美国政治理论家朱迪丝·施克莱"视残酷为首恶"的观念对新实用主义哲学家理查德·罗蒂产生了直接的影响，后者将其应用于文学批评，对纳博科夫和奥威尔的小说作了颇具启发性的解读。循此对施克莱与罗蒂作为自由主义者的思想关联性进行深入考察，不仅有助于我们把握罗蒂新实用主义的哲学逻辑、政治关切和论说方式，也有助于我们对文学与道德的关系这一古老论题展开新的探讨。

American political theorist Judith Shklar's idea that "cruelty is the first vice" had a direct impact on Richard Rorty, a philosopher of Neo-pragmatism who applied it to literary criticism and made an illuminating interpretation on Nabokov's and Orwell's novels. Based on this, an in-depth study of the ideological connection between Shklar and Rorty as liberals will help us not only grasp Rorty's Neo-pragmatism in terms of philosophical logic, political concerns and the strategy of discourse, but also launch a new discussion on the eternal topic of the relationship between literature and morality.