Abstract
Modern democracies increasingly confuse civic or political equality with a radical relativism that calls into question legitimate principles of hierarchy and the very idea of reasonable value judgments. This confusion reflects a “corruption,” in Montesquieu’s sense, of democracy rooted in a refusal to recognize distinctions that are integral to both human nature and social life. A moderate form of cultural relativism is a genuine intellectual achievement that helps combat ethnocentrism and allows one to better appreciate the full range of human experience. But criteria of meaning and truth are by no means entirely dependent upon cultural context. Our contemporary awareness of the “relativity” of cultures and historical experiences must be complemented by a robust appreciation of the universality of Reason and citizenship.
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Notes
The Spirit of the Laws, VIII, 2.
Ibid., Avertissement.
Ibid., IV, 5.
The question was raised after a presentation by Claude Lévi-Strauss to the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences on October 15, 1979. His response was: “The ethnologist simultaneously recognizes the beliefs, customs, and institutions that he can study, and of which, without any particular moral concern, he proposes a typology, and the human beings whose creations they are. He shares something in common with them. I therefore will not attempt to answer the question. I will say that it is an aporia or perplexity that we must live with and attempt to overcome by means of experience in the matter, while rejecting—wisely—any theoretical answer to it.” Cited in Commentaire, n. 15, October 1981, p. 372.
Further Reading
Abou, S. 1993. Retour au Parana. Chronique de deux villages guaranis. Hachette, coll. Pluriel/Interventions.
Boudon, R. 2006. Renouveler la démocratie. Éloge du sens commun. Odile Jacob.
Bruckner, P. 1992. La Mélancolie démocratique. Seuil.
Gauchet, M. 2002. La Démocratie contra elle-même. Gallimard.
Schnapper, D. 1998. The Community of Citizens: On the Modern Idea of Nationality. Transaction Publishers.
Schnapper, D. 2006. Providential Democracy: An Essay on Contemporary Equality. Transaction Publishers.
Slama, A.-G. 2002. La Régression démocratique. Perrin, coll. Tempus.
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Schnapper, D. Relativism. Soc 46, 175–179 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-008-9181-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12115-008-9181-6