Abstract
The Greek philosopher Plato believed in the existence of a parallel world which he called the world of Ideas. This world represented true knowledge with the help of concepts called ?the Ideas'. Each Idea corresponded to something that existed in the world that we experienced, also called ?the world of senses'. There were the Ideas of Good, Beauty, and Justice among others. The Ideas never changed, unlike our world of senses. They would exist forever and would always be the only truths in existence. The world of senses was in fact just the shadow of the world of Ideas, and it was the duty of men to try to be as close as possible to the Ideas. Today's world has changed a lot in the past few years and it is not rare to have different cultures living side by side in the same territory in developed countries. This new shape of society is thus characterized by the diversity of backgrounds, religions, traditions, and beliefs. Is it then possible to apply what one might call the Idea of Justice, or a universal conception of justice? The differences are numerous and give birth to multiculturalism. Multiculturalism is the belief that several different cultures (rather than one national culture) can co-exist peacefully and equitably in one single country. The question that arises is if such co-existence is possible in reality. Can several different cultures obey to the same laws and be granted the same rights? Does multiculturalism undermine the universal conceptions of justice? To what extent are universal conceptions of justice compatible with multiculturalism in light of the act that different cultures have different values and that some even have different notions of what is right or wrong?
