Taylor’s recognition theory founders when demands for difference challenge universal identity

Evidence

This latter form of recognition causes Taylor some distress. The ‘demand for equal recognition extends beyond an acknowledgment of the equal value of all humans potentially, and comes to include the equal value of what they have made of this potential in fact. This creates a serious problem … ’ (p. 42). At this point, unfortunately, Taylor’s discussion degenerates a bit, as he moves to criticize what he calls at various points ‘incoherent’, ‘radical’, ‘subjectivist’, ‘halfbaked’, ‘neo-Nietzschean’ theories that support multiculturalism (pp. 66, 70). As a number of responses have pointed out, Taylor seems to want only some identities recognized. Recognition becomes especially difficult for him when it comes to the margins, innovation, newness, and any challenge to the universalizability of identity. — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice, 70

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing who the ‘number of responses’ criticizing Taylor are — this frames a limitation in how recognition justice gets operationalized.
• XREF: connects to: Misrecognition constitutes oppression by imprisoning people in distorted identities — David Schlosberg, Defining Environmental Justice:…, 69; Assuming shared identity permits recognizing differences across experience. — Farhan Samanani, Conviviality and its others: for a…, 46

Broader Connections

• Assuming shared identity permits recognizing differences across experience. #qualifies (0.75) — Farhan Samanani, Conviviality and its others, 46