Overcoming the dichotomy: the public and the private in Seyla Benhabib

• Grant number: 15/26105-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2016
• End date: December 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Political Theory
• Principal Investigator: Rúrion Soares Melo
• Grantee: Adriana Pereira Matos
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 14/11611-3 - Public sphere and reconstruction: on the constitution of a reconstructive paradigm within Critical Theory, AP.TEM

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the way Seyla Benhabib intends to overcome the public-private dichotomy present in normative conceptions of contemporary democratic theory. We will analyze her debate with the normative theories of democracy and the moral foundation presupposed in her discourse ethics. Within the deliberative democracy, dialogue with Habermas's theory of the public sphere and discourse ethics is essential, in opposition to the public sphere models defended by Republicans on one side and liberals on the other. In the field of moral theory, the debate is with contractualist and Kantian formulations, that, being based on a "generalized other," ignore the ethical dimension of the practical and political interactions and differences among individuals. The junction of the moral theory with the democratic theory debates is due to the understanding that the first provides elaborations about the standards of equality and justice that are central to the development of a critical model of democracy.