Since all individuals in a democracy regard themselves and are accepted as equal, other individuals are not really different from oneself but similar. They are not really other in the deep sense implied by the dichotomy of self-other to be found in Hegel’s theory or its variants. Here there is no real reconciliation between self and other in which one self finds itself in the other. Rather, that reconciliation is assumed from the beginning. The democrat considers others to be like himself, and if they are truly different, he sees them to be like himself regardless. He ignores or flattens out
...more
