Multiculturalism: A Liberal Perspective

Multiculturalism is a problem today and for the foreseeable future—a problem for politics and the ethics of politics. In this essay I want to explore the implications of the liberal political philosophy I have faith in for the way contemporary democracies should deal with this problem.

Political philosophy does not provide us with eternally valid theories for the government of all human societies. To my mind political philosophy is time bound. It is valid—if it is valid at all—fo...