A Discursive Analysis of Jair Bolsonaro: Populist and Ethical (Lack Of) Limits Through Language

Abstract

This article is about the question of ethics in the studies of language and the intersection with philosophy. For this investigation, we chose as a case study the speech delivered by the then controversial Brazilian Federal Congressman Jair Bolsonaro in the vote for the impeachment of the (now former) president, Dilma Rousseff, in 2016. On that occasion, Bolsonaro, upon casting his vote, paid tribute to Colonel Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, responsible for torture during the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985). Our purpose here is to discuss and (try) to formulate a discursive ethics, also calling into question whether some speech acts may be considered unacceptable. To develop our idea, we draw on the theoretical contribution the so-called second Wittgenstein’s perspective of language, more specifically his idea of language as forms of life, put in dialogue with the position on ethics in the language put forwards by the professor of the University of Paris 13 Marie-Anne Paveau in her book Language and Morality: An Ethics of Discursive Virtues.