Richard Rorty and the Ru Jia

I believe Richard Rorty is an American who exemplifies virtues of the Ru Jia. “Ru Jia” means “school of scholars” and is another name for Confucianism. Confucians are also referred to as the Ru.

Here is a quote from a lecture about Rorty:
"We do not learn moral education by the teaching of philosophy, not by rational speculation, but by becoming sensitized to the suffering of others."

That lecture also attributed these thoughts to Rorty:
1.) "Liberalism is the realization that cruelty and humiliation are the worst things we can inflict on one another."

2.) "Solidarity is the glue that holds society together, and it can be expanded through acts of identification with those previously considered as 'others.'"

Here are what I see as attributes of American Ru Jia:
a) They are compassionate and sympathetic to the suffering of others.
b) They look beyond society as a mechanism and see it as a source of identity (the "identification" mentioned above).
c) They look to improve the lives of the people.
d) They believe in morality.
e) They believe in the importance of education and culture.

Americans can look within our own American or Western tradition for people to emulate who are also in the tradition of the Ru Jia.

Robert

P.S.
The lectures I've referred to here are "Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition" from the Teaching Company. Rorty is lecture 81, found in Part 7 of the lecture series.