Preproceedings 2006 - Austrian Ludwig Wittgenstein Society

Against cultural identity: a family resemblance perspective on intercultural relations - Marina Sbisà
basis of the rights of their individual members (as I
claim in Sbisà 1999): in fact, the aspects of a
person's cultural identity that presuppose
participation in certain forms of associated life can
be preserved and developed only if these forms of
associated life are preserved.
(3) Increase in conflictuality. Defensive attitudes,
causing increase in conflictuality, can be
appropriately prevented by the adoption of the
attitudes described above as regards individual
cultural identities and the rights of individuals to
develop them (of course, in ways compatible with
the wider social framework in which they live: see
Kymlicka 1995 on "polyethnic" rights). In particular,
the family resemblance perspective debunks the
search, both misleading and dangerous, for "pure"
cultural identities, while saving or even sharpening
sensitivity to differences.
References
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Meaning and understanding, Oxford: Blackwell.
Bambrough, Renford 1961, "Universals and family resemblances",
Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 61, 207-222.
Kymlicka, Will 1995, Multicultural citizenship, Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Nicholson, Linda 1994 "Interpreting gender", Signs: Journal of
Women in Culture and Society, 20, 1994, 79-105.
Rosch, Eleanor and Mervis, Carolyn 1975 "Family resemblances:
studies in the internal structure of categories", Cognitive
Psychology 7, 573-605.
Sbisà, Marina 1999 "The ideal of perfect delimitation versus the
reality of family resemblances", in: Bozidar Jaksic (ed.),
Tolerancija, Beograd, Republika, 1999, pp. 53-63.
Sbisà, Marina and Vascotto, Patrizia 2001 "L'immagine dell'altro:
consapevolezza delle differenze linguistiche in ragazzi italiani e
sloveni della provincia di Trieste", in: P. Cordin, R. Franceschini
and G. Held (eds.) Lingue di confine, confini di fenomeni
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Phänomenen. Atti dell'VIII Incontro italo austriaco dei linguisti,
Roma: Bulzoni, 161-177.
Travis, Charles 1989, The Uses of Sense, Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Wittgenstein, Ludwig 1953, Philosophische Untersuchungen, ed.
by G.E.M. Anscombe and R. Rhees, with English translation,
Oxford: Blackwell.
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