Writing the Self

One of the main components of the modern idea of the self is interiority or inwardness, the feeling that there is a personal inner space that we alone have access to.

Freedom to act under the direction of reason rather than the coercion of authorities was one of the great themes of Enlightenment thought.

The autonomous individual that was taking form had, in Taylor’s view, three main components: the “self-responsible independence” brought to the forefront by Locke, the “recognized particularity” epitomized by Montaigne, and the “individualism of personal commitment” that was a child of Protestantism.3