Multiculturalism is of special interest to social epistemology because it escapes the usual philosophical and sociological conceptions of knowledge. Multiculturalism is more than simply the recognition that there are distinct cultures, which would amount to little more than a “separate but equal” doctrine for the human condition. It further implies that these cultures stand in certain relationships to each other that may change as those relationships unfold in time and space. The epitome of this critical sense of multiculturalism is the political and legal debate surrounding affirmative action. (See epistemic justice.)

From a strictly historical standpoint, humanity has had little trouble tolerating the coexistence of diverse practices in one place, as well as the movement of people between places. Yet, our taken-for-granted notions of “culture” presuppose that such fluidity in the human condition is aberrant, if not pathological. Rootedness is presumed to be the norm. But this is to get matters exactly backwards. It is only by heightening levels of societal scrutiny and accountability – via capitalist expansion, on the one hand, and nationalist reaction, on the other – that the demand was created for people to behave uniformly over space in one time (universalism) and over time in one space (relativism). Double-entry bookkeeping and mandatory grammar classes symbolize this dual intensification. Such complementary demands had been salient during the period of European global hegemony, roughly, from 1760 to 1960, but are declining in importance in the twenty-first century.