Multiculturalism and the Politics of Recognition

Introduction

Taylor’s essay “The Politics of Recognition” appeared in 1992 in a short volume from Princeton University Press, edited by Amy Gutmann, with commentaries by other scholars; the expanded edition of 1994 and the German edition of 1993 also contain a response by Habermas. Taylor traces the modern ideal of authenticity back to Rousseau and Herder and distinguishes two strands of liberalism: a politics of equal dignity, which treats everyone alike, and a politics of difference, which asks for particular identities to be recognised. His example is Quebec, where laws protect the French language for future generations. He defends a liberalism that can pursue such collective goals as long as basic rights are secured.

Connections

Builds on

• Treatise on the Origin of Language1772 · Johann Gottfried Herder
• Phenomenology of Spirit1807 · Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Criticized in

• Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition2014 · Glen Sean Coulthard

More works by Charles Taylor

• 1989Sources of the Self
• 2007A Secular Age