Direito a não consumir: fundamentos para uma nova ética do consumo

Abstract

The present work is related with Law, Philosophy and Sociology. The theoreticalmethodological approach is adopted, utilizing dialectical reasoning. The goal of this work is to demonstrate that, in the consumption society, the right to not consume is a personality right. It is asserted that the act of consumption has been regarded as a duty and that the value of the natural person has been dictated by consumption itself. Other spheres of ones personhood are, therefore, neglected. Such scenario is aggravated by the perception that the consumers are inserted in a world increasingly global, in which problems related with consumerism have global effects, with unquestionable reflections in the local ways of life. In this context, the principles of self-regulation and interventionism are implausible choices. Hence, it is indispensable to constitute global and local links of solidarity (a global Ethics), which conduct to the recognition of the other persons, including when the other ones choose to not consume.