The crisis of the reason in the XX Century and the discourses of legitimation of the human rights: overcoming the dispute between universalism and cultural relativism and the affirmation of a cosmopolitan project of human rights
| Autor | José Renato Gaziero Cella - Paola Bianchi Wojciechowski |
| Cargo | Doctor of Philosophy and Theory of Law at the Federal University of Santa Catarina - UFSC - Masters of Economic and Socio-environmental Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Paraná - PUCPR |
| Páginas | 107-136 |
THE CRISIS OF THE REASON IN THE XX CENTURY AND THE
DISCOURSES OF LEGITIMATION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS:
OVERCOMING THE DISPUTE BETWEEN UNIVERSALISM AND
CULTURAL RELATIVISM AND THE AFFIRMATION OF A
COSMOPOLITAN PROJECT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
A CRISE DA RAZÃO DO SÉCULO XX E OS DISCURSOS DE LEGITIMAÇÃO
DOS DIREITOS HUMANOS: SUPERANDO A DISPUTA ENTRE
UNIVERSALISMO E O RELATIVISMO CULTURAL E A AFIRMAÇÃO DE UM
PROJETO COSMOPOLITA DE DIREITOS HUMANOS
José Renato Gaziero Cella1
Paola Bianchi Wojciechowski2
Abstract: Philosophy, during the history of the western civilization, was supplanted by the techno-
science relatively to the explanations of the world and by the Christianity relatively to the sense of life,
under the point of view of the masses. However, modernity takes it to the disenchantment of the safet y
that was provided by the metaphysics - especially t he one of the Christianity - and the science stops
being the safe harbor that it pro mised to be in the XIX century. Facing that, the philo sophical
skepticism, that had been relegated to the ostracism, returns with energy in the XX century, fact that
becomes releva nt for the analysis of the indi vidual and t he culture, especially concerning the cultural
relativism. Nev ertheless, when applying the relativism to the cultures, where peoples or small groups
would have the right o f maintaining aut onomy in relatio n to moral norms of conviviality; even i f that
represents the acceptance of violative practices concerning t he rights established as fundamental to the
human dignity by the re maining of the population; it comes across the questioning of how pressing is
the debate a bout the necessity or not of establ ishing universal ethics, fact that culminates in the debate
concerning the human ri ghts. In this sense, two main philosophical currents rise: the u niversalism,
whose theorists de fend the existence of univer sal moral judgments and, t herefore, of human rights with
global validity; a nd the cultural relati vism, whose followers d efend that the values – so that t he human
rights – can only b e culturally valid. Those discourse s do not dialogue amongst themselv es, so they end
up representing an impedi ment for making the human rights effective, so that it is necessary to
overcome the simplistic dispute between relativist s and u niversalists to guarantee the widest
effectiveness for these rights and to guarantee the d evelopment of a cosmopolitan pr oject of human
rights.
Key-words: Crisis of the Reason; Skeptici sm; Cultural Relativism; Universalism; Human Rights.
Resumo: A filosofia, durante a história da civilização oci dental, foi suplantada pela tecnociência,
relativamente à s explicações do mundo, e pelo cristianismo, relativame nte ao sentido da vida, sob o
ponto de vista das massa s. No entanto, a modernidade toma-a para o desencanto da segurança que foi
fornecido pela metafísica - especialmente a do cristianismo - e a ciência deixa de ser o porto seguro que
prometia ser, no século XIX. Diante disso, o ceticismo filosófico, que havia sido relegado ao
ostracismo, volta com energia no século XX, fato que se torna relevante para a análise do indivíduo e da
cultura, principal mente em rela ção ao relativ ismo cultural. No entanto, quando aplicado o relativismo
para as cultura s, onde povos ou grupos pequen os teriam o direito de manter a autonomia em relação a
normas morais de convívio, mesmo que isto repre sente a aceitação d e práticas violatórias relativas aos
direitos estabelecidos como fundamentai s para a dignidade humana pelo restante da população, isto
1 Doctor of Philosophy a nd Theory of Law at the Federa l University of Santa Catarina - UFSC, Masters
of State Law at t he Federal University of Paraná - UFPR, Assistant Professor of Juridical Philosophy at
the P ontifical Catholic Uni versity of Paraná - PUCPR an d Lawyer, in Curitiba-PR, e -mail:
cella@cella.com.br.
