Part 1 – “The doctrine of pluralism became important against the notion of the melting pot,” says Richard Bernstein, a professor of philosophy at The New School. Developing in America as a reaction to forms of ethno-cultural monism that emerged during the great immigration waves, the doctrine of pluralism stands in opposition to a conception of “American” identity modelled on the figure of the white Anglo-Saxon protestant. Professor Bernstein, interviewed during the Istanbul Seminars, argues that democracy encourages recognition of cultural differences in sort of ‘overlapping unity.’ – Watch Part 2 of this video