Charles Taylor, Pluralism, and the Postmodern Condition

One of the "canonical" books connected with postmodernism was Jean-Francois Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge.  The "report" was funded by the forward-thinking government of the province of Quebec in the late 1970s.  Thirty years later, the PQ government has once again funded the sort of sophisticated, philosophical study that it's hard to imagine any state government ever doing.  Co-chaired by Charles Taylor and Gerard Bouchard, the Consultation Commission on Accommodation Practices Related to Cultural Differences has now issued its report, with easy access to an abridged pdf version of the report.  It makes for interesting reading as a new analysis of our "postmodern condition," particularly the challenges of cultural pluralism and how a "secular" society can absorb cultural difference, particularly religious difference (as usual, it's hard not to recognize that Islam is a significant impetus for the commission's mandate).

I've not yet had a chance to properly digest even the abridged version of their report, but on a first skim I was struck that the proposals advocated a kind of "secularity" that felt more like France's policy of laïcité.  Given Taylor's nuanced account of the secular in A Secular Age, I would have expected some less, well, "Enlightenment-esque."  But I need to give it more careful attention.  I think the report would make for interesting small group discussion.

On a related note, Church and Postmodern Culture readers will want to check out Ron Kuipers' series of interviews with Charles Taylor, appearing in The Other Journal. 

Comments

[kns]

Certainly it is an interesting an useful comparison. But, I think it would be crucial to keep in mind the different political and cultural contexts in which each of these documents were created: one in the aftermath of Quebec's "Quiet Revolution", and the other in aftermath in the relative failure of Quebec separatism (at least politically). Taylor is invested in these contexts in ways Lyotard never was, and it certainly plays a role in his take on Quebec politics and culture.