Journal of Chinese Philosophy 27:1 (March 2000) 117–125 © 2000 Journal of Chinese Philosophy warren g. frisina VALUE AND THE SELF: A PRAGMATIC-PROCESS-CONFUCIAN RESPONSE TO CHARLES TAYLOR’S SOURCES OF THE SELF Introduction Charles Taylor’s Sources of the Self is a powerful account of the way classical, modernist, and post-modernist assumptions about the self have led us into a philosophical and spiritual dead end. Specifically, he claims that the gradual development of an “interiorized” sense of self made it all but impossible to understand the objective reality of value and led us into destructive forms of self-alienation. In this paper I re- view and defend Taylor’s critique, though I go on to argue that it does not contain the resources we need to meet his objectives. In order to affirm the reality of value and overcome the negative consequences as- sociated with an interiorized sense of self, we must look beyond the sources that Taylor describes and criticizes. My recommendation is that we turn to pragmatic, process, and Neo-Confucian discussions of self- hood. These three traditions draw upon alternative metaphysical as- sumptions that render plausible the claims that value is real and that the self is directly related to the world and other selves. By suggesting that we should turn to pragmatists, process thinkers, and Confucians, I am building upon Robert C. Neville’s recent argu- ment in The High Road Around Modernism that these traditions cannot be charged with the sins of modernism. 1 In effect they avoid the pitfalls that led modern thinkers into the situation that Taylor bemoans. Along these lines it is interesting to note that Taylor’s comprehensive study of the history and development of the contemporary understanding of the self never mentions the American pragmatic and process traditions. While some Americanists might complain that Taylor’s history looks myopically toward Europe and away from American contributions to philosophic discourse about the self, I think Taylor’s omission makes perfect sense—both pragmatic and process thinkers have been com- plaining about modernist descriptions of the self for almost 100 years! Thus, as I read them, Whitehead and Dewey (to select my two favorite examples) should be seen as useful allies in Taylor’s project. 2