Anti-Foundationalism, Deliberative Democracy, and Universal Human Rights

In this paper I shall argue that an approach to liberalism that combines and anti-foundationalist epistemology and a deliberative democratic stance enables us to alleviate the tensions between the universalistic claims of Human Rights and the particularistic claims to autonomy coming from different cultural, ethnic, religious or linguistic groups, which are exacerbating as a consequence of the processes of global integration and fragmentation. It thus enables us to trace a multicultural path to cosmopolitan democracy. Before being able to appreciate the desirability of antifoundationalist deliberative liberal democracy I need, however, to illustrate both the viability of an anti-foundationalist conception of knowledge that rejects the possibility to give absolute foundations to our norms and practices and the normative framework of the liberal democratic outlook that is here put forward. The paper will deal first with the viability issue by giving a sketch of what I consider to be the most plausible conception of normativity, and defending it from the criticisms of epistemological and political unviability. I shall then turn briefly to describe the main traits of the political outlook which I favour, deliberative liberal democracy, and highlight its virtuous relationship with an anti-foundationalist epistemology. We will thus be able to understand why I maintain that an anti-foundationalist deliberative democratic approach to liberalism can help us accommodating the growing cultural clashes associated with contemporary pattern of globalization and in particular the tensions between universal Human Rights and cultural diversity. +