Abstract
Richard Rorty holds that the novel is the characteristic genre of democracy, because it helps people to develop and to stabilize two crucial capabilities the ideal inhabitants of democratic societies should possess: a keen sense for anti-foundationalism and a disposition for solidarity. He believes that novels help develop these capabilities by educating our capacity for criticism and our capacity for attentive-empathetic perception. This article argues in favor of this Rortyan idea, showing how anti-foundationalism and solidarity can be seen as important instances of what I will call 'dispositions for democratic citizenship' and that art (and not only novels) and its reception, are valuable tools for advancing these dispositions. However, as the Rortyan public-private dichotomy assigns art’s function of criticism only to the private sphere, Rorty ignores its potential for stimulating democratic public deliberation and he misses the fact that art’s functions of criticism and of attentive-empathetic perception partially depend on each other if they are effectively to lead to increased solidarity and change social realities. Thus this article argues—taking these objections into account—to slightly modify, but nevertheless value Rorty’s idea that art and its reception are crucial resources for democratic citizenship and for the process of democratic deliberation.
Highlights
Richard Rorty argues that the novel is “most closely associated with the struggle for freedom and equality” and is the primary instrument of moral reflection in a democratic society [1]
Rorty emphasizes that democracy is necessarily linked to the plurality and contingency of human perspectives, and as great novels inherently display this pluralism and contingency, they are for him the primary instruments for influencing—what one could call—the ‘political psychology’ of individuals so that they might be educated to act democratically, that is for Rorty to aspire towards freedom, equality and a form of loyalty to other human beings
This is that shifting the focus of political theory away from a preoccupation with aloof attempts to obtain a set of universal truths about politics towards the idea of redescription as political intervention makes political reflection much more effective in terms of shaping or reinforcing the individual’s preferences for equality, freedom and other ideals and institutions that are relevant for democracies
Summary
Richard Rorty argues that the novel is “most closely associated with the struggle for freedom and equality” and is the primary instrument of moral reflection in a democratic society [1]. In order to understand why Rorty believes that novels and narratives in general are the primary instruments for building up an individual’s capacities and motivation to think and act in accordance to the ideals of democracy, we have to take into account his meta-philosophical conviction This is that shifting the focus of political theory away from a preoccupation with aloof attempts to obtain a set of universal truths about politics towards the idea of redescription as political intervention makes political reflection much more effective in terms of shaping or reinforcing the individual’s preferences for equality, freedom and other ideals and institutions that are relevant for democracies. Account—to slightly modify, but value Rorty’s idea that art and its reception are crucial resources for democratic citizenship and for the process of democratic deliberation
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