Tribalism and the myth of the framework: some Popperian thoughts on the politics of cultural recognition: Jeremy Waldron

Abstract

Popper’s critique of tribalism in The Open Society and Its Enemies is something more than an attack on early forms of collectivism, and its relevance for modern political philosophy goes beyond the liberalism/communitarianism debate. Popper’s critique focuses on nostalgic attempts to revive the sense of immanent normativity and ethical solidarity associated with tribal custom; he argues that these attitudes are futile and inauthentic in the modern world where peoples have complex dealings with one another and where their knowledge of the customs of other societies has enabled them to develop critical attitudes towards their own. This chapter applies that critique to the philosophy of modern cultural identity politics. It argues that partisans of cultural identity make many of the same mistakes as those whom Popper labelled tribalists make. It suggests that a better and more authentic stance for the members of minority cultures in modern societies is to engage their norms as political proposals for solving the problems of the wider society, rather than as fiercely defended aspects of individual identity. The chapter concludes by using Popper’s arguments from ‘The Myth of the Framework’ to debunk the claim that customs and norms from different cultural settings are incommensurable and cannot engage one another in fruitful debate.