Spongia: Philosophy Blog EUR

In chapter five van Parijs discusses (and defends) the (according to him) most important strategy to secure linguistic justice as parity of esteem: a `territorially differentiated coercive regime’ (p. 133). The main structure of his argument is the following (discussed in greater detail in the paragraphs below): after defining territorially differentiated coercive language regimes (5.1), he discusses three main arguments (5.3-5.5) to justify these (as well as two justificatory lines which are problematic (5.2) or misleading (5.7)). The rest of the chapter is dedicated to the discussion of possible problems (and their solutions) of territorial regimes linguistically heterogenous territories (5.9-5.14).

(In my opinion) the main claim of this chapter is the following:

 “the requirement of justice as parity of esteem can justify and guide the coercive territorial protection of languages. [in so far as] [w]hat matters is not that each language should be protected, but that each linguistic community should have the right to opt for such a protection providing it is willing [and able] to shoulder the fair net cost” (p. 171).

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After having discussed linguistic justice from the perspective of cooperative justice (ch. 2) and distributive justice (ch. 3), Van Parijs takes up the question of linguistic justice qua ‘parity of esteem’. The question dealt with in chapter four is to what extent the spreading of a lingua franca causes injustices which cannot adequately analyzed and remediated in terms of either fair cooperation or equal opportunity.

Chapter four departs from the idea that a just society is not only one whose institutions organize cooperation and distribute opportunities in a fair way, but also one in which members are treated with equal respect. That is, a just society is one in which people are not stigmatized, despised, disparaged or humiliated by virtue of (certain aspects) of their (collective) identities. Van Parijs claims that this dimension of justice is commonly ignored in theories of distributive justice (including his own conception) and that his reflection on linguistic justice in fact forced him to accommodate justice qua parity of esteem (p.117).

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After having discussed linguistic justice from the perspective of cooperative justice in chapter 2 – resulting in a proposal for ‘compensatory free-riding’ – Van Parijs  goes on discussing the second interpretation of linguistic justice: linguistic (in)justice qua distributive justice. More specifically, Van Parijs discusses linguistic justice from the perspective of his preferred version of global ‘luck’ egalitarianism (which is both responsibility and efficiency sensitive (p. 87-88)). The question the chapter addresses is to what extent justice as ‘real freedom for all’ requires redistribution in matters of linguistic injustice.

The structure of the third chapter is similar to the second chapter. First, Van Parijs argues to what extent the spread of a lingua franca causes injustice. Second, he discusses several ways a liberal egalitarian might remediate these injustices. Third, he argues for his preferred approach to remediation and ends with a (controversial) policy proposal. I will briefly discuss these steps and end with a ‘critical’ comment.
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