The text focus is to identify some of the fields where the Sartre’s thought offers theoretical resources for the contemporaneous debate about the cultural justice. To reach this goal, it is established which the Sartrean critics are to the abstract universality, beginning from the “Reflexiones sobre la cuestión judía” text.

La pregunta contemporánea por la articulación entre la exigencia de justicia social y la exigencia de justicia cultural no es una cuestión totalmente nueva: se manifiesta, desde el siglo XIX, por lo menos en el compromiso social y político de algunas figuras «marginales» que intentaron pensar la exigencia de justicia social en una perspectiva socialista. De manera más o menos intuitiva, más o menos reflexiva, estos precursores, que se puede encontrar tanto en la tradición del socialismo libertario como en la (...) del socialismo marxista, asocian ambas exigencias de justicia en la unidad de una práctica y/o de un pensamiento; no obstante, sin formular como tal la cuestión teórica de su articulación. En la tradición del socialismo marxista, el primero y tal vez el más importante representante de estos precursores es José Carlos Mariátegui (1895-1930), cuya obra teórica y práctica fue durante largo tiempo condenada a la marginalidad por los censores del marxismo dogmático. En la tradición del socialismo libertario, y más alejada en el tiempo, la figura de Louise Michel sostiene, de manera práctica, la idea de una ética social del reconocimiento capaz de integrar el reconocimiento de la diferencia cultural – despertando la incomprensión de la mayoría de sus compañeros militantes del movimiento obrero. (shrink)

Sartre's Critique of theUniversal: Elements for a Multicultural Thinking The question of cultural justice, which refers in different contexts to the exigency of universality, constitutes a central aspect of Sartre's writings after World War II as f. ex. Réflexions sur la question juive, Orphée noir, Cahiers pour une morale, the famous Preface to Les damnés de la terre of Franz Fanon, and his article on the "question basque". In this texts Sartre poses some questions, which are crucial for the contemporary (...) multiculturalism debates, specially the questions of cultural justice, of the concepts of universality and the practical subject, of the articulation between cultural justice and distributive justice, as well as of the relation between person, economics and culture. The aims of this article is to discuss the main points of Sartre's critique of the abstract universality on the basis of his Réflexions sur la question juive, and to articulate the fields where Sartre's thought offers the theoretical resources for a contemporary debate on cultural justice. (shrink)

This book of tightly woven dialogues engages prominent thinkers in a discussion about the role of culture-broadly construed-in contemporary society and politics. Faced with the conceptual inflation of the notion of 'culture,' which now imposes itself as an indispensable issue in contemporary moral and political debates, these dynamic exchanges seek to rethink culture and critique beyond the schematic models that have often predominated, such as the opposition between "mainstream multiculturalism" and the "clash of civilizations." Prefaced by an introduction relating current (...) cultural debates to the critical theory tradition, this book examines the politics of culture and the spirit of critique from three different vantage points. To begin, Gabriel Rockhill and Alfredo Gomez-Muller provide a stage-setting dialogue, followed by discussions with two major representatives of contemporary critical theory: Seyla Benhabib and Nancy Fraser. Working at the horizons of this tradition, Judith Butler, Immanuel Wallerstein, and Cornel West then provide important critical perspectives on cultural politics. The book's concluding section engages with Michael Sandel and Will Kymlicka, who work out of the Rawlsian tradition yet are uniquely concerned with the issue of culture, broadly understood. The epilogue, an interview with Axel Honneth, returns to the core issue of critical theory in cultural politics. Ranging from recent developments and progressive interventions in critical theory to dialogues that incorporate its insights into larger discussions of social and political philosophy, this book sharpens old critical tools while developing new strategies for rethinking the role of 'culture' in contemporary society. (shrink)