On Ethics and Politics (Notes on a Non-Linear Relationship)

The ethical cannot be reduced to political efficacy, as imagined at times by the ideological left. Clearly, it is also the case that politics cannot be reduced to being read in ethical terms, a misunderstanding firmly entrenched in times of the crisis of representation. “Ethicism” in political inter...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Follari, Roberto
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2010
País:Ecuador
Institución:Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales
Repositorio:Revista ICONOS
Idioma:español
OAI Identifier:oai:iconos.flacsoandes.edu.ec:article/421
Acceso en línea:https://iconos.flacsoandes.edu.ec/index.php/iconos/article/view/421
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:ética
política
Estado
izquierda
ideología
ethics
politics
State
left
ideology
Descripción
Sumario:The ethical cannot be reduced to political efficacy, as imagined at times by the ideological left. Clearly, it is also the case that politics cannot be reduced to being read in ethical terms, a misunderstanding firmly entrenched in times of the crisis of representation. “Ethicism” in political interpretation tends to delegitimize said interpretation as it prevents an understanding of its intrinsic functioning. There is also an “ethicism of the left” which, without understanding socio-structural factors, interpreted support for the Soviet state as simply an ethical abandonment of the emancipating principles of Marxism. But the idea that revolutionary thought can dispense with ethics tends to predominate, since political efficacy would be, in and of itself, ethical as regards the social benefits hoped for. It is not hard to predict the unfortunate consequences of the legitimatization of terror or absolutism that follow from an assumption that simply superimposes the ethical on the political.