Abstract

Sometimes we hear that “right” and “left” are no longer relevant. Here is a redefinition of right and left so that the terms remain relevant. Standardly, a “left” politics is associated with equality, progress, planning, openness, or criticism, and a “right” politics with inequality, regress, lack of planning, closedness, or an uncritical attitude. Against these suggestions, I define “left” as a synecdochal politics, a politics which takes a part to stand for the whole, and searches for a policy, and “right” as the opposite, an unsynecdochal politics, a politics which does not take a part to stand for the whole, and searches for a sense of balance, order and proportion. This redefinition is supported by empirical observations made by psychologists about the nature of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. “Left” has been considered superior to “right” for at least a century. But this is a mistake since both left and right are as necessary for a successful politics as they are for successful brain function. But they are not equal in status, for in politics, as in psychology, we have to recognise as a fundamental principle, “the necessity of the left but the superiority of the right.”