Transcript minorities.fsv.cuni.cz

Presentation on:
Seyla Benhabib, The Claims of Culture.
Equality and Diversity in the Global Era
(Preface, Chapters 1-2)
2002, Princeton, USA: Woodstock, UK: Princeton University Press.
by Marek Mikuš
7th semester
Institute of Ethnology
Faculty of Philosophy and Arts
Charles University, Prague
Seyla Benhabib: Biographic Outline
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born in 1950 in Istanbul, Turkey; Sephardic Jew origin
received BA in Humanities at the American College for Girls in Istanbul
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emigrated to USA in 1970
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received her BA in Philosophy at Brandeis University and her MA and
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PhD (1977) in Philosophy at Yale University
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has been Professor of Government, Department of Government, and
Senior Research Fellow, Center for European Studies, at Harvard
University (1993 - 2000)
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currently Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy
at Yale University (from 2001 onwards)
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areas of specialization: 19th and 20th century continental social and
political thought, feminist theory, the history of modern political theory
and multiculturalism in liberal democracies
Seyla Benhabib: Bibliography
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The Claims of Culture. Equality and Diversity in the Global Era.
Princeton University Press, 2002.
Transformation of Citizenship. Dilemmas of the Nation-State in the Era
of Globalization. Van Gorcum, Amsterdam, 2000.
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The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt. Sage Pub., 1996.
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Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange (co-authored with
Judith Butler, Nancy Fraser and Drucilla Cornel). Routledge, 1996.
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Situating the Self. Gender, Community and Postmodernism in
Contemporary Ethics. Polity Press, 1992.
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Critique, Norm and Utopia: A Study of the Foundations of Critical
Theory. Columbia University Press, 1986.
Being a Political Philosopher
„What does a political philosopher do? To be a
political philosopher is more a vocation than a
career. We can be in our universities, and in some
context one can be a journalist, one can be a
human rights activist, but basically I would say
that it is a vocation for thinking about the political.
Not just day-to-day
politics, but about the phenomenon of the
political, that all communities of any degree of
complexity
organize themselves according to certain
principles of justice, equality, reciprocity, and
authority.“
Main Topics
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social-constructivist position in the debate on multiculturalism
vs. reductionist sociology of culture & mosaic multiculturalism
narrative view of actions and culture
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communicative or discourse ethics
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practical discourses
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interactive universalism
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dynamic model of identity groups
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institutional plurality in liberal democracies
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typology and defence of universalism(s)
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challenge of cultural and moral relativism
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Central Quotation
“(…) as long as these pluralist
structures (multiple legal, jurisdictional
etc. systems for multiple groups – note
by mm) do not violate three normative
conditions, they can be quite compatible
with a universalist deliberative
democracy model. I call these the
conditions of egalitarian reciprocity,
voluntary self-ascription, and freedom of
exit and association (…)“
p. 19, original emphasis
Preface
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➔
makes clear 2 basic points that underpin much of her
reasoning:
“cultures are constituted through contested practices”
(p. viii) / social-constructivist approach
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she speaks from the position of democratic theorist,
distinguished from one of multicultural theorist
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this position is one of supporting movements for cultural
recognition under the condition they apply for political and
institutional inclusion, justice and “cultural fluidity” (p. ix)
as well
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the most strongly she opposes so-called mosaic
multiculturalism (a term basically referring to leftessentialist, communitarian and primordialist tendencies in
Chapter 1: Introduction. On the Use
and Abuse of Culture.
1/4
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Herderian concept of culture and the “reductionist sociology of
culture”
narrative view of actions and culture
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first-order deeds
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second-order narratives
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social construction of cultural differences
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example: Turkish nation-building project
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the normative principles of her reasoning: communicative or
discourse ethics
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universal respect
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egalitarian reciprocity
Chapter 1: Introduction. On the Use
and Abuse of Culture.
2/4
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three types of practical discourses:
moral discourses about universal norms of justice
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ethical discourses about concepts of the good life
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political-pragmatic discourses about the feasible
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the actual participation of all concerned subjects in
discourses as a source of legitimacy of all norms
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recursive validation, intercultural communication,
resignification
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declares her proclivity to interactive universalism
vs. substitionalist universalism
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„the boundaries of moral discourses are set only by the
extent
one
of our doings as a consequence of which we affect
another’s well being and freedom” (p. 14)
Chapter 1: Introduction. On the Use
and Abuse of Culture.
