A contradição entre universalidade da cultura humana e o esvaziamento das relações sociais: por uma educação que supere a falsa escolha entre etnocentrismo ou relativismo cultural

A tese do fim das metanarrativas defendida pelo pós-modernismo implica a negação da universalidade da cultura. Não se trata apenas do fato de que a cultura humana ainda não tenha alcançado um estágio de verdadeira universalidade nem mesmo se trata do fato de que a classe dominante tenha até hoje submetido a cultura humana a seus interesses particulares de classe e, para tanto, tenha sufocado e destruído muito da riqueza contida nas culturas locais. Para o pós-modernismo, o problema não reside na visão burguesa de cultura humana, mas sim na própria idéia de que possa haver uma cultura universal. Os pós-modernos afirmam que qualquer projeto educacional pautado na idéia da existência ou da possibilidade de uma cultura universal é um projeto conservador, autoritário e etnocêntrico. O texto defende a tese de que a concepção marxiana acerca do processo histórico de constituição da riqueza humana universal contém os elementos teóricos necessários para a superação da falsa opção, postulada pelas diversas correntes do pós-modernismo, entre o etnocentrismo e o relativismo cultural. em Marx, a universalização da cultura humana ocorre, na sociedade capitalista, por meio da universalização do valor de troca das mercadorias como mediação fundamental das relações sociais. Trata-se, portanto, de um processo dialético no qual ocorrem ao mesmo tempo a humanização e a alienação do gênero humano e dos indivíduos. O texto conclui com a apresentação dos desafios que, a partir dessa concepção marxiana sobre a riqueza universal, devem ser enfrentados no processo de construção de uma pedagogia marxista.

El relativismo cultural y su tutela jurídica en el sistema internacional de protección de los derechos humanos

ResumenEste trabajo pretende abordar desde un enfoque deductivo, el fenómeno del relativismo cultural. Es así como se parten de las premisas teóricas y conceptuales de lo que se entiende por este tipo de relativismo, su contraste con los derechos humanos de alcance universal, hasta llegar a su implementación a través de diferentes normas internacionales. Se analizarán las principales fuentes, consistentes en tratados, conferencias y declaraciones, en las que se visualiza la tutela y defensa del relativismo cultural. Finalmente, se reflexionará en torno a la efectividad de la salvaguarda de esta modalidad de relativismo y las particularidades propias de cada una de las fuentes jurídicas y políticas invocadas. Palabras clave: relativismo cultural, cultura, civilización occidental, libertad cultural, derechos humanos, universalismo, tratados internacionales, pacto internacional de derechos económicos, sociales y culturales, convención internacional de la eliminación de todas las formas de discriminación racial, Conferencia Mundial de Derechos Humanos, Declaración de Durban, Organización internacional del Trabajo, UNESCO.AbstractThis paper attempts to deal with, from a deductive approach, the phenomenon of cultural relativism. This is how it starts from the theoretical and conceptual foundations of what is understood by this kind of relativism, its contrast with the universal human rights reaching, to its implementation through various international standards. It analyzed the major sources,consisting of treaties, conferences and declarations, which displays the protection and defenseof cultural relativism. Finally, it reflects on the effectiveness of safeguarding this kind of relativism and the particularities of each of the legal and political sources cited.Keywords: Cultural relativism, Culture, Western Civilization, Cultural Freedom, Human Rights, Universal, International treaties, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, World Conference on Human Rights, International Labour Organization, UNESCO. 

