Paper's abstract

Guy Haarscher, Laïcité, secular morality and their paradoxes
This essay attempts to give a few clarifying elements of a notion often used in a confusing way. The author begins with a short presentation of the various European Laïcités, with an emphasis on the Belgian laïcité. Then he analyses the particular situation of the United States which gives birth to lots of misunderstanding on this side of the ocean. He then proceeds to the tricky issue of the "secular morality" by recalling the great debates it sparked off at the time of the laïcisation of public education and during the Third Republique. Finally he questions the very controversial Muslim headscarf, before concluding by using the Rawlsian notion of "overlapping consensus" to try and lay the basis of a laïcité levelling with our time stake.


Key Words : Belgium, USA, secular morality, Muslim headscarf
t. 48, 2004 : p.123-140