Liberalism as ideology: a possibility of criticism of John Rawls's Theory of Justice

• Grant number: 19/20094-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2020
• End date: July 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Political Science - Political Theory
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Ianni Segatto
• Grantee: Pedro Luis Panigassi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (FCL). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araraquara. Araraquara , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Discussions about the concept of "ideology" remain frequent from the meaning given to it by Karl Marx. In the latest generation of Critical Theory, German philosopher Rahel Jaeggi proposes an update of the concept in order to rehabilitate the critique of ideology as a form of immanent criticism. This project proposes the possibility of an analysis of contemporary political liberalism, focusing specifically on the figure of John Rawls, according to the critique of ideology as rehabilitated by Jaeggi. Taking the author's formulation as an instrument of analysis and criticism, we propose to examine the pertinence of the hypothesis that Rawls's liberalism is ideological, since it extracts its criteria from outside social reality, considering that his idea of "original position" it can be understood as an expression of a certain stage of development of the capitalist economic and social system and as a producer of life forms and social practices. Our goal is to explore a hitherto unexplored possibility of discussion within normative theories. (AU)