57817 - Multiculturalism and Cultural Relativism

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is the analysis of the contemporary theories on multiculturalism and cultural relativism in the frame of the constitutional democracy. In the course one will discuss the questions of multiculturalism and cultural relativism with particular reference to the relationship between collective rights and individual rights, to the problem of value pluralism, to the relation between majority and minorities, to the conditions of integration, to the question of multiplicity of religious identities. At the end of the course the student will be able of critically considering the interpretative criteria of the complex reality of contemporary multiethnic and multinational States.

Course contents

The program of the course is divided in two parts. 1. In the first part one will discuss the contents of the theories on multiculturalism. 2. In the second part one will analyze and discuss the main theories on cultural relativism. 

1. The theories on multiculturalism refer to those societies where there are stable cultural communities that are able to perpetuate themselves. First of all the multiculturalism declares that the guarantee of individual rights depends on a full membership in a respected cultural group.Secondly multiculturalism emphasizes the belief in a value pluralism and in the validity of the diverse values embodied in the practices of different groups. But it is necessary to consider the limits of the acceptance of practices that are in contrast with the principles of the constitutional order that is the ground of the coexistence of the different cultural communities. Moreover the customs and practices of the different groups should be recognized in the law of the State. Finally the multiculturalism requires the existence of a common culture, the culture of "mutual recognition".   

2. The relativism goes back to Protagora's doctrine, that we mainly know through the criticism expressed by Plato and Aristoteles. We can distinguish a relativism that concerns the facts and a relativism that concerns the values.  The first meaning of relativism - about facts -can refer either to criteria on the ground of which a proposition can be considered true, or to the patterns of thought that permit the representation of things (for instance the formulas of chemistry). The second meaning of relativism - about values - can refer either to the relationships between values and social practices, or to the different kinds of cultural realities (actions, histories institutions, practices and so on). To this second meaning of relativism belongs also the relativism as the philosophy of the constitutional multicultural democracy.

Readings/Bibliography

Bibliography

The students  have to prepare 2 books. They will choose one book in the part A and one in the part B.

A. Bibliography on multiculturalism:

G. Baumann, The multicultural riddle, New York: Routledge, 1999.

S. Benhabib, The rights of others, Cambridge University Press, 2004.

P. Berger, G. Davie, E. Fokas, Religious America, Secular Europe?, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2008.

R. Dworkin, Taking rights seriously, London: Duckworth, 1977.

R. Dworkin, Freedom's Law, Oxford 1999.

D.T. Goldberg (ed.), Multiculturalism, Blackwell, 1995.

S. Huntington, Who are we?, 2004.

M. Nussbaum, Cultivating Humanity, 1997.

J. Raz, Multiculturalism: a Liberal Perspective, in “Dissent”, 1994.

A. Sen, Inequality reexamined, Oxford University Press, 1999.

A. Sen, Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2006).

B. de Sousa Santos, Toward a multicultural Conception oh Human Rights, in “Sociologia del diritto”, 1/1997.

Ch. Taylor, Multiculturalism, Princeton University Press 1994.

J. Tully, Strange Multiplicity, Cambridge University Press, 1997.

M. Walzer, Spheres of Justice: A Defense of Pluralism and Equality (New York: Basic Books, 1983).

M. Walzer, On Toleration, 1997.

B. Bibliography on relativism:

S. Benhabib, The claims of culture, Princeton University Press, 2002.

E. De Martino, The Land of Remorse: A Study of Southern Italian Tarantism, Free Association Books, 2005.

G. Devereux, Ethno-psychoanalysis: psychoanalysis and anthropology as complementary frames of reference, University of California Press, Berkeley 1978.

P. Feyerabend, Farewell to reason, London - New York 1987.

C. Geertz, The interpretation of cultures, New York 1973.

C. Geertz, After the Facts. Two Countries, Four Decades, One Anthropologist, Cambridge, Mass., 1995.

H. Kelsen, Foundations of democracy, in "Ethics", vol. LXVI, 1955.

J. Kristeva, Strangers to Ourselves, trans. Leon S. Roudiez (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991).

J. Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), Oxford University Press, 1975.

D. Marconi. Per la verità. Relativismo e filosofia, Torino, Einaudi, 2007.

J. Margolis, The Truth about relativism, Oxford (UK) - Cambridge (Usa), Blackwell, 1981.

Plato's Theory of Knowledge: The Theaetetus and the Sofist of Plato, London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1935.

F. Remotti, Contro natura, Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2008.

M. Sahlins, The Western Illusion of Human Nature, 2008.

P. Winch, The idea of social science and its relations to philosophy, London 1958.

L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, Blackwell, 1953.

Teaching methods

The teaching is delivered on the basis  of lectures, but the training of the students is facilitated by continuous discussions during the class time.Also the didactic documents provided by the professor help to favor the learning on the part of the students.

Assessment methods

At the end of the course there will be an oral examination.

The students that will have an oral exam about the contents of two textbooks. 

Teaching tools

The students will receive useful documents for the lectures and suggestions about links in the web.

Office hours

See the website of Gustavo Gozzi