Abstract

ARAUJO, Cicero. Why politics? Morality, surplus of meaning and democracy. Conjectura: filos. e Educ. [online]. 2018, vol.23, n.spe3, pp.250-261.  Epub Sep 02, 2019. ISSN 2178-4612.  https://doi.org/10.18226/21784612.v23.dossie.12.

Out of a critical vision of the so-called “normative political theories”, this article engages the issue of the relationships between politics and morality under democratic regimes. The article sounds out the hypothesis that the democratic regimes’ own endeavour to actualize its moral values, in so far as it produces non-intended effects - a “surplus of meaning” - makes them to move outside of the moral borders. That movement, being contradictory, produces also a malaise in relation to democracy. Yet, the article approaches the additional hypothesis that it is precisely thanks to that contradiction that the chances of a democratic politics in its own right arise.

Keywords : Morality; Surplus of meaning; Democratic politics.

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