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ELIZABETH TROTT
The context of the following paper is idealist metaphysics. The key terms
are self and other (individual and community), culture and multi-cultures.
The term multiculturalism can result in distortions of meaning. My argument
intends to establish a dialectical synthesis of Canada as a single culture and
Canada as multi-cultural.
Canadian culture has three different origins: Indigenous, French and British. ?
Yet today, Canada is understood as multi-cultural. Do the many cultures need
an idea of a whole for them to function? Consider the analogy of a vehicle. In
the assembly plant, it is a collection of independent objects. It only becomes
a functioning invention, with energy and direction. For ‘multiculturalism’ to
function, we need a concept of Canada, a synthesis of multiple cultures and
their oppositions that provides energy and gives direction.
PART 1: THE CONTEXT OF THE ARGUMENT
Different philosophical first principles are the basis for different
metaphysical theories. Examples of theories are idealism, materialism,
realism, foundationalism, constructivism, nihilism, etc. Other approaches
to first principles are teleology, ontology, phenomenology, theology. Some
philosophers simply declare a single phenomenon, such as language, or
perception, god, spirit, forces of good and evil as the ground of all further
claims about existence, while others promote a single method for establishing
truths about what exists, such as analytic, speculative, historical, or logical.
With a selected set of first principles in place, philosophers can develop a
theory, perhaps about morality, art, or political entities, such as the state.
With such a vast range of procedures and options, it is necessary to begin
with a first principle.*
I will begin with the idealist context: a commitment to the principle of
consciousness, an operating force through which meaningful experience and
development of change is generated.
Within this context, what do the terms culture and multi-culturalism
mean? If both terms have no clear meaning, are they susceptible to uses
within political, or self- serving agendas?
See also Elizabeth Trott, Multiculturalism, Charles Taylor, and the Idea of Canada, in
Allen Seager — Leonard Evenden — Rowland Lorimer — Robin Mathews (eds.), Alternative
Frontiers, Montreal, Quebec, Association for Canadian Studies, 1997, 35.
3 Douglas Verney, Three Civilizations, Two Cultures, One State, Durham, NC, Duke University,
1986.
4 There are disagreements within the academy about what counts as philosophy. Thirty years
ago, Plato’s Republic was required reading in most undergraduate programs. Today, you can
do a doctorate in philosophy without ever having read the Republic. In some philosophy
departments, the Republic is regarded as a history book.
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