Charles Taylor

For Taylor, the social imaginary ‘is how people imagine their social existence, how they integrate with others, and the deeper normative ideas that influyence these expectations.’ While political ideology ‘is often the acquisition of a small minority,’ Taylor argues, th social imaginary ‘is shared by a whole society or large group; theory is expressed in theoretical terms while imaginary is described by images and legends; the imaginary is the common understanding that creates possible common place actions and a sense of legitimacy that is shared among all’ the social imaginary, according to Taylor, ‘can never be adequately expressed in the form of explicit doctrines because of its unlimited and indefinite nature. That is another reason for speaking here of all imaginary and not a theory’ ~ xvi (Introduction)