Background and plan

of the project

Multiculturalism, Religion and

the Foundations of Morality
in Contemporary Political Philosophy
ReSET-project 2007-10
 Background of the project
The accelerating process of globalization is in-
creasingly making societies highly multi-
cultural and pluralistic

 In the West as well as the target region.

 Multiculturalism is at the top of the agenda
today in the media and in current public,
political and academic debate.
 Background of the project
Prominent examples:

 Huntington’s “Clash of civilizations”

 The Danish cartoon-crisis, The Satanic Verses

 Fundamentalist terrorism
 Background of the project
The accelerated process of globalisation and
multiculturalisation is challenging classical
liberal democratic thinking:
 Challenging the standard assumption that
liberal states are culturally neutral
 Challenging ‘difference-blind’ theories of the
just society, democracy and individual rights
 A theoretical need for rethinking theories –
perhaps a ‘politics of recognition’ or a ‘politics
of difference’?
 Multiculturalism in teaching
 A need for introducing new curricula on the topic
at undergraduate level

 Topical issues are particularly good for teaching

at undergraduate level

• Possibility of referring to concrete examples and

current events in the media

• Perceived as relevant by the students – hence

motivating
 Multiculturalism in teaching
 Aim: Focus on teaching methods that encourage
student participation and critical thinking

 Inter-sessional and intra-sessional activity

relating to teaching methods


Teaching portfolios

 Participant’s development of new

curricula/syllabi
 Two senses of ’multiculturalism’
1. Descriptive/empirical
 A society is ‘multicultural’ when it as a matter of
fact incorporates different nations (typically
indigenous or defeated peoples) or different ethnic
groups (typically due to immigration).

4. Normative
 A policy or set of moral-political norms can be
‘multicultural’ in the sense that it involves the moral
belief that (group-)rights ought to be accorded to
individuals in virtue of their belonging to a cultural
group.
 Cross disciplinary cooperation
 Normative political philosophy
 History of political philosophy
 Political science
 The study of religion
 History of intercultural, interreligious, interethnic
dialogue (case-studies)
 Sociology of intercultural, interreligious,
interethnic dialogue
 Progression – Summer 2007
Multiculturalism and Intercultural Dialogue: History
and Contemporary Perspectives.
 Providing an overview of the topics of the
school
 Political philosophy: liberal-communitarian
debate, contemporary debate over multi-
culturalism and theories of liberal democracy
 Concepts of religion, interreligious dialogue,
secularization, identity and tolerance.
 Educational issues relating to intercultural
dialogue
 Progression – Spring 2008
Toleration in a Multicultural Society: Problems and
Perspectives.

 The history of toleration

 Theories of toleration in normative political
philosophy
 (St. Petersburg)
 Discussing first draft of teaching-portfolio
 Progression – Summer 2008
Theories of democracy, multiculturalism and
reasonable pluralism.


Constitutionalism and minority rights – limits
to majority rule?
 Philosophical problems and paradoxes of
democracy (social choice theory)
 Democratic citizenship and civic education
 Progression – Spring 2009
Political liberalism with overlapping consensus
versus religious and morally founded political
systems.
 The relation between basic political principles
and comprehensive theories of the good life
and just society – State neutrality as a political
ideal?
 Religious or moral base for political systems?
 Participant’s suggestions for curricula/syllabi
 Progression – Summer 2009
Justifying democracy – On the universality or
relativity of democratic values.
 Can Western liberal values be exported (or is
that just another instance of moral
imperialism)?
 Universal justification or imbedding in local
culture?
 Rational objective debate or merely ‘clashes
of civilisation’?
 Progression – Spring 2010
Democratic education – what could and should
that be?

 The proper role of education in a pluralistic

democracy

State intervention in and control of education?
 The form of the schools
 Variety of teaching styles and methods used by
resource faculty – different role models for
teaching
 Differing formats:
 Lectures

Seminars
 Round Tables
 Participant’s Presentations

 Aim: An open discussion climate – peer to peer

communication
 Finally…..
 Comments on the plan and suggestions for new
topics, formats, resource-persons etc. are most
welcome
 (Planning the schools is inevitably open,
pragmatic and flexible)

 Exchange of participants with other projects

 Core resource faculty
Prof. Tim Jensen, Professor, Department of Religion Studies, The
University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

Prof. John Christian Laursen, Professor, Department of Politics, The

University of California, Riverside, USA

Prof. Cary J. Nederman, Professor, Department of Politics, Texas A&M

University, College Station, USA

Prof. Leokadiya Drobizheva, Professor, Center of Ethnic Sociology,

Institute of Sociology of Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow,
Russia

Prof. Vladimir Kozlovsky, Professor, Department of Sociology, The

University of Sankt-Petersburg, Russia
 Resource faculty
Prof. Peter Wagner (Department of Social and Political Science,
European University Institute, Florence, Italy),
Prof. Martin Van Gelderen (Department of History and Civilization,
European University Institute, Florence, Italy),
Prof. Elisabetta Galeotti (Department of Philosophy, Universitá di
Piemonte Orientale, Vercelli, Italy),
Prof. Matt Matravers (Head of the Department of Politics at the
University of York, UK).
Prof. Elena Stepanova (Institute of Philosophy and Law of Ural branch
of Russian Academy of Sciences, Ekaterinburg, Russia),
Prof. Vladimir Brushinkin (Department of Philosophy, Kaliningrad State
University, Russia),
Prof. Margarita Zakovorotnaya (Department of Philosophy, Rostov
State University, Russia)