Self-Determination And Cultural Exemptions In Liberalism

Liberalism is a political and ethical philosophy based on freedom, consent of the governed, and equality before the law. (Iain mcLean, 2009) Liberalism (according to the book of Cultural Encounters) is also a philosophical tradition that stresses the right of the individual, the value of personal freedom or autonomy, and also the idea that every human being on this earth is of equal moral worth. (Pike, 2008) Liberals value the freedom of each individual to live as he or she chooses. Which means that liberalism views human rights as something of value, and that each and every human should be guaranteed his rights in this world, no matter what gender they are, or cultural background they have or whatever country they are from. And yes, Human rights are inherent to all human beings solely because of being human, no matter where they live. Human rights originate in the equal dignity of all humans and at the same time aim at defending it. Since “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” (Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, Article 1), (Anon. , 2019) which means that human rights are universal.

There are two principles that state when discrimination is unjust. The first principle states that it is unjust to discriminate between people on the basis of considerations that are irrelevant to the situation. The second principle states that it is unjust to discriminate between people on the basis of consideration that are not a matter of choice. So, things that are irrelevant to the situation and things that are not a matter of choice are unjust to discriminate for. But, unfortunately, neither principle 1 nor principle 2 apply to all cases. Discrimination is not always unjust in all cases, for example architects discriminate between men and women when they plan separate bathrooms in public facilities. This does not seem to be unfair. However, it would be unfair if men were given twice the space women were given.

The rule and exemption approach is an approach to cultural diversity based on the following principle: laws and public policies should apply to all; cultural exemptions may sometimes be granted to members of minority cultural groups in order to protect their cultural identity or religious practices or to preserve a long-established way of life. (pike, 2008) The ‘rule and exemption’ approach to citizens’ demands for differential treatment aims at combining respect for general legal obligations and attention to specific minority issues. Rather than changing the law in order to accommodate ethical differences, some governments with growing confidence have adopted ‘the approach that keeps the rule that is objected to for most of the population but allows members of cultural or religious minorities to opt out of the obligation to obey it’ (Barry, 2001)

Autonomy means self-rule: an autonomous person is able to make his or her own choices about how to live. To treat someone as autonomous involves respecting them as a rational human being, with the rights to make up his or her own mind as to how to live or be in this world without intervening. The notion of autonomy plays a vital role in liberal theories. The autonomy argument says that each and every individual should be free to make his or her own choices. It cannot be used to defend the rule and exemption approach, though, as it would give everybody a choice, not just minority groups. Which means that it is just a different version of difference-blind liberalism.

The unequal impact argument says that some laws are unjust because they affect certain groups more than others. This looks like a good reason for preferring the rule and exemption approach, since people may have no choice about which cultural group to belong to. But it raises too many other complications. (dixon, 2009)

An argument by analogy starts from the premise that two cases are alike. It is then claimed that something that is true of one must therefore be true of the other. Arguments by analogy are not deductive arguments though. In another words, Argument from analogy is a special type of inductive argument, whereby perceived similarities are used as a basis to infer some further similarity that has yet to be observed. (baronett, 2008)

Margalit and Raz are liberal philosophers, but they reject difference-blind liberalism. This is because they hold that cultural groups should be able to live in accordance with their own principles. They call this self-determination. There is a close connection between self-determination and cultural exemptions, because cultural exemptions make self-determination possible for minority cultural groups.