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- Title
A Theoretical Appreciation of the Ethic of Solidarity in Poland Twenty-Five Years After.
- Authors
Beyer, Gerald J.
- Abstract
The remarkable movement known as "Solidarity" recently celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in Poland. This essay provides a theoretical appreciation of the values and principles that guided and undergirded the movement, which greatly contributed to the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe. This systematic overview of the ethic of the "Solidarity" movement fills a lacuna in the field of ethics because ethicists who are interested in the concept of solidarity have largely overlooked the Polish experience of the 1980s. This essay attempts to describe the key ingredients of the Polish ethic of solidarity by analyzing both Polish treatises on the subject and accounts of events on the ground. It elaborates conceptual categories and describes characteristic features of the movement in order to provide a phenomenological account of the nature of solidarity embodied in Poland during this era. These categories and characteristics include unity among differences, the foundation of hope at the movement's roots, self-sacrifice and heroism, promoting the equality and dignity of all, the centrality of participation, the affirmation of "bread and freedom," an option for the poor, and the insistence on life in truth. Although this essay does not attempt to demonstrate the relevance of this "thick" ethic of solidarity to capitalist, democratic societies today, by way of conclusion it raises questions pertaining to the contemporary significance of the Polish ethic of solidarity.
- Subjects
POLAND; SOLIDARITY; TISCHNER, Jozef; HUMAN rights; CHRISTIANITY; ETHICS
- Publication
Journal of Religious Ethics, 2007, Vol 35, Issue 2, p207
- ISSN
0384-9694
- Publication type
Essay
- DOI
10.1111/j.1467-9795.2007.00304.x