Multiculturalism, Identity, and Minority Rights: Will Kymlicka and the Concept of Special Rights
This chapter focuses on the arguments of the Canadian philosopher Will Kymlicka for “special rights” designed to protect indigenous minorities and their cultures. Kymlicka rests his argument for the rights of cultural minorities on the fact that membership in a cultural community is “an important good for the individual.” He finds this good to be, in the first place, a function of the relation between membership in cultural communities and personal identity. However, he seems to be thinking of identity more as a matter of “identifying with” than as consisting in the traits by which a person can be identified and recognized. This identity would include, in addition to such traits as that person's appearance and voice, the characteristic ways in which she or he deals with the world and with other people. Identity in this sense can include having a sense of belonging to a cultural community.