Reisert, Joseph R. Polity, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Winter, 2000), pp. 305-330

From the article:

“Can a society embrace authenticity without becoming more unjust? It seems
not, but Charles Taylor has argued that, once the dialogical nature of human sub-
jectivity is recognized, it follows that these two, seemingly opposed, ideals can be
reconciled in an ethics of authenticity and a difference-accommodating liberal pol-
itics. This essay examines Taylor’s claims in light of Rousseau’s Reveries of the Soli-
tary Walker, in which Jean-Jacques claims to repudiate the dialogicality that Taylor
sees as constitutive of human identity. Although the Solitary Walker’s experiences
largely confirm Taylor’s claims about human subjectivity, they do so in a way that
suggests the need for a correction to his moral and political conclusions: Jean-
Jacques’s melancholy reveries epitomize the failure of the radical authenticity
Taylor rejects, but they also show that justice and authenticity cannot be recon-
ciled in any soul-and therefore in any society-lacking the quality Rousseau
called virtue.”