Rationality and democracy in Amartya Sen and Michel Foucault

Abstract

This text analyzes the conceptions of rationality in Sen and Foucault, starting from their most important publications, to reflect on their implications for democratic functioning. Foucault highlights his analysis of political rationalities, linked to power relations, and Sen, his defense of a rationality by discussion, based on social commitment, which would contribute to a more deliberative democracy. The two coincide in relating rationality with freedom, at the same time that they recognize ethical implications in this exercise of freedom, although from different perspectives. Both also analyzed the rationality of utilitarianism, and the rejection of the transcendental idea of consensus, at the same time that they were interested in the ethical connotations of contemporary thought. Likewise, both recognize that rationality implies a certain vision of the subject, although they pose it from different perspectives. Finally, this discourse analysis opens up new possibilities for future research on the study of other rationalities, such as sustainable economic and social development, which indicate important social transformations, also for democratic functioning.