Multiculturalism: (Expanded paperback edition)

Multiculturalism is an important collection of essays fronted by Charles Taylor's "The Politics of Recognition." Taylor succinctly articulates the political and ethical importance of recognition and outlines what he sees to be its ineluctable nature. If I can condense the entire volume into a single issue: Taylor argues that a liberal democratic society ought to preserve and protect the survival of the cultures within it. This is done in the name of multiculturalism: governments out to provide guarantees that their national bodies will be pluralistic. He provides two examples from the Canadian situation: aboriginal communities and the Francophone community in Quebec. According to Taylor, all cultures are possessed of intrinsic value and ought to be provided with minimal provisions aiming to ensure their survival. Thus the Canadian government has a moral obligation to preserve and guarantee the survival of minority groups.

Commentaries are provided by K. Anthony Appiah, Jürgen Habermas, Steven C. Rockefeller, Michael Walzer, and Susan Wolfe. The collection is edited and introduced by Amy Gutmann.

I'll take up only Habermas's response: Habermas argues that it is illegitimate for a liberal democratic government to provide guarantees about the survival of individual cultures. Participation within a culture, Habermas argues, must be voluntary. Without the voluntary nature of participation there is the risk of impoverishment and artificiality. He observes that Taylor's position ironically entails that citizens within minority groups may find their freedoms curtailed for the sake of protecting their own culture that they no longer wish to preserve.

More than this, Taylor's position, which is otherwise quite astute, also seems self-contradictory, however sympathetic one might be to his aims. He argues that in the modern world our identities are constructed dialogically. In essence, we belong to several dialogical communities simultaneously (one can be both a teacher and a student, a member of multiple cultural and political associations). This observation is in stark contrast to the way in which he argues for the intrinsic good that all cultures possess. If individuals are members of multiple communities, then it makes sense that cultures are also made up of multiple cultures or communities as well. The concept of culture within the modern world is always already multicultural. It follows from this that there is no certainty about what constitutes the singularity of any particular culture (i.e. French language is part of French culture, but we cannot say that it is the essence of French culture). This leaves potential legislators up in the air about what singular good within a culture is to be protected and leaves decisions about protective measures somewhat arbitrary.

All in all this is an important collection of essays focusing on the topics of multiculturalism and recognition. Moreover, there is little doubt that these topics have rightly become central issues of debate and concern within political vocabulary. The anthology may not have the answers, but at least it is working productively with important questions.