O pensamento de Ronald Dworkin aplicado à liberdade de expressão artística e uma interface com o caso South Park

Abstract

This study proposes an analysis in light of the thinking of Ronald Dworkin, a renowned contemporary legal philosopher. The focus is on controversies related to politically incorrect artistic humor, using the American series South Park as a paradigm, and its intersection with human rights in a liberal democracy, especially concerning the protection of social groups facing oppressions due to social prejudices. The central hypothesis argues that Dworkin's developed liberal theory, advocating distributive justice of resources, provides a more fitting response to issues involving artistic freedom of expression and hate or prejudiced speech compared to simply imposing censorship as the first and only alternative. A documentary methodology with an analytical perspective was employed. The specific objectives of this study are: (a) to analyze the thinking of jurist Ronald Dworkin by introducing certain milestones in the philosophy of knowledge represented by thinkers such as René Descartes, John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume, and philosophical hermeneutics theorists; (b) to deepen the theory of argumentative nature that allows the search for truth in moral issues through coherent argumentation amalgamated into the notion of integrity; (c) to build a Dworkinian interpretation of artistic freedom of expression, emphasizing general freedom of expression, while simultaneously addressing common objections to answer them and, when relevant, dismissing them from this specific form of freedom. The conclusion highlights: (a) the need to distance suffering as a justification for restricting artistic freedom of expression to ensure individual rights; (b) that freedom is not a demand for abstention solely from third parties and the state but a resource available to individuals in a society with egalitarian foundations; (c) the suppression of expressions of fictional characters, such as those in South Park, through attempts to control the characters' destinies constitutes usurpation of the exercise of artistic rights, a resource that an individual can avail themselves of in a liberal democracy.