Liberdade e identidade: uma abordagem filosófica acerca da proteção à diversidade cultural nas democracias liberais

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the concepts of freedom and identity through the proposal for a "cultural liberalism" presented by Canadian philosopher Will Kymlicka, as advocated in his works Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights (1995), Politics in the Vernacular: Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Citizenship (2001) and Multicultural Odysseys. Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity (2007). Through these readings, it sought to understand specifically how language and territory are set as defining elements of the cultures of national and ethnic groups that commit their struggles to ensure the permanence of these attributes, both domestically and internationally in order to ensure the uniqueness of their livelihoods and their visions of the world, as differentiated groups. In order to do that, it became essential to make a critical analysis of the process of nation building in modern States, such as a project undertaken by numerous liberal countries in the modernity to promote national unity, through the invisibility of the cultural expressions and the political participation of minority peoples. In the end, it develops a small reflection on how this debate can contribute to a better understanding of the demands of indigenous peoples and remaining communities of quilombos in Brazil for the regularization of their territories and recognition of their cultural practices.