Modern Government

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Medicine got sick. One in three people now distrust the healthcare system. Following the pandemic, two-thirds of Americans doubt medical scientists will act in the best interest of the public. We are grappling with an epidemic of chronic illness—heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, stroke, and chronic lung and kidney disease—affecting six in ten Americans, which medicine seems powerless to fix. The overall life expectancy of Americans has declined for the first time since the Great Depression.

In Modern Social Imaginaries, Taylor continues his recent reflections on the theme of multiple modernities. To account for the differences among modernities, Taylor sets out his idea of the social imaginary, a broad understanding of the way a given people imagine their collective social life. Retelling the history of Western modernity, Taylor traces the development of a distinct social imaginary.