Pidskalna O. The genesis of the discourse of multiculturalism: a socio-philosophical analysis

In the thesis, a socio-philosophical analysis of the genesis of the discourse of multiculturalism is done. It is proved that the multiculturalism should be defined as a discourse, the structure of which includes: justification of the need (or denial) of the granting special rights to the cultural groups; various theories of recognition of cultural identity; determination of the boundaries of interference with illiberal cultural practices; liberal criticism of multiculturalism. The periodization of the discourse of multiculturalism was done, consisting of the following stages: the proto-multicultural stage (the formation of the theoretical and philosophical basis of the multiculturalism concept); the traditional discourse of the multiculturalism (the formation of the first philosophical theories of multiculturalism), which includes the following periods: a) the communitarian period (the end of the 80s – the beginning of the 90s of the XX century); the liberal period (the beginning of the 90s – the second half of the 90s of the XX century); the period of liberal-egalitarian and feminist critics of multiculturalism (the second half of the 90s of the XX century – the beginning of the XXI century); the stage of the discourse of post-multiculturalism (the early 2000s and until now): the stage of the rhetoric of «the collapse of multiculturalism». Foundations for an alternative model of managing cultural pluralism are searched, in particular, a new paradigm for interculturalism is being proposed. In the thesis, it was also revealed the tendencies of opposition within the framework of liberal multiculturalism regarding the admissibility of interfering with illiberal cultural practices of minority groups. By appealing to the philosophical discussions between W. Kymlicka and Ch. Kukathas, it was found that they represent various aspects of the liberal tradition that are ultimately contradictory – liberalism of Enlightenment based on individual autonomy («strong» multiculturalism) and liberalism of Reformation based on tolerance («weak» multiculturalism).