Abstract

«Brotherhood» is a word with clear references to the religious lexicon and which has known discontinuous successes as a political category without ever being able to translate into effective and inclusive social action. It is a word that has not been so incisive as to scratch the drifts of exasperated individualism, ethical indifferentism, the crisis of relational plots as well as inclusive and community political projects. If the Genesis account «Joseph and his brothers» reveals the drama of the denial of brotherhood, the counterpoint offered by the reflection of the German-speaking Jewish philosopher Martin Buber presents it as the regulating principle of freedom and equality. If lived fraternally, freedom does not become the will of the strongest and equality does not degenerate into an oppressive egalitarianism. Therefore, it is a principle that the more it has been forgotten, the more it reveals itself as essential to realize the failed project of modernity, that is of an inclusive and democratically open political system to the needs of the individual and of each. Thinking about brotherhood as the ethos of a community allows us to trace the ways in which the disposition towards the other as a neighbor and as a brother can re-convert hatred and conflicts, thanks to the art of mediation and mutual solidarity, creating practices and modalities of coexistence extendable even beyond the circle of the naturalness of family and parental relationships.