Da revolução inacabada à guerra ética: Bensaïd como defensor e crítico dos direitos humanos

Abstract

This article intends to approach the work of Daniel Bensaïd exposing the main reflections and critical contributions to the instrumental use of Human Rights. Using the deductive repertoire, and based on the textual revision by the militant-philosopher, the article (i) demonstrates how the theme of Human Rights crosses the work of Bensaïd, marked by the conjuncture and articulating with other great themes of his life, exposing the elementary bases of his formulation; (ii) it shows how much Human Rights are perceived in his work as an unfinished bourgeois promise, which demand its recognition as a progressive, at the same time limited, landmark of the political dispute in modernity; (iii) highlights how it manifested itself in the course of the French Revolution in particular with regard to non-owners, enslaved and women; also signaling (iv) the way in which at different socio-historical moments the defense of Human Rights is instrumentalized as a way of imperialist affirmation, demanding particular and careful approaches in contemporary times, especially in view of the escalation of what he called “ethical war”.