Participatory Ethics in Bakhtin. Pandemic and Pansemic

Pandemia y pansemia

Abstract

The philosophical project that Bakhtin conceived at the beginning of the 20th century aims to find a moral philosophy that modifies the performance of man in daily life and in culture. The date [1924?] on which its writing is presumed would indicate the direction that Bakhtinian thought was taking, proposing an utopian cultural transformation in a time marked by enormous political tensions, and the social construction of a real subject, whose moral responsibility historically situated would turn into a mode of participatory action. Since that historical moment, a century has passed, and today it may be opportune to confront it with our present, in a planet governed by the capitalist economy with its population living a pandemic of great proportions. Far from establishing a comparison with that ethic project, we will offer some notes and images that encourage reflection on a philosophy that we do not believe we can cover in its complexity.^[1]

[1] This text was presented as a communication by the authors for the 22nd InPLA – Intercâmbio de Pesquisas em Linguística Aplicada [Exchanging of Resarches in Applied Linguistics] at Pontificate Catholic University of São Paulo – PUC-SP, in 2021, in the symposium “Pensamento bakhtiniano: recepção, teoria e prática” [Bakthinian Thought: Reception, Theory and Practice]. It was originally presented (and later written) in Spanish: Ética participativa en Bajtín. Pandemia y pansemia.