A brotherhood of man

To evoke fraternity (brotherhood) can be a way of describing a present situation (describing the world, ultimately), or it can be a way of "calling for" fraternity, as a goal, in some future. In any case, it is to make this concept into a positive value. This is what the French national motto does: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. To evoke fraternity, and thus, in a sense, to celebrate it.

In the first as well as in the final instance, fraternity is a magnificent concept?among other things, a secularization of Christian love...

Recently in France, we have seen a public poster campaign on the theme of fraternity. Something along the lines of: "What if we tried fraternity?" Why not.

Many philosophers have written about the idea of fraternity, including Jacques Attali, whose book Fraternities: A New Utopia seems to me admirable.

There is, from another point of view, the philosophical and political desire to transform human beings. To promote fraternity, to turn individuals into more fraternal individuals. There is, in this, a kind of authoritarianism inherent to philosophy. From a political point of view, does this not, in a certain sense, amount to seeking to "minimize" legitimate rebellion against social inequalities and ultimately against the existing order?

There is therefore the idea of fraternity (from the perspective of a possible science of ideas). We do not speak of "the idea of a house" or "the idea of a restaurant", but rather of a concept. Yet we do speak of "the idea of fraternity". Once again, this is to say that there is, here, an incitement, a program.