Cultural identity and political ethics / Paul Gilbert.
"Today, people's cultural identities are increasingly invoked in support of political claims, and these claims commonly lead to acrimony and violence. But what is 'cultural identity', and what is its political significance? This book offers a provocatively sceptical answer to the...
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| Format: | Ebook |
| Language: | English |
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Edinburgh :
Edinburgh University Press,
©2010.
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| Online Access: | Click here to view this book |
| Summary: | "Today, people's cultural identities are increasingly invoked in support of political claims, and these claims commonly lead to acrimony and violence. But what is 'cultural identity', and what is its political significance? This book offers a provocatively sceptical answer to these questions. Tracing the idea back to the now largely discredited notion of national character, it argues that cultural identity is no deep going feature of individual psychology. Nor is it any uniform phenomenon. Rather, various types of so-called cultural identity emerge in response to the different circumstances people face. Such identities are marked by merely surface features of behaviour and these have a principally aesthetic appeal. In consequence, it is argued, cultural identities lack the ethical significance claimed for them and their invocation is in many ways politically pernicious."--Back cover. |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (vi, 202 pages) |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 0748630236 9780748630233 |