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…