Is There a Canadian Philosophy?: Reflections on the Canadian Identity

Introduction

INTRODUCTION If there is one thing urgently required in nations around the world confronted with growing demands for recognition of various forms of particularity—ethnic, cultural, linguistic, gender, and so on—it is a conception of civil association that reconciles recognition of difference with respect for the rights of individuals. Manyolder liberal democracies are rap­ idly becoming multicultural societies preoccupied with col­ lective identities while many emerging democracies face similar challenges, often while struggling simultaneously to overcome a legacy of authoritarian and/or colonial rule. The dark side of identity politics has been illustrated all too fre­ quently in modern times, most recently by the wave of ethnic nationalism that descended upon much of Eastern Europe immediately following the collapse of the Soviet system, cul­ minating in a new form of atrocity known as ethnic cleansing. Among the lessons to be learned from such events is the im­ perative to undo the association of demos and ethnos inherent to all forms of ethnopolitics1 and, further, to fashion a politi­ cal order that is capable of accommodating recognition of cultural and other differences without viewing these as moral differences. While construing these as moral differ­ ences provides prima facie grounds for sacrificing individual (i.e., human) rights to collective purposes and identities, it may be hoped, sh IS THERE A CANADIAN PHILOSOPHY? accommodate legitimate collective aspirations in a manner that involves no encroachment on human rights. This book addresses issues that relate directly to themesof community, national identity, recognition, and universalism, taking the Canadian example as its focus. Canada is singled out for discussion for the reason that this nation has long grappled with these issues to an extent perhaps not equaled by other industrialized democracies and in a broadly liberal spir­ it. The book asks what conceptual resources are available to liberal politics that will cope with growing demands interna­ tionally for recognition ofparticularities of various kinds. Giv­ en the demands made by a large array of groups, the claimsof "community life," and their "shared aspirations," how might a liberal democracy committed to principles such as individual autonomy and equal treatment cope with such demands? In addressing these questions, weaskwhether there is a rec­ ognizably "Canadian" philosophy. A note of skepticism imme­ diately greets the question raised by the title of this study. "Is there a Canadian philosophy?" is a question to which a prepon­ derance of Canadian philosophers would likely reply in the neg­ ative, and they would be correct in doing so were the question to inquire after a unified body of doctrine or methodologycom­ monly upheld by academic philosophers in Canada. If there is a recognizably "Canadian" philosophy, it consists not in a body of doctrine commonly maintained by our professional philoso­ phers, but rather in a modus operandi that animates much of Canadian public life. Inherent to the Canadian way of life—the modes of public discourse and self­understanding, the social practices and institutions, the economic and ethical relations that constitute our national ethos—is a modus operandi visible throughout a great many manifestations and assuming a mul­ tiplicity of forms. Embodied in this way of life is a particular constellation of issues and preoccupations unmistakablyphilo­ sophical in kind that animates much of our public life. It is a way of life profoundly concerned with questions of identity and recognition, with the issue of who we ourselves are as a nation and a culture (or cultures), and which struggles continually with the question INTRODUCTION peoples with fundamentally different self­understandings can live together in a condition ofcivility. The Canadianphilosophy of which we speak does not extend into the several subdisci­ plines of philosophy but is one that obtains at the level ofgen­ eral culture, and which is discernible primarily in Canadian practice and only secondarily in Canadian law and politics (in the narrow, institutional sense of the terms). It is, however, a philosophy that permits of explicit articulation. The Canadian civic philosophy is one that articulates a way of life and a phi­ losophy of pluralism within a framework of individual rights. While preoccupied with questions of nationality, it is not a na­ tionalistic philosophy but one that recognizes the equality of nationalities, cultures, and ethnicities from the standpoint of public policy. In coming to terms with these issues, Canadian political culture historically has tended toward a spirit ofcompromise that would reconcile values that on their surface appear fun­ damentally antithetical. Canadians have...