| This thesis explores the meaning and educational implications of respect in liberal multicultural democracies. Significantly, I examine respect from a philosophical perspective as a civic virtue, and hence as a central aim of civic education.;Throughout the thesis, philosophical analysis is supplemented by illustrative suggestions for incorporating the teaching of respect within civic educational practice.;I examine and critically evaluate a conception of respect as tolerance, which I argue is deficient for advancing the civic educational purposes central to liberal democracy. As an alternative, I outline and defend a conception of respect as recognition, which I argue remedies the main deficiencies of respect as tolerance. More specifically, I argue that respect as recognition plays an important role in establishing a sense of common membership and belonging in a shared community, necessary for social and political stability in a society characterized by ethical and cultural diversity. I conclude with a brief examination of the conceptual relationship between respect and the notion of dignity. |
