Abstract

My contribution is a reaction to the papers of Emanuela Ceva and Fabio Basile published in this issue of «Ragion pratica». The main question is as follows: How is it possible to give a just recognition to the minority claims grounded on a cultural basis? Assuming that culture has an existential meaning for human kind, every culture may be valuable for its members. But values can be very different from culture to culture - as Basile tells us - so that people may follow them within the limits of our constitutional rights. Member of minority groups or conscientious objectors have to justify their claims for exemptions against behaviours they feel are immoral on the grounds of fundamental rights - as Ceva teaches. Both the references to rights are good and sound: The question is now to know what they really mean in the context of a multicultural society if we seriously want to respect the culture and identity of others.