Will Kymlicka

Will Kymlicka is a Canadian political philosopher at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He is best known for arguing that liberalism, properly understood, supports special rights for minority cultures. In Multicultural Citizenship he distinguishes national minorities, such as indigenous peoples, from immigrant groups and argues that each can claim different kinds of group-differentiated rights. His textbook Contemporary Political Philosophy is widely used, and with Sue Donaldson he has extended political theory to animals in Zoopolis.

Key ideas

• Individual freedom depends on access to a 'societal culture' that gives people meaningful options.
• Liberal states can grant group-differentiated rights to minorities without abandoning liberal principles.
• National minorities may claim self-government rights, while immigrant groups more often claim polyethnic rights that ease integration.
• External protections for minority groups are compatible with liberalism, but internal restrictions on members' liberty are not.
• Domesticated animals can be seen as members of the political community, with rights of citizenship.

Major works

• Multicultural Citizenship (1995)
• Liberalism, Community, and Culture (1989)
• Contemporary Political Philosophy (1990)
• Politics in the Vernacular (2001)
• Zoopolis (2011)

In the Book corner

• Multicultural Citizenship 1995 · Intermediate
  A treatise, subtitled A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights, arguing that a liberal state can and sometimes must grant group-differentiated rights to…

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