Alterity and conflict: democracy’s hermeneutical task

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Diego Fernando Silva Prada

Abstract

This work is an attempt to define democracy from a broad philosophical perspective with two dimensions. The first is the ontological condition in which the acceptance of others as different – alterity/otherness – takes place. The second is the acceptance of conflict as an essential component of socio-political phenomena, which must be channeled or regulated. The ways in which the conflictive nature of humans can be regulated non-violently are what we have called “democracy”. And this kind of reflection should be set – epistemologically speaking – in a hermeneutical idea of truth and regulation of social life, where the normative ideal is the negation of fundamentalisms and totalitarianisms.

Keywords:
Democracy, hermeneutics, social responsibility, alterity, politics, conflict, Levinas.

Article Details

Author Biography

Diego Fernando Silva Prada, Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios

Candidato a doctor en Ciencias Sociales de la Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO-Argentina). Investigador de tiempo completo del Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Humanas y Sociales (CEIHS)-Universidad Minuto de Dios.

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