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Charles Taylor's engagement with Marx and the Marxist tradition has been relatively neglected in the literature on his work. This is a strange omission, because he was not only a pivotal figure in the development of the New Left, but also wrote many pieces which critically engaged with the main principles of Marx and Marxism. This paper re-examines Taylor's engagement with Marxism and thereby exposes a neglected element in his political philosophy. The following themes emerge: the self; Taylor's conception of the affirmation of ordinary life; democracy; ecology; and religion. In one area at least, the affirmation of ordinary life, a crucial element of Marxism is retained and positively endorsed by Taylor. In relation to the other themes, while he raises important issues for Marxist theory, he is, at times, far too quick to dismiss Marx's arguments and also misses similarities between those arguments and his own work.

Charles Taylor has recently stated his religious leanings as being at the core of his philosophical vision for a better society. At the heart of this vision is his emphasis on transcendence: that there is something beyond life as we know it. Some years earlier, Taylor had explicitly endorsed the work of Walter Benjamin and Ernst Bloch for the way he wanted to talk about the issue of transcendence; however, neither figures prominently in his recent writings. While there may be differing reasons for this omission, my main concern in this article is to show how the issue of transcendence in Benjamin's and Bloch's writings offers an interesting comparison with Taylor's work on this issue. Moreover, Benjamin and Bloch will be shown to offer ways in which Taylor can more fully express his own undeveloped articulation of transcendence through a consideration of the themes of religion, God, time and death.

In this article the author argues that the dialectic of Hegel and the dialectic of Marx are the same. The mysticism that Marx and many Marxists have imputed to Hegel's dialectic is shown to be mistaken. The article illustrates how both Hegel and Marx share an emphasis on analysing forms in society. This is accomplished through general and determinate abstractions for Marx which find a direct correspondence in Hegel's universal and particular concept.

For Hegel, the realm of natural necessity is the realm of unfreedom. Man's constant burden of having to satisfy his natural needs makes him as unfree as Prometheus tied to his rock. This article sets out to discover how Hegel thinks such an impediment can be overcome. Through an analysis of needs and the role of work in his writings an answer is ascertained which indicates the pertinence and potency of Hegel's political philosophy for politics today.

From 1984 to 1990, more than 400 students, taught by four different instructors, participated in psychology science fairs as part of their introductory psychology course. A sample of 110 students in upper level psychology courses responded anonymously to a questionnaire assessing their retrospective impressions about their introductory psychology course, current course selections and performance, and future academic plans. Students who had participated in a science fair (n = 30) gave significantly higher ratings than students in other introductory psychology courses (n = 80) to understanding basic principles and their application to everyday life, learning from the instructor and textbook, being prepared for other psychology courses, and having an opportunity to explore topics of interest. Science fair participants also reported exerting more effort in their coursework and being more likely to have taken another course from their introductory psychology instructor. Results suggested that a science fair can provide a unique, valuable, and memorable experience for students.