3/4
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narrative construction of individual identities (selves)
example from anthropology of kinship: rule of universal
reciprocity
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individual life stories shaped by multiple affinities
dynamic model of identity groups
communitarian MC: concentration on classifying, delimiting
and
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describing supposedly homogeneous cultural systems
dynamic model means turn towards emphasis on what these
groups demand, instead of what they are
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example of application: the process of channelling of class
politics into ethnic politics
Chapter 1: Introduction. On the Use
and Abuse of Culture.
4/4
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3 normative conditions, under which plurality of legal, jurisdictional
etc. structures is compatible with universalist democratic model:
egalitarian reciprocity
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voluntary self-ascription
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freedom of exit and association
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criticism of Rawls' theory of political liberalism
constitutional essentials vs more specific institutional
arrangements and policies + the private sphere
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deliberative democracy model (Jurgen Habermas)
Chapter 2: „Nous“ et les „autres“.
Is Universalism Ethnocentric? 1/3
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deconstructs the notion of ethnocentrism of universalism
universalism - necessary grounds for the right to cultural selfdetermination
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differentation between four basic types of universalism –
all rooted in certain form of belief:
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essentialism and existenstialism (Hobbes, Hume, Adam
Smith, Sartre)
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justificatory universalism (Habermas, Dworkin, Rawls,
Putman)
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moral universalism
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legal universalism: “universalism, like justice, can be political
without being metaphysical” (p. 28)
Chapter 2: „Nous“ et les „autres“.
Is Universalism Ethnocentric? 2/3
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deconstructs the notion of „radical incommensurability“
draws on Lyotard: phrase, regimen, genre of discourse
“If frameworks, linguistic or conceptual, are so radically incommensurable,
then we would not even be able to know that much; our ability to describe a
framework as a framework in the first place rests upon the possibility that
we can identify and select certain features of these other frameworks as
sufficiently like ours to be characterized as conceptual activities in the first
place” (p. 30).
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moral reservations against the concept of incommensurability
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the hermeneutic truth of cultural relativism
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Gadamer: „a melting or merging or blending into one another of
horizons“
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„real confrontation“ → communities of interdependence
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pragmative imperative for pluralist ethical universalism
Chapter 2: „Nous“ et les „autres“.
Is Universalism Ethnocentric? 3/3
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the problem of moral relativism
if the cultures function as equal participants in a dialogue, the
moral discourses of each culture concerns all the rest
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can we separate moral discourses from cultural discourses or
cultural contexts? (holistic paradox)
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Benhabib's solution: differentiation between the moral, the
ethical and the evaluative
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„take the best and leave the rest“
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this type of differentation as an invention of modernity
Textual Connection
“Political society is not neutral between those who value remaining true to the
culture of our ancestors and those who might want to cut loose in the name of
some individual goal of self-development. It might be argued that one could
after all capture a goal like survivance for a proceduralist liberal society. One
could consider the French language, for instance, as a collective resource that
individuals might want to make use of, and act for its preservation, just as one
does for clean air or green spaces. But this can't capture the full thrust of
policies designed for cultural survival. It is not just a matter of having the
French language for those who might choose it. (...). But it also involves making
sure that there is a community of people here in the future that will want to avail
itself of the opportunity to use the French language.”
Charles Taylor on Canadian bilingualism
The Politics of Recognition. In: Multiculturalism: Examining the Politics of
Recognition, edited by Amy Gutmann. 1994, Princeton University Press, pp. 5859.
Suggestions of Questions
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Is the claim that even completely independent sociocultural
systems should conform to universal moral norms still to be
considered as an implication of the interactive/plural
universalism, or rather of a different universalism?
Is it possible for the participants in “communities of
conversation” to be actually equal in the situation of the
growing structural inequality on a global scale?
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Is there an option to secure the legitimacy of legal
universalism in face of the rejection of certain cultures to
participate in a dialogue on the topic of their moral
discourses? If there is, is it viable to “export” our legal norms
or even to impose them in the fashion we witness today?
Thanks for your attention!
contact: [email protected]