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

Bibliography

THE BEARERS OF RIGHTS: INDIVIDUALSORCOLLECTIVES? to bring about linguistic assimilation, movement toward this continues in part as the effect of a generation of official language legislation. 7. It is interesting to note that the right to possess private property contin­ ues to be conspicuously absent from the Canadian constitution despite both palliation and two rounds of proposed wholesale constitutional reform. This basic individual right, the most basic of economic liberties, was excluded from the constitution apparently on the grounds that it would limit the "right" ofgov­ ernment to expropriate such property at their discretion. Apart from the ques­ tion of whether governments possess rights in addition to responsibilities—a highly dubious proposition, and utterly dangerous when its implications are ful­ ly grasped—that an individual's right to hold private property should be out­ weighed by a government's "right" to seize it hardly seems defensible. 8. Similar viewsof the nature and function of human rights may be found in much of the contemporary literature of liberalism, including Nozick 1974, Kateb 1992, Berlin 1969, Haworth 1986, Dworkin 1977, Hayek I960, Machan 1995, Rawls 1971and Rawls 1993,Howard 1995,Reiman 1997,and Trudeau 1996. 9. This is what Lawrence Haworth refers to as a "domain for autonomy." It is "the sphere of action the society delegates to that individual's decision, in which he is held responsible. Adomain for autonomy thus forms an office or ju­ risdiction. The officeholder's rights and duties identify the work of the office; they mark out his sphere of responsibility." (Haworth 1986,126) 10. We may leave aside the question of cultural value, which may or may not be ofan intrinsic nature, for the reason that this is not a matter that the state is fit to determine. It is not for governments to determine that English and French possess high cultural value while Chinese and Japanese (both of which are spoken in Canada and by large and growing communities) do not. For public officials to pronounce upon such matters is surely the height of absurdity. 11. I discuss this at some length in Fairfield 1994. 12. As noted in Chapter 1, Habermas expresses this view in his reply to Taylor. Habermas writes: The constitutional state can make thishermeneutic achievement of the cultural repro­ duction of worldspossible, but it cannotguaranteeit. For to guarantee survival would necessarily rob the membersof the freedom to say yes or no, which nowadaysiscru­ cial if they are to remain able to appropriate and preserve their cultural heritage. When a culture has becomereflexive, the only traditions and forms of life that can sus­ tain themselves are those that bind their members,while at the same timeallowing members to subject the traditions to critical examination and leaving later genera­ tions the option of learningfrom othertraditionsor converting and settingout foroth­ er shores. (Habermas 1998, 222) Bibliography Ackerman, Bruce. 1980. SocialJustice in the Liberal State, New Haven: Yale University Press. Arendt, Hannah. 1973. The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt Brace Janovich. 133 IS THERE A CANADIANPHILOSOPHY? Avineri, Shlomo, and Avner de­Shalit, eds. 1992. Communi­ tarianism and Individualism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Baker, Judith, ed. 1994. Group Rights. Toronto: Universityof Toronto Press. Beiner, Ronald. 1992. What's the Matter with Liberalism?Los Angeles: University of California Press. Berlin, Isaiah. 1969. Four Essays on Liberty. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dewey, John. 1962. Individualism: Old and New. New York: Capricorn. . 1963. Liberalismand SocialAction. New York: Capricorn Books. . 1989. Freedom and Culture.Buffalo: Prometheus Books. Dietze, Gottfried. 1985. Liberalism Proper and Proper Liberal­ ism. London: Johns Hopkins University Press. Dworkin, Ronald. 1977. Taking Rights Seriously. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. . 1989. "Liberal Community." California Law Review 77. Ellul, Jacques. 1978. The Betrayal of the West. New York: Seabury Press. Esquith, Stephen L. 1994. Intimacy and Spectacle: Liberal Theory as a Political Education. Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press. Ewin, R.E. 1987. Liberty, Community, and Justice. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield. Fairfield, Paul. 1994. "Habermas, Lyotard, and Political Dis­ course." Reason Papers 19. . 2000. Moral Selfhood in the Liberal Tradition: The Politics of Individuality. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 134 THE BEARERS OF RIGHTS: INDIVIDUALS ORCOLLECTIVES? Galston, William A. 1991. Liberal Purposes: Goods, Virtues, and Diversity in the Liberal State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Garvey, Hohn H. 1996. What Are Freedoms For? Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Gaus, Gerald F. 1983. The Modern Liberal Theory of Man. New York: St. Martin's Press. . 1996. Justificatory Liberalism:An Essay...