A Hora das Nações

Ensaio sobre a ideia de um direito universal de hospitalidade a partir de Emmanuel Levinas

Abstract

This work intends to investigate the existence, in the work of Emmanuel Levinas, of a thought aimed at subsidizing, in addition to another justification of positive state law, an unprecedented way of conceiving the idea of a universal law. What is sought is to identify, in its ethics of otherness, expressed or implicit elements that point to the need for a law that goes beyond the borders of national States. This demand for a legal regulation that goes beyond the internal scope of the States is based, in the thought of Emmanuel Levinas, on the ethical imperative that demands the assumption of responsibilities not only by individuals but also by the nations themselves for each other. Thus, it is a question of showing that the face of the Other also calls upon national States to base their international relations on the idea of responsibility. In order to expose the way in which Emmanuel Levinas carries out such a revitalization of the postulate of a universal law, this work will seek to highlight: a) the way in which the philosopher can, from the third point of view, justify the existence of juridical-political institutions that extrapolate the internal sphere of the national States to reach the international domain; b) the subordination of the Levinasian universal law to the rights of the Other man; and c) the ideal of peace underlying that proposal, distinguishing it above all from the ideal of peace present in Immanuel Kant's philosophy.