Horace Meyer Kallen crafted a political vision in which valuing the culture of others could coexist with a commitment to democratic principles. Kallen’s form of pluralism is the progenitor of the multicultural movements of the 1970s.
As an earlyto mid-twentieth-century social and political philosopher, Kallen’s scholarship was greatly informed by the American milieu of the time. Within the context of the turbulent social upheavals wrought by the massive influx of new immigrants at the turn of the nineteenth century, he defended the notion of equality among various kinds of cultural forms of life. Kallen’s definition of cultural pluralism is the seminal account, rejecting the simplistic homogeneity implied by America as a melting pot.
The dilemma of cultural pluralism in a democracy is reconciling tolerance of cultural diversity with privileging liberty, freedom, and respect for others. Kallen saw no prima facie contradiction in wholeheartedly embracing both. In his conception of the American ideal, groups are self-contained, able to both fully realize their cultural uniqueness and happily coexist with other groups. Kallen argued that given the major significance that cultural identity holds for individual meaning, it is an implicit demand of democracy that cultural identity be allowed expression. Furthermore, the definition of an American is not based on a singular identity but rather on the amalgamation that a hyphenated nationality represents.
Bibliography:
- Kallen, H. (1956). Cultural pluralism and the American idea. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
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