The Unifying Aspects of Cultures

SECTION:

The "general human right" in Multilingual Elementary Education

Matjaz Potrc (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Is bilingualism in favor of cosmopolitanism?

The phenomenon of bilingualism is used in order to evaluate Louis Pojman's argument for institutional cosmopolitanism. His argument builds upon the opposition to what he in a somewhat misguiding manner calls moral particularism or patriotism. I shall show that bilingualism goes contrary to self-determination, personal identity, self-defense and multiculturalism, in the case where the main patriotic presupposition is perseverance of borders in a multiplicity of linguistically uniform states and persons. Bilingualism proves both these presuppositions as empirically wrong: most of actually existing states are not uniformly mono-linguistic, and there are metaphysical reasons for a belief in vagueness of persons and other empirical entities. This seems to push us towards embracing cosmopolitanism. But most of cosmopolitan states (Roman Empire, Vatican, UN) have at least a tendency to prefer some unique language (Latin, French, English), despite that they may allow for the co-existence of a plurality of languages. So they just mimic patriotism. The first thought is that bilingualism supports cosmopolitanism. But this may be questioned. The nature of cosmopolitanism is general, whereas bilingualism tends to be rooted in particular circumstances.

THE UNIFYING ASPECTS OF CULTURES