Keywords
justice
politics
affectivity
vulnerability
How to Cite
Abstract
Based on Plato’s Gorgias, the thesis of this paper is that the Socratic approach to politics encourages the acceptance of our own vulnerability as a form of openness to otherness and as a way of enacting autonomy. The argumentation consists of three parts. First, it is shown that recognition of vulnerability leads to the acknowledgment of the other and, subsequently, to the positive valuing of the other’s needs. Second, it is argued that justice presupposes autonomy, for it reveals the desire for the common good as a self-imposed law. Finally, the article shows how the knowing of what is just emerges from a dialectical labor with language, emphasizing its performativity and its capacity to provoke emotions and desires. It is concluded that the political wisdom springs up as a rapture towards the limits of our aspirations and possibilities.
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