Acknowledgements
This dissertation was made possible by the support and guidance of many people. I want to thank my supervisor Jussi Kotkavirta, whose keen interest in the general issues that my dissertation is about has been of great help and guidance since I was a student. Professor Eerik Lagerspetz and the whole staff at the department of philosophy in Jyväskylä have created an encouraging atmosphere for work on a doctoral dissertation. I want to thank Eerik and all my teachers, colleagues and more recently also students at Jyväskylä.
I owe Heikki Ikäheimo special thanks for all kinds of initiatives and support in our shared activities. The ideas presented in chapter five of this study derive from our joint work on the topic of recognition. I wish to thank Pekka Kaunismaa for discussions on, among other things, narrative identity. Some of the ideas in chapter four derive from these discussions and from a joint article on that topic. I want to thank Heikki I., Jussi K., Petri Kuhmonen and Ossi Martikainen for fruitful experiences in co-teaching, and Timo Lilja, Petteri Niemi and others for all kinds of fusions of horizons since students.
During the years as a doctoral student, I have been fortunate to receive guidance from many philosophers with different styles and backgrounds, in addition to my teachers and colleagues in Jyväskylä.
I want to thank first of all professor Axel Honneth for valuable discussions and comments and for support of all kinds.
I also want to thank professor Ludwig Siep for discussions on Hegel and Taylor, and for a kind invitation to Münster during 2000-1 and on different occasions afterwards. I especially want to thank Christoph Halbig and Michael Quante for the seminars and discussions in Jyväskylä and in Münster. These discussions have been most inspiring and valuable guides for me.
My thanks are also due to professor Thomas Pogge for a kind invitation to visit Columbia University during 1998-9. During that year I had a chance to participate in seminars conducted by professors Philip Pettit, Thomas Pogge, Joseph Raz, Carol Rovane, Jeremy Waldron and Brian Barry, all of whom I want to thank for the instruction they gave.
I am grateful to Ruth Abbey, Heikki I., Irma Levomäki, Jussi K., Markku Mäki, Sami Pihlström, Hartmut Rosa, Nick Smith, Thomas Wallgren and Mikko Yrjönsuuri for exchanging views on Taylor's philosophy. These encounters have inspired me greatly. I also want to thank William Hughes for the helpful Taylor-bibliographies in the internet. In addition, I am very grateful Charles Taylor for an interview (and, needless to say, for writing all the books).
As a graduate student, I attended several graduate school and summer courses conducted by various visiting teachers, all of whom I want to thank, especially professors Manfred Frank and Rainer Forst.
My thanks are also due to Simon Glendinning, professor Richard Norman and especially Sean Sayers for intensive instruction during the preparation of my MA-thesis at the University of Kent at Canterbury 1994-5.
Many of the claims that I defend here have appeared in print before, often in a more rudimentary form, in Finnish or in English. Depending on the context, the emphasis may be different from that found here. Here they have an additional function as parts of a longer argument which seeks to defend the inescapability of strong evaluation and to develop 'cultural moral realism without moral sources'. I thank Taylor & Francis publishing for a permission to reprint (with slight additions) the article 'Interpersonal recognition: A response to value or a precondition of personhood?', Inquiry 45:4, 463-478. It forms the basis of chapter five. Much of chapter six has appeared in A. Laitinen & N. Smith (eds., 2002) Perspectives on the Philosophy of Charles Taylor. Helsinki: The Philosophical Society of Finland. I thank the Philosophical Society of Finland for the permission to reprint it. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 contain ideas from various published or forthcoming articles of mine mentioned in the bibliography, especially Laitinen 2002a, b, c and 2003b, c. An earlier version of the argument against the notion of constitutive goods/moral sources appeared as "Moderni moraalinen identiteetti: tarvitaanko moraalisuuden lähteitä?" in Explanatory Connections. Electronic Essays Dedicated to Matti Sintonen. I want to thank all the editors for their work and the publishers for permissions to reprint material.
During my years of research I have given presentations on the topics of these chapters in Edinburgh, Helsinki, Joensuu, Jyväskylä, Kirchberg, Leeds, Leuven, Münster, Mölle, Oulu, Oslo, Prague, Tampere, Tarto, Turku and Utrecht, and I have received valuable comments from more people that can be mentioned. Despite this limitation in space, my thanks to everyone for their comments are sincere.
I wish to thank the reviewers of this text, Eerik L. and Nick S., for their comments on an earlier version, and the opponent of my phil. lic. thesis, professor Juha Sihvola, for comments on that work. I wish to thank Michael Peacock for help with English language.
I thank the Academy of Finland, the Cultural Foundation of Finland and the University of Jyväskylä for financial support.
I want to thank all my friends, and my uncle and aunt Terho and Raija Vihavainen, and my sister Sari Laitinen for all kinds of support and Mitsein. I dedicate this book to my parents Lasse and Terttu Laitinen, whom I wish to thank, well, for everything.
Finally, very special, loving thanks to Sanna Raasakka.
On the very day when the TV news tell us that the other, less admirable Charles Taylor finally stepped down from power in Liberia,
11th August 2003,
Arto L.
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