Animale istituzionale Regole, giochi linguistici e pluralismo politico

Abstract

In this paper I will put forward the following hypothesis: the “original phenomena” of the Homo Sapiens is the capacity to invent institutions. The invention of institutions, and more specifically, the definition of rules, can only occur within society. The constitutive relationship between creativity and legality is not conceivable outside a relational space that anticipates the distinction between inside and outside. It is because we are immersed in a pre-individual dimension, that anticipates and allows for the process of individuation we undergo, that we are an inventive species, able to amend the imperfections and weaknesses of our instincts. The starting point of the analysis will be the writings of Gilles Deleuze, composed at the beginning of the 50ies, on the concept of institution as rule and convention, with particular reference to Hume. We will then analyze: the pre-individual dimension that precedes and influences the invention of institutions, making use of the notion of “potential space” developed by Donald W. Winnicott; the relationship between the multiplicity of language games and rules, in particular between language and the creation of institutions, as described by Wittgenstein. Finally we will briefly sketch the hypothesis that the issue of the creation of institutions provides the necessary frame to imagine a form of political pluralism that is hostile to state sovereignty.