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Horizons of meaning
Horizons of meaning are Taylor's term for the broader frameworks of significance (moral, cultural, spiritual, historical) against which our choices and actions become meaningful; without such horizons, even freely chosen actions are reduced to arbitrary preferences that lack genuine moral weight.
Instrumental reason
Instrumental reason is the form of rationality concerned exclusively with finding the most efficient means to achieve a given end, without questioning the value or worthiness of the end itself. Taylor identifies it as one of the three malaises of modernity, alongside individualism and the loss of civic freedom.
Soft relativism
For Taylor, soft relativism is the widespread modern belief that each person's values and choices are equally valid simply because they are freely chosen, making it illegitimate to criticize another person's lifestyle or moral commitments on any substantive grounds.
Strong evaluation
Strong evaluation is Taylor's concept of a form of self-reflection in which we assess our desires not merely by their intensity but by their qualitative worth, distinguishing between higher and lower motivations through reference to moral frameworks that transcend subjective preference.