'Civil war by other means': Conflict, resistance and coexistence in Colombia. Exploring the philosophy and politics of Alasdair MacIntyre in a conflict setting

摘要

Colombia's protracted civil war between Marxist insurgencies and the state hasudbrought grave consequences for the civilian population and the prospects forudconstructing a viable political community in the country. With up to 5 millionudinternally displaced people, rampant impunity for perpetrators of crimes againstudhumanity and human rights and International Humanitarian Law violations,uddozens of politicians and countless members of the armed forces linked toudparamilitary organizations, along with increasing social injustices andudinequalities, Colombia presents a troubling social-political panorama that hasudled to what is often referred to as a profound social and institutional 'moraludcrisis'. Much discussion has centred on the question of achieving some degreeudof minimal moral and political consensus and 'collective conscience' toudhumanize and slowly transform the conflict at local, regional and national levels.udHowever, the philosophical and political parameters of this discussion haveudbeen and continue to be set firmly within variants of the liberal tradition which, itudis argued, does not provide the necessary resources for adequatelyudconceptualizing the problem and conceiving the task of addressing conflict,udconstructing moral consensus, and seeking social and political coexistence. Theudthesis argues that the philosophy of Alasdair MacIntyre can provide suchudresources. MacIntyre provides a convincing account of the philosophicaludproblems that underlie ongoing intractable disagreement and the conflicts itudbreeds, offering a philosophy that can inform and underpin efforts at socialudtransformation, resistance, and coexistence as well as aiding the necessaryudtask of social scientific research and analysis of the conflict. The thesis analysesudthe moral dimensions of the conflict in light of MacIntyre's philosophy but alsoudcritically explores the adequacy of his politics of local community for theudColombian context. MacIntyre argues that a rational political community canudonly be constructed through the praxis of local communities engaging in sharedudmoral-political deliberation. Through an empirical case study of a ConstituentudAssembly process in a rural community that has suffered the impacts of armedudconflict for decades, the thesis explores an attempt at constructing peacefuludsocial and political coexistence in light of MacIntyre's moral-sociologicaludframework.