POLI 305 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Canadian Identity, Minority Rights
9 Oct 2016
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He wanted to see if liberalism can accommodate minority groups. He is responding to arguments saying that liberalism cant include all groups and make equality. Feminists for example argue that abstract equality in a way ignores them. Kymlicka argues that to be an individual you need to be social. Me is what everyone else is/who you talk to etc. He says that you need to respect groups if you want to respect individuals. Up until 80s and 90s, liberalism was self-satisfied. Liberals are panicking now because there are so many racial ethnic and sexual violence problems. These were supposed to go away with liberalism. He offered a liberal approach to minority rights. Minority rights however got a bad reputation because for example, if there was a german community living in poland, nation states would make treaties to protect their nationals. Germany accused poland of breaking the treaty when world war ii started.
