Estado e virtude: o perfeccionismo pluralista da nova teoria da lei natural

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the relationship between the State and human virtue in light of the pluralistic perfectionism advocated by the New Natural Law Theory, in order to ascertain whether this theory can provide a more secure foundation for guaranteeing and protecting fundamental rights than its competitors. To achieve this goal, through national and foreign bibliographic review, firstly, the metaethical basis arising from the reinterpretation of natural law theory from the 1960s will be analyzed, specifying the role of practical reason, basic human goods, and morality. Subsequently, the implications for the political sphere of the principles formulated based on practical reasoning will be examined, with emphasis on the concepts of community, political common good, subsidiarity, and authority. Furthermore, a preliminary dialectical approach to anti-perfectionism, argued by John Rawls and Ronald Dworkin, is proposed with the aim of promoting critical reflection in light of the theory to be investigated. Subsequently, the pluralistic perfectionism advocated by the New Natural Law Theory will be analyzed, as well as its principled and prudential limits. Finally, a case study will be presented to verify the application of perfectionist theory to the right to religious freedom.