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February 4, 2006
Of interest. It claims that liberalism has no need of multiculturalism in that liberal multiculturalism is neither a necessary nor a convincing extension of liberalism is the argument.
Anke Schuster says that:
Liberal multiculturalists...advocate multiculturalism on the basis of liberal values. As moderate multiculturalists, liberal proponents of the politics of recognition wish to avoid both the collectivism of radical multiculturalism and the exaggerated individualism associated with liberalism. Liberal multiculturalists retain the liberal emphasis on the individual by claiming that recognising cultural difference is essential for the individual and thus for individual equality. While a liberal perspective is constitutive of these philosophers' self-conception, there are significant differences between the two main strands of liberal multiculturalism.
Most liberal multiculturalists argue along either of the two lines or combine arguments so as to create a broader theoretical foundation.
I have to be suprised by this kind of liberal response to the realities of multiculturalism. I'm not sure of the motivation. Is it a concern that liberal (individual) equality is undermined by multiculturalism, with its concerns about difference, cultural recognition and communal belonging? Multicultural Australia does challenge classical liberalism as Liberal multiculturalism is highlights that there is more to human difference than the notion of differing conceptions of the good is able to capture, and that there is therefore more to social justice than fair distribution of resources and equal chances for individuals.
So why place the block between liberalism and multiculturalism?
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I agree with Anke Schuster. I divided social organisation into three parts; intrinsic, emergant and dispossesive. A Liberal would not see the emergant as valid, while a Conservative would see the intrinsic and emergant being synonymous. I argued that an Australian Republican would see the intrinsic being vital for the emergant to appear.