Sympathy as a foundation of multicultural society : a dialogue with Adam Smith

Includes bibliographical references (pages 293-308) and index.

If legal norms and the ascription of rights are to achieve their purposes, they must receive public support. What, then, can provide the foundation for a sense of belonging, and make a reality of legal equality in a multicultural society? How can a sense of belonging to the society as a whole be achieved among all of its members? Ishimatsu's answer is sympathy understood as ‘fellow-feeling'. The absence of this social sentiment as thoroughly formulated by Adam Smith in the eighteenth century is a cause of problems in contemporary multicultural society. Sympathy, which takes the form of a moderate sentiment towards others, is needed to cement a multicultural society and make possible the full realisation of its legal and official goals. [Publisher's text]

Adam Smith (1723-1790).

H. Ishimatsu teaches at the International Centre of the Iwate University (Japan).