Philosophy and Multiculturalism: Searle, Rorty, and Taylor Essay

Philosophy and Multiculturalism Searle, Rorty, and TaylorABSTRACT John Searle opposes multiculturalism because he views it as part of a movement to undermine the concepts of truth and objectivity in the Western tradition. Richard Rorty disagrees with Searle about the relation between philosophical theories of truth and academic practices, but he is neutral on the issue of multiculturalism. Charles Taylor approaches the issue historically, argue multiculturalism as emerging from one branch of liberal political theory. I argue that the debate oer epistemological and political issues has tended to obscure the educational benefits of multiculturalism. A multicultural curriculum works very well in fulfilling the traditional goals of education in philosophy. It can assist the teacher as Socratic midwife and gadfly in delivering students from their narrow and uncritical opinions and awaken them to a world of intellectual diversity. Thus, multiculturalism is not so much a recent movement as a new name for an honest-to-god method of teaching. Philosophers have been slow to join the public debate on multiculturalism in spite of the important philosophical issues at stake. Notable exceptions are John Searle and Charles Taylor, who address the philosophical implications of the controversy over the curriculum in several recent essays. (1) Taylor defends multicultural education as a righteous imperative of one branch of the liberal tradition, while Searle argues that a achievement for multiculturalism would mean the destruction of the Western intellectual heritage. This paper will read some of the arguments on both sides of the issue and propose an interpretation of multiculturalism as particularly significant for teaching philosophy.... ...Recognition, in Multiculturalism. Amy Gutmann, ed. (Princeton Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 25-73.(2) Rationality and Realism. . ., p. 69.(3) The Storm over the University, p. 112.(4) Richard Rorty, Does Academic Freedom Have Philosophical Presuppositions Academic Freedom and the rising of the University, Academe (Nov.-Dec. 1994), p. 52.(5) Ibid., p. 61.(6) Rationality and Realism . . ., p. 71. (7) Richard Rorty, Hermeneutics, General Studies, and Teaching, Selected Papers from the Synergos Seminars, volume 2 (Fall, 1982), p. 112.(8) The Politics of Recognition, pp. 69-72.(9) Ibid., p. 66.(10) Ibid., p. 70.(11) Ibid., p. 73.(12) For an exception see Lawrence Foster and Patricia Herzog, eds. Philosophical Perspectives on Pluralism and Multiculturalism (Amherst University of mom Press, 1994).