La contribución del matrimonio al bien común : perspectivas y desafíos

Resumen: Este artículo se propone estudiar la vinculación entre matrimonio y bien común, a partir del debate en la Argentina de la ley 26.618 de legalización de las uniones homosexuales como matrimonio y de los lineamientos propuestos por Benedicto XVI en Caritas in Veritate. Se advierte una claudicación en la búsqueda del bien común que obedece a diferentes factores, sobre todo el relativismo cultural. Se propone una noción de bien común que respeta la dignidad de la persona y su dimensión social y se consideran las contribuciones del matrimonio al bien común. Se advierte cómo la ley 26.618 concede a las uniones de personas del mismo sexo beneficios propios del matrimonio entre varón y mujer sin que se cumplan las funciones sociales de esa institución. También se proponen algunas condiciones de la vida social que favorecen al matrimonio para que así contribuya al bien común, con especial referencia al ámbito de la legislación, las políticas públicas, los medios de comunicación, la empresa y el mundo del trabajo y la ciencia y la tecnología. Finalmente, se consideran los obstáculos que surgieron en el reciente debate legislativo por la aparición de un laicismo militante y la contribución de las religiones al bien común desde una sana laicidad en esta materia.

As normas referentes às crianças-soldado no Direito Internacional

Este trabalho trata da normatização internacional relativa às crianças-soldado e aborda, sobretudo, a utilização de defesas baseadas em alegações de violação aos princípios da legalidade e em ocorrência de erro de proibição por réus de processos penais do Tribunal Especial para Serra Leoa e do Tribunal Penal Internacional. Diante disso, investiga se a proibição geral ao envolvimento infantil em conflitos armados e as infrações a essa vedação particularmente as condutas de recrutar, alistar e utilizar crianças como soldados integram o Direito Internacional Costumeiro e, em caso positivo, em que momento teria ocorrido a inserção nesse campo. Analisa, igualmente, se o argumento da boa-fé pode ser um elemento de defesa válido naqueles processos, com fundamento no relativismo cultural. Pretende, com isso, esclarecer o processo de criminalização daquelas condutas, além de identificar a posição hierárquica ocupada pelas normas em questão. Para tanto, recorre à verificação da prática estatal e da opinio juris relativas ao tema. Com isso, conclui que o regramento possui natureza costumeira e pertence ao domínio do jus cogens.

La responsabilité de protéger et l’intervention humanitaire : de la reconceptualisation de la souveraineté des États à l’individualisme normatif

La recrudescence des conflits internes dans le contexte post-guerre froide a permis de propulser à l’avant-plan la préoccupation pour les individus. Alors que la paix et la sécurité internationales ont historiquement constitué les piliers du système institutionnel international, une porte s’ouvrait pour rendre effectif un régime de protection des droits de l’homme par-delà les frontières. Pour les humanistes, l’intervention humanitaire représentait un mal nécessaire pour pallier aux souffrances humaines souvent causées par des divergences ethniques et religieuses. Pourtant, cette pratique est encore souvent perçue comme une forme de néo-colonialisme et entre en contradiction avec les plus hautes normes régissant les relations internationales, soit les principes de souveraineté des États et de non-intervention. La problématique du présent mémoire s’inscrit précisément dans cette polémique entre la préséance des droits de l’État et la prédilection pour les droits humains universels, deux fins antinomiques que la Commission internationales pour l’intervention et la souveraineté des États (CIISE) a tenté de concilier en élaborant son concept de responsabilité de protéger. Notre mémoire s’inscrit dans le champ de la science politique en études internationales mais s’articule surtout autour des notions et enjeux propres à la philosophie politique, plus précisément à l’éthique des relations internationales. Le travail se veut une réflexion critique et théorique des conclusions du rapport La responsabilité de protéger, particulièrement en ce qui concerne le critère de la juste cause et, dans une moindre mesure, celui d’autorité appropriée. Notre lecture des conditions de la CIISE à la justification morale du déclenchement d’une intervention humanitaire – critères issues de la doctrine de la guerre juste relativement au jus ad bellum – révèle une position mitoyenne entre une conception progressiste cosmopolitique et une vision conservatrice d’un ordre international composé d’États souverains. D’une part, la commission se dissocie du droit international en faisant valoir un devoir éthique d’outrepasser les frontières dans le but de mettre un terme aux violations massives des droits de l’homme et, d’autre part, elle craint les ingérences à outrance, comme en font foi l’établissement d’un seuil de la juste cause relativement élevé et la désignation d’une autorité multilatérale à titre de légitimateur de l’intervention. Ce travail dialectique vise premièrement à présenter et situer les recommandations de la CIISE dans la tradition de la guerre juste. Ensuite, il s’agit de relever les prémisses philosophiques tacites dans le rapport de la CIISE qui sous-tendent le choix de préserver une règle de non-intervention ferme de laquelle la dérogation n’est exigée qu’en des circonstances exceptionnelles. Nous identifions trois arguments allant en ce sens : la reconnaissance du relativisme moral et culturel; la nécessité de respecter l’autonomie et l’indépendance des communautés politiques en raison d’une conception communautarienne de la légitimité de l’État, des réquisits de la tolérance et des avantages d’une responsabilité assignée; enfin, l’appréhension d’un bouleversement de l’ordre international sur la base de postulats du réalisme classique. Pour finir, nous nuançons chacune de ces thèses en souscrivant à un mode de raisonnement cosmopolitique et conséquentialiste. Notre adhésion au discours individualiste normatif nous amène à inclure dans la juste cause de la CIISE les violations systématiques des droits individuels fondamentaux et à cautionner l’intervention conduite par une coalition ou un État individuel, pourvu qu’elle produise les effets bénéfiques désirés en termes humanitaires.

