MARIA CHIARA PIEVATOLO

Soggetti di diritto o animali culturali? 

Charles Taylor e il problema del multiculturalismo

N. 168

Summary — Taylor tries to base special minority rights on his communitarian philosophy. According to his views, liberal universalism is false, because every moral foundation rests on particular intuitions shared in every single culture. So, only a particularist liberalism, aware of its cultural dependence, can be the basis of a multicultural society and a multicultural law.

Against this view, this work attempts to show three basic points: (1) respect for different cultures cannot be founded on values shared in a particular community, but requires a form of cultural universalism; (2) only a universalistic view can be used to argue between different cultures; (3) multiculturalism and critical liberalism are incompatible. The former aims to protect the existing differences, if supported by a cultural community; the latter wants to safeguard the opportunity to choose, that ought to be the same for any person, apart from his or her belonging.