Fraternity causes

a conceptual investigation

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12662/2447-6641oj.v23i42.p1-23.2025

Keywords:

fraternity, alterity, recognition, golden rule, community

Abstract

Contextualization: Fraternity is one of the key concepts in the ethical horizon of modernity, with the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) as the landmark of its universal adherence. In Brazil, fraternity appears in the preamble of the 1988 Federal Constitution.

Goal: This article aims, with a conceptual investigation based on the Aristotle’s four causes theory, to clarify the concept of fraternity through its insertion within a conceptual network composed of the concepts of alterity, recognition, golden rule and community, which correspond respectively to its material, efficient, formal and final cause.

Method: By decomposing the concept of fraternity into its main constituent elements (“causes”), it is possible to conclude the necessity of a “circular” analysis, because those elements cannot be defined independently.

Results: Thus, adopting the aforementioned circular analysis model, alterity, recognition, golden rule and community are mutually referent: each of the four concepts can only be fully grasped in the light of the other three.

Conclusions: In this sense, fraternity exists when there is reciprocal recognition (community) of human beings as people (alterity), according to a procedure of practical reason known as the golden rule.

Author Biography

Luis Fernando Barzotto, UFRGS

Doutor em Direito pela Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Professor Titular da Faculdade de Direito da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) e Professor Permanente do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Direito - PPGDir./UFRGS com ênfase na área de Filosofia do Direito. Porto Alegre - RS - BR.

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Published

2025-02-04

How to Cite

BARZOTTO, Luis Fernando. Fraternity causes: a conceptual investigation. Revista Opinião Jurídica (Fortaleza), Fortaleza, v. 23, n. 42, p. 1–23, 2025. DOI: 10.12662/2447-6641oj.v23i42.p1-23.2025. Disponível em: https://periodicos.unichristus.edu.br/opiniaojuridica/article/view/5263. Acesso em: 5 jun. 2026.

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 42 (2025)

Section

Artigos Originais

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Copyright (c) 2024 Luis Fernando Barzotto

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