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Multiculturalism and the Problem of Particularism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Joshua Parens
Joshua Parens
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
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Abstract

When Kant first used the term “culture,” he referred to the human capacity to will universal moral laws. Multiculturalists object to the denial of “difference” implicit in Kantian as well as all other Enlightenment forms of universalism. Their objection stems from their more particularistic understanding of culture, which for the most part everyone shares today. Plato is frequently said to be the fount of (universal) natural law theory; yet a medieval Muslim philosopher, Alfarabi, presents a Plato who denies moral universalism but acknowledges the possibility of some form of universalism, at least in the realm of knowledge. Alfarabi's Plato thereby provides a corrective for both extreme contemporary particularism and extreme Kantian universalism.

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Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 88 , Issue 1 , March 1994 , pp. 169 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1994

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