that would have been obvious a long time ago if the fact-value distinc-
tion had not been in place to disturb their coupling. The first set an-
swers just one question:How many new propositions must we take into
account in order to articulate a single common world in a coherent way?
Such is the first power that we seek to recognize in the collective.
The power to take into account brings twoessential guarantees,one
coming from the old facts and the other from the old values. First,
the number of candidate entities must not be arbitrarily reduced in
the interests of facility or convenience. In other words, nothing must
stifle too quickly the perplexity into which the agents find themselves
plunged, owing to the emergence of new beings. This is what could be
called therequirement ofexternalreality—there is no reason not to use
those words now that the words “reality” and “externality” have been
freed of the poison of (political) epistemology. Second, the number of
those which participate in this process of perplexing must not itself be
limited too quickly or too arbitrarily. The discussion would of course
be accelerated, but its outcome would become too easy. It would lack
broader consultation, the only form capable of verifying the impor-
tance and the qualification of the new entities. On the contrary, it is
necessary to make sure that reliable witnesses, assured opinions,
credible spokespersons have been summoned up, thanks to a long ef-
fort of investigation and provocation (in the etymological sense of
“production of voices”).^15 Let us call this constraint therequirement of
relevance,to remind us that all the relevant voices have been convoked.
The second set answers another question:What order must be found
for the common world formed by the set of new and old propositions?Such
is the second power, which we call the power to put in order.
Two essential guarantees ensure a satisfactory answer to this ques-
tion. First, no new entity can be accepted in the common world with-
out concern for its compatibility with those which already have their
place there. It is forbidden, for example, to banish all the secondary
qualities by an ultimatum, on the pretext that one already possesses
the primary qualities that have become, without due process, the
only ingredients of the common world.^16 An explicit work of hier-
archization through compromise and accommodation makes it possi-
ble to take in, as it were, the novelty of the beings that the work of tak-
ing into account would risk multiplying. Such is therequirement of
publicityin the ranking of entities, which replaces the clandestinity
POLITICS OF NATURE
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