2 Masters of Economic and Socio-environmental Law at the Ponti fical Catholic University of Paraná -
PUCPR, in Curitiba-PR, under the orientation of Professor Flávia Piovesan. Lato Sensu specialist,
focused in Criminal Law at Fundação Escola do Ministério Público of Paraná - FEMPAR, graduated in
Law at the Pontifical Catholic University o f Paraná - PUCPR. Assistant of the Publi c Prosecutor of the
State of Parana, working at the Police Investigation Prosecution, in Curitiba-PR, e-mail:
pa.bianchi@hotmail.com.
108 Direitos Culturais, Santo Ângelo, v.7, n.1 2, p. 107-136, jan./jun. 2012
coloca o questionamento de quão premente é o debat e sobre a necessidade ou não d e estabelecer a ética
universal, fato que culmina com o debate sobre os dir eitos humanos. Neste sentido, duas principai s
correntes filosóficas emergem: o u niversalismo, cujos t eóricos defendem a existência de juízos morais
universais e, portanto, do s direitos humanos com validade global; e o relativismo cultural, cujos
seguidores defendem que os valores – e assim ta mbém os direitos humanos - só podem ser
culturalmente válidos. Esses discursos nã o dialogam entre si, situação que acaba re presentando um
impedimento para fazer dos direitos huma nos algo eficaz. Este diálogo é necessário para vencer a
disputa simplista entre r elativistas e universalistas, a fim de a maior eficácia a esses direitos, bem como
garantir o desenvolvimento de um projeto c osmopolita de direitos humanos.
Palavras-chave: Crise da Razão; cetici smo; Relativismo Cultural; Universalismo; Direitos Humanos.
INTRODUCTION
Can reason lead t o the knowledge of the truth? The skeptical answer, that
denies such possibility t o reason, although it has been present since the Classical
Antiquity, increases excessively starting from the XX century, when an
unprecedented crisis uncovers in relation to the promises of the r ationality, crisis
that, when disturbing the foundations of the great building of the western thought
that had its origin with the appearance of th e philosophy in Greece, has casted
doubt on the defense possibilities of a rational acting in the wide ar eas of
knowledge.
For the analysis offered here, the theme will be treated under a historical
perspective, where some of the consequences of the denominated western nihilism
will be seen. In methodological terms, it is believed that it is possible to rebuild a
philosophical current in a reasonably objective way, although many points can
remain uncertain and subjects to controversy. Differently from the philosophy, the
history of phil osophy is an empiric science. While philosophy discusses on its
object, the history of philosophy has a defined object: what was thought and
written by philosophers of the past.
So, facing the crisis of reason and, at the same time, the unrest of the
debates concerning the relation between law and moral, between jusnaturalists3
and positivists4 after the Second World War, the following question is uncovered:
is there the possibility of defining universal ethics for the human rights?
After the barbarisms witnessed in the Second World War, with the terror
promoted by the Third Reich, a movement of in ternationalization of th e human
rights begins. The international Community, ha unted by the death of millions of
Jews, gypsies and Poles, tries to restore ethical and juridical paradigms of
3 The theory of natural law i s characterized by sustainin g two main theories: “a) An ethical p hilosophy
that sustains the existence of principles of moral and justice u niversally valid and acceptable by the
human reason. b) A the ory concern ing the definition of the concept of law, according to which a
normative system or a rule ca nnot be qualified a s 'juridical' if they contradict those principles of moral
or justice”. (free translation) (NINO, Carlos Santiago. Intro dución al análisis del derecho. 2.ed.
ampl.rev. Buenos Aires: Ástrea de Alfredo y Ricardo Depalma, 1980, p. 27-28).
4 “The juridical p ositivism, opposite to any theory of the natural law, associated to the p hilosophical
positivism, denier of any philosophy of values, was the dominant democratic ideology in the Occident
until the end of the Second World War. It eliminates from the la w any reference to the id ea of justice
and, from the philosophy, any refer ence to values, trying to model as much the law a s the philosophy by
the sciences, considered objective and impersonal and from which it is necessary to eliminate
everything that is subje ctive, therefore arbitrary”. (PERELMAN, Chaïm. Lógica jurídica: nova
retórica. Translation of Vergínia K. Pupi. São Paulo: Martins Fontes, 1998, p. 91).
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