Abstract

In the last two decades, a number of political theorists have published a great deal of theory that argues for the centrality of the idea of recognition. In the most prominent of these papers, Charles Taylor makes the claim that “recognition is a human need.”¹ The immediate spur for this flurry of interest has been a discussion of multiculturalism and its attendant issues, which are expressed in terms of “group recognition.”² This work focuses on the importance of group identity or social characteristics, as well as on their relation to individualism and liberalism. These issues are important, and there is…