A totalitarian relativism? Alfred Rosenberg, human rights and the “philosophical relativism”

• Autor(a) principal: Chagas, Dante Alexandre Ribeiro das
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Almeida, Philippe Oliveira de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Ciências do Estado (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.ufmg.br/index.php/revice/article/view/e41470
• topic: Alfred Rosenberg; Totalitarism; Relativism; Humanism; Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe; Alfred Rosenberg; Totalitarismo; Relativismo; Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe; Humanismo; Alfred Rosenberg; Totalitarismo; Relativismo; Humanismo; Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe

The aim of this article is to analyze the space occupied by "human rights" in the philosophical system of Alfred Rosenberg. In the postwar period, many authors - such as Hannah Arendt, Hans Kelsen, and Karl Popper - argued that political totalitarianism would be a consequence of "philosophical totalitarianism," that is, of the attempt to create a theoretical model capable of encompassing all spheres of human existence. The Western cult of reason would have led Europe to fascism, rejecting pluralism and cultural diversity. However, none of the authors who developed this approach were concerned with an in-depth analysis of the philosophy produced by Nazi intellectuals during the Third Reich. We need question how Nazi philosophers understood humanism, rationalism, and the tension between universalism and cultural relativism. The reading of Rosenberg's writings - the most influential philosopher of Nazi Germany - refutes the thesis that totalitarianism would derive from the universalist pretension of Western thought. Rosenberg is relativistic and anti-intellectualist, and his theoretical defense of Nazism develops from a critique of "human rights" and, in general, the philosophical search for meta-empirical categories that could serve as a reference for all humanity.