A ética e a saúde do trabalhador no âmbito do capitalismo cognitico-cultural

Abstract

This article presents a theoretical study about the relationship between ethics and workers’ health on the cognitive-cultural capitalism context. We discuss issues such as “government of will”, “psychologization” of the social relations, “flexibility”, “work individualization,” and “paradigm of activation”, and confront these issues with the ethical thesis of the radical alterity (or radical otherness), discussed by Emmanuel Levinas, and consequences of these issues for the workers’ health. We also analyze the moralizer nature of this speech, which “psychologize” spaces and social phenomena so as to depoliticize and blame individuals and indemnify the State. An analytical and critical method was used in this study, with a qualitative perspective and a eminently theoretical character, with deconstructionist purpose, once the studied phenomenon has polysemic nature and presents itself as capable of being spread over the several fields of social practices. In the discussion topic, we analyze aspects found in the capitalist system, from a levinasian ethical perspective, emphasizing the social consequences that are hidden in the market speech.