At 92, Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has written what may be his most ambitious work yet

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At 92, Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor has written what may be his most ambitious work yet. Ostensibly a study of Romantic poetry and music, the book addresses the broader themes of modern life and its discontents, and explores ways to transcend them.

Adam Gopnik explains that we once lived in an "enchanted" universe with a shared sense of meaning and purpose, where the night sky was imbued with divine significance. Today, we inhabit a modern world shaped by the Enlightenment, marked by fragmented beliefs and disconnected purposes, devoid of a supervising deity, where common meaning is elusive and the moon is merely measured.

The argument suggests that Romantic poetry first recognized this fracture and proposed a means to heal it. According to Gopnik, the arts are not merely sources of secondary sensations but are primary places where we can reconnect with feelings of wholeness and harmony—not just with "Nature" and its rugged landscapes and serene lakes beloved by the Romantics, but with existence itself.

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