A Study On Richard Rorty's Thought On Solidarit

Solidarity is the core concept of Rorty’s political philosophy and the cause that Rorty has been concerned about all his life.For Rorty,what mattered was human solidarity,not knowledge of non-human things;Solidarity is the last utopia of mankind,and the greatest achievement of mankind lies in the achievement of fully democratic and fully secular human solidarity.Therefore,promoting human solidarity and reducing human suffering and strife became the highest ideal of Rorty’s political philosophy.Rorty’s understanding of solidarity has a deep background.The formation of his solidarity thought was not only influenced by his specific personal life environment and American social background,but also influenced by the revival of political philosophy and the debate between liberalism and communitarianism.At the same time,it also fully absorbed the ideological resources of the predecessors such as Hume,Berlin,Gadamer and Sellars.Rorty believes that solidarity should win the corresponding territory from objectivity.Solidarity is a cooperative activity of public participation.Solidarity is the loyalty to a certain large community.It comes from people’s recognition of the particularity and diversity of human existence.People’s concern for solidarity is closely related to their own interests.The construction of solidarity requires the distinction between public and private matters,while sticking to the basic stand of ironic ethnocentrism.Solidarity also requires us to recognize that cruelty is the greatest enemy of solidarity,and that the main path to reducing cruelty(harm and suffering)lies in gradual social transformation.In Rorty’s utopian vision,the ideal of human solidarity that harm will stop and suffering will be reduced will be born out of human’s recognition,study and reflection of history.The ultimate ideal of solidarity(human solidarity)can only be realized if people first embrace the utopian narratives that connect the past,present and future.Echoing the Minimalist liberalism,Rorty’s solidarity thought is generally characterized by banality.This banal view of solidarity asserts that the argument is justified by society rather than by the characteristics of internal representations expressed by people.This made Rorty often accused of being a cultural relativist and a conservative in defence of reality.However,this accusation is to misunderstand Rorty’s ironic ethnocentrism.Compared with this misunderstanding,Rorty’s attitude of partially diluting and beautifying past events may have really damaged the construction of his ideal of solidarity.On the negative side,such an attitude can lead to ambiguity in the demarcation of responsibilities between people.