Critique and power. deliberative democracy and social pathologies diagnosis in Nancy Fraser

• Grant number: 12/20036-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: November 20, 2012
• End date: March 19, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Ethics
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Ribeiro Terra
• Grantee: Nathalie de Almeida Bressiani
• Supervisor: Rahel Jaeggi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Humboldt University, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 10/08871-2 - Critique and power: deliberative democracy and diagnosis of social pathologies in Nancy Fraser, BP.DR

Abstract

Based on the conclusions reached in our Master, a study of the debate between Nancy Fraser and Axel Honneth, the aim of this doctoral research is to analyze some of the tensions established by Nancy Fraser's theory, when she claims that it would be necessary to examine forms of domination also on the basis of social interaction. Taking on closer consideration Fraser's recovery of Jürgen Habermas' discourse theory and the critiques directed by her to the social dualism proposed by him, our aim is to bring forward and to analyze the tensions that arise when social interaction, from which both authors derive the normative basis of their theories, is taken to be responsible for the production and the reproduction of social pathologies. Considering, however, that Fraser does not address this tension directly, we aim to study it also based on the work of authors in which it is present. At first, we turn to the work of authors such as Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth, with whom Fraser shares the attempt to reconstruct the normativity inherent in social interaction. In doing so, we aim to analyze how the theories developed by them provide elements that could allow the overcoming of the tension analyzed by this research. In a second step, given the current move away of critical theory from theoretical models that reconstruct the normativity of social interaction and its approximation to the notion of critique of ideology, we turn to the analysis of authors who make this shift, particularly of Rahel Jaeggi's work. After concluding this step, we will discuss the various solutions provided to the tension outlined above and examine the extent to which they come as a result of the new diagnoses of social pathologies. (AU)