Overlapping Consensus: A Model for Moral Education and Moral Deliberation in Pluralistic Societies Thomas A. Welch, MCS Department of Integrated Studies in Education McGill University, Montreal June, 2005 A dissertation submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Culture and Values in Education ©Thomas A. 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The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. ln compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privée, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont été enlevés de cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. ••• Canada 2 CONTENTS 2 Abstract 4 Résumé 5 Introduction 6 Acknowledgments 9 1. The Moral Challenge ofPluralism 10 1.1 Multicultural Challenge 13 1.2 Values Clarification 19 1.3 Moral Reasoning 21 1.4 Just Community 25 1.5 Pluralism in Multicultural Context 27 1.6 Multiculturalism and Morality: Five Models 31 1.7 Narrative Approach 36 2. Overla.Q.Qing Consensus - Possibility for Moral Education and Moral Deliberation 40 2.1 Rawls's Political Conception of Justice Clarified 40 2.2 Overlapping Consensus 47 2.3 Conversation and Consensus 56 2.4 Political Liberalism and !ts Justification 58 2.5 Rawls's Comprehensive Foundations 60 2.6 Abolitionist Consensus in Britain 65 2.7 Areas of Overlap 69 2.8 Political Conception of the Abolitionists 71 2.9 Implications for Moral Education and Moral Deliberation 73 3. Multicultural Narratives - A Vehicle for Enhancing Overla.Q.Qing Consensus 78 3.1 Personal and Emotional Component of Moral Reasoning 79 3.2 Narrative Moral Exemplars 81 3.3 Dickens's Narrative Philosophy 83 3.4 Multicultural Narrative Consensus 88 4 Narrative and Moral Perce.Qtion 96 4.1 Moral Perception 96 4.2 Perceptive Equilibrium: Role of Novel 97 4.3 Nussbaum's Perception: A Problem 111 4.4 Overcoming Dominance 120 5. Recognition as the Moral Prereguisite for Multicultural Eguality in Public S.Qeech 126 5.1 The Multicultural Approach 131 5.2 The Cross Fertilization of Cultures 133 5.3 Against Ethnocentrism of An Kinds 138 3 6. Traditional Councils - A Structure for the Facilitating of Overlapping Consensus 141 6.1 Assemblies and Councils 142 6.2 Councils: A Foundation for Democracy 144 6.3 North American Democratie Traditions 145 6.4 Discursive Democracy 152 6.5 Conclusions 157 References 159 4 Abstract Pluralism, the variety of philosophical, moral, cultural and religious worldviews of contemporary society, is a characteristic of Western democracies. This places upon such societies a great challenge for the teaching of moral princip les in schools and for the establishment of such principles in the public sphere. John Rawls's political idea of an overlapping consensus is a princip le of decision-making that can be used as a model for arriving at princip les for moral education and also as a model for moral deliberation in the public domain. Multicultural narratives can play an important role in enhancing the creation of an overlapping consensus on public moral issues in pluralistic societies. They can be examples ofthe kinds of challenges involved in the moral decision process and also serve to illustrate the importance of moral perception as a complement to moral reflection in the task ofmoral de1iberation. Teaching the multicultural nature of modern civilization and also the univers al incidence of the democratic council tradition can strengthen citizens' sense of mutual respect in the course of public speech. This can help to develop a culture that is more open to the formation of an overlapping consensus on matters that concem public morality. 5 Résumé Le pluralisme dans sa diversité philosophique, morale, culturelle et religieuse est aujourd'hui la caractéristique des démocraties occidentales. Cela présente pour celles-ci un défi quant à l'enseignement des principes moraux à l'école et à la mise en œuvre de tels principes dans la sphère publique. L'idée avancée par John Rawls d'un consensus de recoupement au plan politique offre une méthode de prise de décision pouvant être utilisée comme modèle autant pour dégager des principes d'éducation morale que pour la délibération morale dans le domaine public. Les récits narratifs multiculturels peuvent jouer un rôle important dans la création d'un consensus de recoupement concernant des questions de moralité publique dans les sociétés pluralistes. Ils peuvent fournir des exemples du genre de défis impliqués dans la prise de décision morale et ainsi illustrer l'importance de la perception morale en tant que complément à la réflexion morale dans les tâches de délibération. L'enseignement sur la nature multiculturelle de la civilisation moderne ainsi que l'incidence universelle de la tradition démocratique de délibération peut accroître chez les citoyens dans la dynamique du discours public. Cela peut contribuer au développement d'une culture plus ouverte à la formation d'un consensus de recoupement en ce qui concerne des questions relevant de la moralité publique. 6 Introduction This study seeks to make a contribution to the disciplines of moral philosophy, moral education and the field of democratic practice by applying John Rawls's political idea of an overlapping consensus to the practice of moral education and public moral deliberation in pluralistic societies (Rawls, 1996: 133-172). When we consider the terrible, globallegacy that contesting political, religious, cultural and moral doctrines have left us, it is important for us to appreciate the need for the concept of consensus to be a part of our lives. In my own personallife 1 have been presented with the value of this. My early years in Guyana were those of a Black Christian living in the village of La Penitence, Demerara. My friends and neighbours in La Penitence were mostly, but not entirely, Muslim and Hindu East Indians. My next-door neighbours and friends east of us were Chinese. A few houses to the east of them lived a devout Hindu pundit and as a child 1 attended a kindergarten school that was located on the premises of a Hindu Temple. Observing Hindu religious devotions and inspecting photographs ofHindu deities were part ofmy daily kindergarten life. Later, during my early primary school years, 1 studied Islam and Urdu with my next-door, boyhood, Muslim friends who lived west ofus, when the Imam came to their home to give them their religious lessons. My mother told me that as a child she used to leam Hindi. St. Stephen's Church of Scotland School was my elementary school. Both at elementary and high school, my c1assmates were not only Black and East Indian, but also Chinese, Amerindian, White and various mixtures of all - almost all bom in Guyana to Guyanese parents. Trinidad and Tobago, the country ofmy birth, with which 1 later became familiar, was similar to Guyana in its ethnie and religious composition. During my teens, when Guyana became racially violent, my family migrated to Grenada and 1 7 eventually had the experience of living through part of the 1979 Marxist revolution that occurred there. In addition to all ofthis, my younger years, the sixties and the seventies, were the years of the independence movements in the Caribbean. High schools in the sixties were fora for stimulating debates on the history and politics of the Caribbean region. My previous training is in the field of theology. My master' s thesis was entitled, The raIe ofscripture in the cause of british west indian emancipation. It was a study in the development of antislavery biblical theology from 1671 to 1824, and its influence upon Britain and upon the British West Indian slave plantation society. In the summer of 1986, my interest in moral issues led me to participate in a study session of the International Institute of Human Rights, University of Strasbourg, France. These are a few of the experiences that influenced me from an early age, right up to the present, to be concerned about issues of morality in pluralistic societies. This study is a reflection of that concern and it therefore seeks to construct a path for moral education and moral deliberation that respects the reality of pluralism.