Toleration, Assimilation, Identity Politics: Struggles over the Practice of a Multicultural Society
with Clare Pearson
Kibbitznest Liberal Arts Discussions are a collaboration with
The University of Chicago Graham School
to host presentations and discussions of original research.
Due to limited space, RSVPs will receive priority seating.
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The freedoms that lie at the heart of modern liberal democracies by definition and intent require openness to the cultural practices and religious beliefs of people we might ordinarily define as “others.” But from the beginning the thinkers who laid the foundations for modern democratic societies wrestled over just what that shape that openness should take and how far it should go (arguments that were of course limited by the relative monoculture of the worlds in which they emerged). Currently we face this issue on more than an ordinary way, in an eruption of real political struggles over race, religion, migration and immigration, as well as gender. In this talk & conversation, we will aim to situate these struggles in their philosophical contexts and to sketch out the core issues behind attempts to create a genuine "community of others” grounded in functional respect for differences.
About CLARE PEARSON:
CLARE PEARSON joined the Basic Program staff in 1997, after 10 years of undergraduate teaching at The University of Chicago and the Honors College at Valparaiso University. She is the 2008 recipient of the Graham School Excellence in Teaching Award for the Basic Program, and in addition to her classes at the basic program, currently teaches in the Humanities and Philosophy Department at Oakton Community College.
FREE & OPEN to the public
Sponsor: Kibbitznest Books, Brews & Blarney
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