Análisis de la ayuda oficial al desarrollo. estudio de caso: programa conjunto de UNICEF y UNFPA sobre la mutilación genital femenina en Kenia (2008-2012)

El interés de este estudio de caso es analizar el Programa Conjunto de UNFPA y UNICEF sobre MGF/E en Kenia bajo la luz de los postulados poscolonialistas. Partiendo de la idea de que la MGF es una manifestación de las desigualdades de género, se argumenta que el PC reproduce la imagen de la mujer keniana como una víctima del poder masculino. A partir de esta imagen se deslegitima el orden cultural de los grupos que siguen esta tradición, afectando las lógicas de unidad y cohesión de la sociedad. El análisis de este tipo de dinámicas permite comprender mejor los procesos de intervención de las organizaciones internacionales sobre las estructuras sociales de actores frágiles del sistema internacional.

Globalizing heritage: world heritage as a manifestation of modernism and the challenge from the periphery

Government efforts to protect monuments and sites of cultural heritage value have gone on for many centuries. The distinctive new chapter that
the 20th Century brought to cultural heritage protection was the establishment of a globalized effort over and above the work of nation states, This led to a new cultural heritage bureaucracy at the international level, the development of new sets of 'universal' standards, and a new set of places deemed to be of world heritage significance, All of this was done in the spirit of goodwill and optimism that infused the modem movement and that made possible the establishment of the so-called Bretton Woods organizations such as the United Nations as well as the parallel organizations specifically dealing with Cultural Heritage - UNESCO, ICOMOS, ICOM and ICCROM, In recent decades cultural relativists have challenged the drive towards uniformity implicit in the global activities of the modernist organizations, and various parts of the periphery have reacted against aspects of the global cultural heritage approach, The Venice Charter is no longer regarded as the single, universal way to conserve heritage places. It has been replaced or supplemented in large parts of the world by alternatives and modifications such as the Nara Document and Burra Charter. If it is no longer acceptable to provide a universal answer to the question of how do we identify and save heritage, the challenge of the 21st Century is to make the most of the complexity of standards that now exists.

The west and the rest

TOPICS
European exploration of the Orient
Oriental ism
Orientalist art
Early European views of Muslims
Universal values versus cultural relativism
The clash of civilisations
The emergence and function of rogue states
The axis of evil and the war on terror
Future predictions

