The centrality of the economic dimension of poverty in the practice of aporophobia according to Adela Cortina

• Grant number: 25/15631-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2026
• End date: May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - Ethics
• Principal Investigator: Hélio Alexandre da Silva
• Grantee: Larissa Moraes Cardoso dos Santos
• Supervisor: Pedro Jesus Perez Zafrilla
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais (FCHS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Franca. Franca , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universitat de València, Spain
• Associated to the scholarship: 25/08488-0 - Poverty theories: Adela Cortina, BP.IC

Abstract

This research project has the objective of analyzing how the philosopher Adela Cortina understands the economic dimension of poverty in her work "Aporophobia: Rejection of the poor: a challenge for society democratic", and, above all, in what way such dimension is determinant for the manifestation of hatred towards the poor, a prejudice denominated, by the author, as "aporophobia". Although the contemporary debate on the phenomenon of poverty recognizes its multidimensional character, encompassing sociological, cultural and symbolic aspects, the present investigation starts from the hypothesis that, for Cortina, the economic dimension of poverty plays a primary role in the production and in the direction of aporophobia. From an analysis of Chapter VII of the aforementioned work, entitled "Eradicating poverty, reducing inequality", the aim is to understand in what way Cortina describes material poverty and whether she is able to identify the reasons why social contempt is concentrated, in a more direct way, on individuals in a situation of economic deprivation, more than on any other condition of exclusion. The proposal is to carry out a conceptual and critical reading of both the notion of aporophobia, and the definition of poverty used by the Spanish author, highlighting the elements that establish the centrality of the economic aspect in this phenomenon. The project intends, thus, to contribute to the philosophical and social debate on the roots of prejudice against the poor.