From the critique of totalitarianism to the rediscovery of liberalism: an inquiry into the theoretical and political uses of the liberal tradition by the French school of the political

• Grant number: 21/03135-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2021
• End date: May 14, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Ethics
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Damon Santos Moutinho
• Grantee: Felipe Freller
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 21/13308-0 - Marcel Gauchet and Pierre Manent's critique of the politics of human rights within the framework of the reflections of the founders of the Raymond Aron Institute: the relationship between liberalism and politics, BE.EP.PD

Abstract

Contemporary French Political Philosophy is profoundly affected by the critiques of totalitarianism formulated in the 1970s. In the intellectual environment marked by this theme, Furet leads, from the end of the decade, a study group at EHESS that brings together, among others, Lefort, Castoriadis, Gauchet, Rosanvallon, and Manent. Designated by Lynch (2010) as the "French school of the political," this intellectual constellation is responsible for reopening studies on political liberalism, pulling classics such as Constant, Guizot, and Tocqueville out of oblivion. The aim of this research project is to question the theoretical and political uses of the liberal tradition by these authors gathered at the Institut Raymond Aron, seeking to add complexity to the usual account of a transition from Marxism to liberalism induced by the critique of totalitarianism. Our hypothesis is that there are at least three uses of the liberal tradition by the "French school of the political." In the first use, the critique of totalitarianism is expanded and directed towards liberalism as an ideology of the modern world. In the second use, the liberal discourse is appropriated as a critical analytical tool for understanding modernity. Finally, the third use looks up to the liberal tradition for contributions to the normative theorization of democracy. The expected contributions of the research are twofold. On the one hand, we hope to fill the gap of a lineage of contemporary political thought still little studied in Brazil, seeking to overcome the purely ideological accounts of the formation of this current of thought. On the other hand, we question the contradictory legacies of the liberal tradition in contemporary political theory, undertaking a metatheoretical reflection on the meanings of the intellectual mobilization of classical authors in contemporary times. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FELIPE FRELLER. Pierre Rosanvallon, from the Critique of Utopian Liberalism to the Critique of the Critique of Neoliberalism. Brazilian Political Science Review, v. 17, n. 2, 2023-06-30. (21/03135-0)

FELIPE FRELLER. O liberalismo à luz do antitotalitarismo: Revisitando a crítica schmittiana da despolitização liberal nas leituras de Rosanvallon e Gauchet sobre o liberalismo clássico. Revista Brasileira de Ciência Política, n. 40, 2023-03-06. (21/03135-0)