Killing the father, Parmenides: on Lacan’s anti-philosophy

This paper examines the historical claims about philosophy, dating back to Parmenides, that we argue underlie Jacques Lacan’s polemical provocations in the mid-1970s that his position was an “anti-philosophie”. Following an introduction surveying the existing literature on the subject, in part ii, we systematically present the account of classical philosophy Lacan has in mind when he declares psychoanalysis to be an antiphilosophy after 1975, assembling his claims about the history of ideas in Seminars XVII and XX in ways earlier contributions of this subject have not systematically done. In part iii, focusing upon Lacan’s remarkable reading of Descartes’ break with premodern philosophy—but touching on Lacan’s readings of Hegel and (in a remarkable confirmation of Lacan’s “Parmenidean” conception of philosophy) the early Wittgenstein—we examine Lacan’s positioning of psychoanalysis as a legatee of the Cartesian moment in the history of western ideas, nearly-contemporary with Galileo’s mathematization of physics and carried forwards by Kant’s critical philosophy and account of the substanceless subject of apperception. In different terms than Slavoj Žižek, we propose that it is Lacan’s famous avowal that the subject of the psychoanalysis is the subject first essayed by Descartes in The Meditations on First Philosophy as confronting an other capable of deceit (as against mere illusion or falsity) that decisively measures the distance between Lacan’s unique “antiphilosophy” and the forms of later modern linguistic and cultural relativism whose hegemony Alain Badiou has decried, at the same time as it sets Lacan’s antiphilosophy apart from the Parmenidean legacy for which thinking and being could be the same.

International ethics and globalization

In the inherently anarchic international system the validity of moral principles is weakening. To overcome anarchy global governance is needed. It means efficient international institutions, but also pressures from the global civil society and the self-regulation of business. Multinational firms have the duty of cooperating in governance systems. They also have the duty of reconciling in their activity the two, equally legitimate claims of universalism and cultural relativism; i.e., applying universal moral principles and respecting local moral norms. Finally, multinationals must be guided by the principle of enhanced responsibility. However, although globalizing efforts are important in overcoming international anarchy and coordinating the protection of global commons, strong arguments support the notion that economic globalization does not promote sustainable development. Some form of localization of the economy is certainly needed. The challenge is to find a way towards more global governance with less economic globalization.

Resilience and the ‘everyday’: beyond the paradox of ‘liberal peace’

Over the last decade there has been a shift towards critical understandings of ‘liberal peace’ approaches to international intervention, which argue that local culture holds the key to the effectiveness of peace interventions. In this ‘bottom-up’ approach, peace, reconciliation, and a ‘culture of law’ then become secondary effects of sociocultural norms and values. However, these liberal peace critiques have remained trapped in the paradox of liberal peace: the inability to go beyond the binaries of liberal universalism and cultural relativism. This understanding will be contrasted with the rise of ‘resilience’ approaches to intervention – which build on this attention to the particular context of application but move beyond this paradox through philosophical pragmatism and the focus on concrete social practices. This article clarifies the nature of this shift through the focus on the shifting understanding of international intervention to address the failings of the ‘war on drugs’ in the Americas.

