Taylor and Vattimo on the Place of Culture in Political Practical Reasoning

Philosophical hermeneutics has become an unavoidable reference in the field throughout the twentieth century has seldom been extended to draw conclusions in the area of political theory. Two intellectuals that have to such a project are Charles Taylor and Gianni Vattimo, although they exhibit some important in key aspects of this enterprise, both at the level of the conceptual premises and at that of the policies and objectives. Here I examine these thinkers’ notion of tradition – an essential feature of theories – its ontological underpinnings, and the place each of them assign to it in sociopolitical -making, especially in the context of multicultural societies. In the end, I argue for the superiority of ’s model of understanding and employing tradition in current political and moral debates.