake the World

Charles Taylor, professor emeritus of philosophy at McGill University, is well known in the field of political theory for works such as Sources of the Self and A Secular Age. Early in his latest book he states that he intends to explore “the understanding of poetics” implicit in the “theory of language” from The Language Animal, which argues that human speech not only describes but also creates experience. Taylor describes the “cosmic connections” of his title as the deep fulfillment individuals experience when they establish an “awareness of the surrounding world . . . shot through with joy, significance, inspiration.” Starting with a summary of German Romanticism, he explains how representative modern European poets worked out new theories of artistic creation and new paths to cosmic experiences.