The Practice of Governance, Social Compartmentalization and Fragmentation of Desires

Abstract

This article aims to relate natural teleology to the practice of governance. To do so, it presents the phenomenon of social fragmentation and evaluates it –following A. MacIntyre– as a negative aspect of contemporary social (dis)order due to the moral and psychological disintegration it promotes among ordinary people. Such disintegration leads to conflict and confusion between desires and goods. Among the causes of fragmentation, analytical philosophy and the social theory of existentialism stand out and, at their core, the abandonment of natural teleology. Institutional governance is not immune to fragmentation, so the author suggests that a perspective that explicitly integrates natural teleology in the practice of governance may have practical implications in decision-making and can constitute a significant, albeit partial, contribution to achieving social and moral cohesion.