Solidarity, the Public Sphere and Civil Society

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Solidarity, the Public Sphere and Civil Society

• From the Perspective of Karol Wojtylas Theory of
  Participation

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in solidum obligare

• Roman legal tradition
• of exacting a collective obligation

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In his encyclical Letter Solicitudo Rei Socialis,
Pope JPII refers to solidarity as a virtue,

• not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow
  distress at the misfortunes of so many people,
  both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm
  and persevering determination to commit oneself
  to the common good that is to say to the good of
  all and of each individual, because we are all
  really responsible for all (p OSC 71).

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Hannah Arendt on Solidarity

• the capacity to suffer with the immense class
  of the poor, accompanied by the will to raise
  compassion to the rank of the supreme political
  passion and of the highest political virtue. (OR
  75).

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For Karol Wojtyla,

• Solidarity means the continuous readiness to
  accept and perform that part of a task which is
  imposed due to ones participation as member of
  a specific community (TPP 47).

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Solidarity and opposition

• Oppositionists are merely searching for
  participation and such a definition of the common
  good that would permit them to participate more
  fully and effectively in the community.
  (WojtylaTPP )
• (kaaway, kabangga, kalaban, katalo, etc).

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Wojtyla on Alienation

• The root of alienation of human beings by human
  beings is contained in the subject, lack of
  closeness, and the relevant assimilation of
  people in humanity as the basic community. (TPP
  56)

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The Public Sphere

• Ancient Greek distinction between
• Oikos and Polis

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Contemporary public spheres

• communications and information technologies are
  providing new opportunities for new forms of
  public spheres.
• Video, fax and cellular phones

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Civil Society

• organizes the citizenry to assert itself in
  pushing for land reform, health, environmental
  protection and the solution to other problems
  which weigh heavily on the people (Carrol)

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Dual function of civil society

• transforming political and economic systems on
  the one hand,
• and of poverty alleviation and peoples
  empowerment, on the other hand.
• Their solidarity with the aspirations of the
  marginalized sectors, after all, is the
  inspiration that fuels the dynamism of the
  members of civil society.

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Participation from the margins to the center

• Unlike Solidary social movements that move from
  the center to the periphery, or of Civil society
  that mediates the interests of the mainstream
  sectors and that of the marginalized, the tide of
  participation moves from the margins towards the
  center

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Arendt, Hegel and Wojtyla converge on the
politics of recognition

• Hannah Arendt (whom you will encounter
  tomorrow) once remarked that darkness rather
  than want is the curse of poverty (OR 69).
  Human self-consciousness, Hegel likewise says,
  exists only in being acknowledged. (PS 111).
  Karol Wojtyla rejoins Arendt and Hegel when he
  defines participation in terms of turning toward
  another self on the basis of personal
  transcendence, toward the fullness of truth of
  this other person, toward humanity, one might
  say (TPP 28) Participation confirms the
  self and permits the individual to unfold. (29).

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Wojtylas norm for human development

• It is mandatory that in structuring human
  coexistence and cooperation on various levels and
  on the basis of a variety of ties that determine
  communities and societies the system of
  relationships identified as closeness be the
  final determinant. (56)

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