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To sum up, I want to distinguish human solidarity as the identification with "humanity as such" and as the self doubt which has gradually, over the last few centuries, been inculcated into inhabitants of the democratic states -- doubt about their own sensitivity to the pain and humiliation of others, doubt that present institutional arrangements are adequate to deal with this pain and humiliation, curiosity about possible alternatives. The identification seems to me impossible -- a philosopher's invention, an awkward attempt to secularize the idea of becoming one with God. The self-doubt seems to me the characteristic mark of the first epoch in human history in which large numbers of people have become able to separate the question. "Do you believe and desire what we believe and desire?" from the question "Are you suffering?" In my jargon, this is the ability to distinguish the question of whether you and I share the same final vocabulary from the question of whether you are in pain. Distinguishing these questions makes it possible to distinguish public from private questions, questions about pain from question about the point of human life, the domain of the liberal form the domain of the ironist. It thus makes it possible for a single person to be both. "Contingency, Irony and Solidarity" Richard Rorty

9 years ago. Edited 17 months ago.

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Powaqqatsi ~ Life in transition Powaqqatsi ~ Life in transition

Excerpts from the Books that I read - II Excerpts from the Books that I read - II

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