A Cultura Organizacional Frente ao Comportamento Homoafetivo

Tratar de cultura é fazer parte da evolução humana, pois esta é a realidade que direciona os caminhos para entender a mentalidade das pessoas numa trilogia que envolve, religião, ciência, sociedade e organização. Percebe-se quando o individuo torna-se mais culto diminui a intensidade em sua crença, mesmo assim jamais o homem poderá caminhar sem esses dois mundo, cientifico e religioso. Nisto a percepção sensitiva da existência humana, acontece mediante a razão universal pois o importante é a integração do ser para uma vida mais humanizada, desde a forma de pensar e agir podendo enfrentar desafios para adaptar-se ao meio em busca de seu momento prazeroso. Vivenciar a cultura é obter um resultado que envolva, diversidade, sedução, controle de dominação e encantos, incorporado a historia de um povo Nesta performance a racionalização e a superação dos preconceitos é percebido como fenômeno da capacidade criadora e inovadora, exercendo sua liberdade, fundamentada na manifestação do espírito, onde cultura e símbolos representam sentimento e auto definição. No Brasil a cultura é vista como estruturação da teoria racista, optada por prazeres fáceis, vícios, adultério, poligamia, machismo, autoritarismo e conformismo ocasionado por uma miscigenação que consolida os costumes do relativismo cultural, vinculado a uma cidadania grupal que preserva uma postura ética permeando desigualdades, ocasionando a aparecimento de novos sujeitos sociais. Negros, mulheres e homossexuais, fazendo parte dos fatores, psicológico, biológico, sociológico e culturais. / To deal with culture is to be part of the evolution human being, therefore this is the reality that directs the ways to understand the mentality of the people in a trilogy that involves, religion, science, society and organization. It is perceived when the individual becomes more cultured diminishes the intensity in its belief, exactly thus never the man will be able to walk without these two world, scientific and religious. In this the sensitive perception of the existence human being, happens by means of the universal reason therefore the important one is the integration of the being for a humanizada life more, since the form to think and to act being able to face challenges to adapt it the way in search of its pleasant moment. To live deeply the culture is to get a result that involves, diversity, seduction, control of domination and enchantments, incorporated the history of a people In this performance the rationalization and the overcoming of the preconceptions is perceived as phenomenon of the creative and innovative capacity, exerting its freedom, based on the manifestation of the spirit, where culture and symbols represent feeling and auto definition. In Brazil the culture is seen as estruturação of the racist theory, opted to easy pleasures, vices, adultery, polygamy, machismo, authoritarianism and conformism caused for a miscegenation that consolidates the customs of the cultural relativism, tied with a group citizenship that preserves an ethical position promoting inaqualities, causing the appearance of new social citizens. Blacks, women and homosexuals, being part of the factors, psychological, biological, sociological and cultural.

Critics of Human Rights from a Historical Perspective

Implementation of human rights is often criticized because it is perceived as being imposed on the rest of the world. In this case, human rights start to be seen as a sole abstraction, an empty word. What are the theoretical arguments of these critics and can we determine any historical grounds for them? In this paper, I will try to point at similar critics after the French Revolution – like that of the Historical School and Hegel – and try to show if some of these critics are still relevant. And I will compare these critics with contemporary arguments of cultural relativists. There are different streams and categorizations of human rights theories in today’s world. What differentiates them is basically the source of the human rights. After the French Revolution, the historical school had criticized the individuation and Hegel had criticized the formal freedom which was, according to him, a consequence of the Revolution. In this context Hegel drew a distinction between real freedom and formal freedom. Besides the theory of sources, the theories of implementation such as human rights as a model of learning, human rights as a result of an historical process are worth attention. The crucial point is about integrating human rights as an inner process and not to use them as a tool for intervention in other countries, which we observe in today’s world. And this is the exact point why I find the discussion of the sources more important. This discussion can help us to show how the inner evaluation of a society makes the realization of human rights possible and how we can avoid the above mentioned abstraction and misuse.

Under western eyes again : rights vernacular and the gender culture 'clash'

Gender features prominently in debates about the clash between human rights and culture, where ‘culture’ is often portrayed as a supreme obstacle to the realisation of women’s rights. Sometimes framed as an ethical conundrum between universalism and cultural relativism, the clash between culture and rights recites one as always and inevitably undercutting the other — culture undermines rights, and the imposition of human rights damages culture. An innovative attempt at recasting this clash has been a focus less on abstract philosophical debates and more on the cultural politics of rights — in particular, how they are made relevant to everyday life. Anthropologists Merry (2006; 2008a) and Levitt and Merry (2009; 2011) propose the analytical and ethnographic study of vernacularisation by demonstrating how, in local contexts, women’s human rights are remade in the vernacular. This approach has yielded rich knowledge about the myriad ways in which expectations of female inferiority and masculine entitlement to violence are contested — not through the import of Western ideas of human rights, but through the local idiom. This article considers the productive contribution of vernacularisation to this contested terrain, while also pointing to the limits that issue from its dependence on distinguishing the global from the local. Today, these two spaces are not so clearly discerned — particularly in multicultural settings where the local and the global are fused, and where human rights are translated into a vernacular of current political anxieties to do with racial and cultural difference. This is a vernacular that disguises or disavows racism through the language of human rights. These themes are illustrated and explored through the case study of a small community event in an outer suburb of Melbourne, where gender, culture and religion play out through both local and international rights vernacular.