Book Symposium on Alan Patten’s Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundations of Minority Rights

Catherine Lu

doi:10.7202/1035332ar

Abstract

Book Symposium on Alan Patten’s Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundations of Minority Rights: Introduction. Un article de la revue Les ateliers de l'éthique / The Ethics Forum (Volume 10, numéro 2, été 2015, p. 1-191) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit.

Highlights

Alan Patten’s Equal Recognition addresses a contentious and salient question in liberal political theory and practice: what normative significance should the fact of cultural pluralism have for conceptualizing the demands of liberal justice on our social and political institutions and practices? Patten seeks to respond to two major unresolved problems that objectors have advanced over the years against ‘liberal culturalism,’ or the view that “certain minority cultural rights, entailing the accommodation and recognition of minority cultures, are, as such, a requirement of liberal justice” (Patten, 2014, pp. 8, 22)
How should we understand ideas of culture and cultural preservation, given widespread concerns that our prevailing understandings rely on an unavowed, but incoherent and objectionable, form of essentialism? And, second, what exactly constitutes the normative basis of support for claims to cultural rights, and do they entail limits on those claims? Patten responds to these challenges by putting forth a novel and robust principled defense of liberal culturalism based on a reformulation of the ideal of liberal neutrality
The ideal of liberal neutrality is grounded in the claim that each individual has to a fair opportunity for self-determination, which is important to all persons for well-being and autonomy-related reasons

Summary

Introduction

Alan Patten’s Equal Recognition addresses a contentious and salient question in liberal political theory and practice: what normative significance should the fact of cultural pluralism have for conceptualizing the demands of liberal justice on our social and political institutions and practices? Patten seeks to respond to two major unresolved problems that objectors have advanced over the years against ‘liberal culturalism,’ or the view that “certain minority cultural rights, entailing the accommodation and recognition of minority cultures, are, as such, a requirement of liberal justice” (Patten, 2014, pp. 8, 22). Éditeur(s) Centre de recherche en éthique de l’Université de Montréal ISSN 1718-9977 (numérique) Découvrir la revue Book Symposium on Alan Patten’s Equal Recognition: The Moral Foundations of Minority Rights: Introduction.

Results

Conclusion