Defending diversity

the long version

In recent years the implications of "multiculturalism" for American society have been the subject of much debate. To some, the term has come to denote the fragmentation of tradition and the coherent values that derive from it. To others, it signals the advent of a more inclusive, tolerant, and genuinely democratic society. Drawing on philosophy's longstanding concern with issues of pluralism and relativism, on the traditions of American pragmatism, and on modern theoretical innovations, the essays in this volume bring clarity to this discussion by analyzing the underlying values and assumptions of each side. They present a varied, insightful, and well-reasoned defense of the virtues of diversity, outside as well as inside the walls of the academy.