James Hamilton Tully (; born 1946) is a Canadian philosopher who is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Law, Indigenous Governance and Philosophy at the University of Victoria, Canada. Tully is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and emeritus Fellow of the Trudeau Foundation."Bio" , James Tully, Emeritus Faculty, University of Victoria. Retrieved 18 November 2014.

In May 2014, he was awarded the University of Victoria's David H. Turpin Award for Career Achievement in Research."2014 Recipients" , Craigdarroch Awards, University of Victoria. Retrieved on 18 November 2014. In 2010, he was awarded the prestigious Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Prize and the Thousand Waves Peacemaker Award"Killam Prize awarded to people’s advocate", The Ring, University of Victoria Retrieved on 18 November 2014. in recognition of his distinguished career and exceptional contributions to Canadian scholarship and public life. Also in 2010, he was awarded the C. B. Macpherson Prize"Excerpt from the jury report: James Tully’s two-volume work argues for the democratically engaged role of public philosophy. A new, fresh and clear synthesis of his previous work on the history of Western political thought, colonialism and post-colonialism, modern constitutionalism, and indigenous peoples, Tully’s book advances an inspiring project that stresses the need for public philosophy to enter into dialogue with citizens engaged in struggles against various forms of injustice and oppression. Public philosophy can throw a critical light on the field of practices in which civic struggles take place and the practices of civic freedom available to change them. The focus upon relationships of normativity and power, and the need to bring them into the light of public scrutiny thanks to the particular academic skills available to the researchers, make public philosophy 'in a new key' distinctively democratic. The breadth and depth of the work, combined with Tully’s focus on civic freedom and the possibility of the reciprocal elucidation of academic work and citizens' democratic struggles, make it a major and truly inspiring contribution to contemporary political theory," from "C.B. Macpherson Prize, 2010, James Tully" Canadian Political Science Association. Retrieved on 1 December 2014. by the Canadian Political Science Association for the "best book in political theory written in English or French" in Canada 2008–10 for his 2008 two-volume Public Philosophy in a New Key. He completed his doctorate at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom and now teaches at the University of Victoria.

His research and teaching comprise a public philosophy that is grounded in place (Canada) yet reaches out to the world of civic engagement with the problems of our time. He does this in ways that strive to contribute to dialogue between academics and citizens. For example, his research areas include the Canadian experience of coping with the deep diversity of multicultural and multinational citizenship; relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous people; and the emergence of citizenship of the living earth as the ground of sustainable futures.Paraphrased from James Tully, “Faces of UVic Research: James Tully”, University of Victoria.

Biography

James Tully was one of the four general editors of the Cambridge University Press Ideas in Context Series. He first gained his reputation for his scholarship on the political philosophy of John Locke, and has written on constitutionalism, diversity, indigenous politics, recognition theory, multiculturalism, and imperialism. He was special advisor to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1991–1995). Over his career, Tully has held positions at Cambridge University, Oxford University, McGill University, University of Toronto, and the University of Victoria.

After completing his PhD at Cambridge University and his undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, he taught in the departments of Philosophy and Political Science at McGill University 1977–1996. He was Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Victoria 1996–2001. In 2001–2003 he was the inaugural Henry N.R. Jackman Distinguished Professor in Philosophical Studies at the University of Toronto in the departments of Philosophy and Political Science, and in the Faculty of Law. Tully claims to have enjoyed his time at the University of Toronto, but preferred the open atmosphere and climate in British Columbia. He eventually returned to the University of Victoria in 2003, where he is now the Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Law, Indigenous Governance and Philosophy.

Political philosophy

Renewing and transforming public philosophy

Tully's approach to the study and teaching of politics is a form of historical and critical reflection on problems of political practice in the present. It is an attempt to renew and transform the tradition of public philosophy so it can effectively address the pressing political problems of our age in a genuinely democratic way. It does this by means of a dual dialogue of reciprocal and mutual learning among equals: between academics in different disciplines addressing the same problems (multidisciplinary); and between academics and citizens addressing the problems and struggles on the ground by their own ways of knowing and doing (democratic). The aim is to throw critical light on contemporary political problems by means of studies that free us to some extent from hegemonic ways of thinking and acting politically, enabling us to test their limits and to see and consider the concrete possibilities of thinking and acting differently.James Tully, "Public Philosophy and civic freedom: a guide to the two volumes," Public Philosophy in a New Key, Volume I: Democracy and Civic Freedom, and Volume II: Imperialism and Civic Freedom (Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 1–11 (both volumes). For more detail, see Public Philosophy I: Part I: Approaching Practice, pp. 13–132.

The politics of cultural recognition

Tully's 1995, Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity engages with the famous indigenous sculpture Spirit of Haida Gwaii by Bill Reid as a metaphor for the kind of democratic constitutionalism that can help reconcile the competing claims of multicultural and multinational societies."The spirit of Haida Gwaii, I would now like you to imagine, can be seen as just such a constitutional dialogue, or multilogue, of mutual recognition," Tully, Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in an Age of Diversity (Cambridge University Press, 2004 ), p. 24. The 'strange multiplicity' of cultural diversity is embodied in the varied and assorted canoe passengers "squabbling and vying for recognition and position.""The passengers are squabbling and vying for recognition and position each in their culturally distinct way. They are exchanging their diverse stories and claims as the chief appears to listen attentively to each, hoping to guide them to reach an agreement, without imposing a metalanguage or allowing any speaker to set the terms of the discussion. The chief’s subjection to the rule of mutual recognition is symbolised by the crests of the crew's nations and families carved in the speaker's staff," Tully, Strange Multiplicity, p. 24. There is no universal constitutional order imposed from above nor a single category of citizenship, because identities and relations change over time."Since recognition is never definitive, the particular constitutional arrangement of the members of the canoe is presumably not meant to be fixed once and for all. Constitutional recognition and association change over time, as the canoe progresses and the members change in various ways. A constitution is more like an endless series of contracts and agreements, reached by periodical intercultural dialogues, rather than an original contract in the distant past, an ideal speech-situation today, or a mythic unity of the community in liberal and nationalist constitutionalism," Tully, Strange Multiplicity, p. 26. This view rejects the "mythic unity of the community" imagined "in liberal and nationalist constitutionalism."Tully, Strange Multiplicity, p. 26. The critique of modern, presumptively 'universal' conceptions of citizenship are developed in Tully, Public Philosophy I & II.

Tully argues that the concept of 'culture' is more flexible and constructive for thinking about the rival claims of political groups than the more rigid and exclusive concept 'nation.'"The consequence of national and liberal constitutions, which have been the dominant forms over the last three hundred years, is precisely the contemporary resistance and demands for recognition of the members whose cultures have been excluded, assimilated or exterminated. A just form of constitution must begin with the full mutual recognition of the different cultures of its citizens," Tully, Strange Multiplicity, pp. 7–8. Culture more readily suggests that group identities are plural, overlapping, and changing over time in their encounters with others. Unlike nationalism, the politics of cultural recognition does not assume that every group aspires to its own culturally homogenous 'nation-state.'"Although this has been the dominant form of constitutional recognition since the seventeenth century, it cannot be simply extended to the demands for cultural recognition today," Tully, Strange Multiplicity, p. 8. Rather, cultures must find ways to share spaces and co-exist. While they may always strive to determine their own identities and relations, pursuant to "self rule, the oldest political good in the world,"Tully, Strange Multiplicity, p. 5. the solution is not to crack down on diversity or to impose one cultural model over others.