“How do we get one group of people to ‘count’ to another group of people? Not, thought the philosopher Richard Rorty, by relying upon Kant and telling them they are being ‘irrational.’ He thought solidarity was rather ‘an inclination of the heart,’ grounded in nothing but contingent emotional identification. Solidarity can be embedded, or not, in the contingent cultural practices of a society but can’t be proven ‘right’ or ‘true.’ He thought a human-rights culture “no more needs a philosophical foundation than does a recommendation to take an aspirin if you think you’re coming down with a migraine.” Rather, it needs culturally shaped intuitions and practices, for it is from these that we get our sense of shared moral identity, not the philosophers.”

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