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Dinesh

Dinesh club

Posted: 09 Apr 2020

Taken: 09 Apr 2020

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Richard Rorty •

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I take Orwell’s claim that there is no such thing as ‘inner’ freedom, no such thing as an “autonomous individual,” to be the one made by historicist, including Marxist, critics of “liberal individualism”. This is that there is nothing deep inside each of us, no common human nature, no built-in human solidarity, to use as moral reference point. There is nothing to people except what has been socialized into them -- their ability to use language, and thereby to exchange beliefs and desires with other people. Orwell reiterated this point when he said, “To abolish class distinctions means abolishing a part of yourself,” and when he added that if he himself were to “get outside the class racket” he would “hardly be recognizable as the same person.” To be a person is to speak a ‘particular’ language, one which enables us to discuss particular beliefs and desires with particular sorts of people. It is a historical contingency whether we are socialized by Neanderthals, ancient Chinese, Eton, Summerhill, or the Ministry of Truth. Simply by being human we do not have a common bond. For all we share with all other humans is to same thing we share with ll other animals -- the ability to feel pain. ~ Page 177
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