Solidarity and cooperation

Abstract

The chapter analyzes the principle of solidarity included in the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights of UNESCO. It also presents a historical overview of the origin of the word “solidarity," its classifications and associations, including a contemporary Latin American view on the subject and its rationalization as a social law. It discusses in a critical approach expressions like charity, compassion, fraternity, and philanthropy usually confused with solidarity. The chapter presents three forms of contemporary interpretation of solidarity, seeking to provide a more amplified, comprehensive, and dialectic view about the subject: voluntary-action solidarity, critical solidarity, and radical solidarity. From the discussion on the relationship between the principles of solidarity and cooperation - a term also included in the UNESCO Declaration - it is concluded that truly supportive and cooperative ethical actions are those in which the agent interacts with the receiver in the landscape, in a dynamic and bilateral mode, and with shared responsibilities.