True. He disliked Humanity greatly and was looking for something better. Then he found out the ape society had all the same flaws that the old Human one did and that the Humans were the ones being oppressed.

And the irony was that he spent the second half of the film defending humanity (until the end).

Taylor was no fan of Humanity, that's why he chose to go on a one way mission n to the stars.

How old was Taylor? Was he having his midlife crisis?

Great post!

Yeah, I believe you both hit on it right there; his character arc is that this cynical, misanthropic man ultimately comes to appreciate what it is to be human when his freedom is taken away from him. Of course, that's the story reason for it. As for his backstory, I think it was also hit upon more or less. This was really one of the first dystopian sci-fi flicks, helping kicking off a trend that would last until
Star Wars
was released. Taylor was a reflection of the attitudes of the very turbulent times
POTA
was made.

A journey into the realm of the obscure:
http://saturdayshowcase.blogspot.com/

It's brilliant writing though because the misanthropic Taylor is forced to defend the human species.
And, by the end, he seems to have convinced himself of the worthiness of humanity. He's pretty broken up about what became of it.

Taylor is a misanthrope, the OP was correct. Go back and listen to his conversations with Landon.
Taylor gives broad reasons why he's misanthropic: war, famine, greed, poverty, narcissism. Taylor doesn't give any personal reasons as why he became that way. He most likely was in combat at some point. Maybe he had a failed marriage, the movie doesn't really go that deeply into his back story.
It's brilliant writing though because the misanthropic Taylor is forced to defend the human species.

I meant I agree with general Ackbar that Taylor is cynical, not insane. It is a cynicism in response to man's insanity.

I agree. And Taylor's cynicism meshes with the themes of the movie, a movie I think is more of a satirical allegory (kind of like Gullivers Travels) than a literal science fiction.
It's the 60's, the Cold War, MAD- the time of the insanity of "mutually assured destruction" being presented as a strategy. I put this one along side "Dr. Strange love", "Failsafe", "Seven Days in May" (another great Rod Serling script) which all in different ways preach against man's arrogance, foolishness, and violent adversarial nature made cateclysmically dangerous by his nuclear technology.

Drastic, indeed, to the point that I doubt his sanity.
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)

He was cynical, not depressed. And it wasn't just war that bothered him it was the overall selfishness and hollowness of modern society.
And, although he didn't kill himself, he did do something extremely drastic: He abandoned EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE HE EVER KNEW LEAVING THE WORLD BEHIND FOREVER! Is that not drastic enough?
Somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man