Ethos, estase e polidez: interações conflituosas no STF acerca da liberdade do ex-presidente Lula

Abstract

The juridical field is very intriguing for the argumentation area once juridical reasoning is revisable (DAMASCENO-MORAIS, 2019), in which the Supreme Federal Court (STF) is the highest organ of Brazilian Judiciary, responsible for assigning the final decision. By using the Dialogal Model of Argumentation (PLANTIN, 2008, 2018; GRÁCIO, 2010, 2013), we analyzed discussions between STF ministers in the judgment of the annulment of Lula’s conviction, where the theme of corruption came up, putting on the spotlight the ethos / image (ARISTÓTELES, 2005) of the ministers, since they are expected to have a virtuous ethos when it comes to such a delicate issue for Brazilian society as corruption. As a result of our analysis, we verified that the (de)construction of the virtuous ethos promotes stasis (conflict) in argumentative situations between Supreme Court ministers.