In this short audio interview, Professor Lawrence Wilde elaborates on possible paths for a radical humanist ethic and discusses the concept of global solidarity. We had the chance to meet Lawrence Wilde at the occasion of his talk as part of the Sociology Seminar series at the University of Glasgow.


Lawrence Wilde is Emeritus Professor of Political Theory at Nottingham Trent University. He has published widely in the area of Marxism and Ethics, focusing especially on the concept of solidarity. Last year, he published a book on Global Solidarity and he is currently working on a book on Thomas More’s Utopia.

 

You can listen to the interview here.

 

Abstract

Habermas once described solidarity as the ‘reverse side’ of justice, meaning that while justice required rules, principles and procedures, it also required social solidarity as a prerequisite for its achievement and sustenance. The normative goal of global solidarity envisages the achievement of justice on a global scale, and argues that the explicit ethical commitment is needed to apply the necessary pressure to overcome the social divisions that beset the global community. Radical humanism offers one such ethic. Drawing on the work of Marx and Fromm, it presents a form of virtue ethics based on a strong conception of human essence and human flourishing, in which the key potentials of rationality, compassion, productiveness, and cooperation are advocated as paths to solidarity to be developed by both individuals and societies. As an ethic, this radical humanism offers an alternative global imaginary to the free market fundamentalism of neoliberalism, the major ideological enemy of the principle of solidarity.

First published: 19 March 2014

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