all the competencies without managing to redistinguish them, plung-
ing arbitration and arbitrariness into the same neglect of due process.
Is it not the State that has dreamed of a “science-based politics,” a
monster in whose name so many crimes have been committed?^24
One thing is certain: the collective is not the State, and the very
particular form of government that we are seeking to install will not
find fully equipped offices, ready to occupy without remodeling, in
the older building of the Leviathan.^25 Indeed, from the standpoint of
our Constitution, politics becomes as unrecognizable as the sciences:
moreover, neither politics nor the sciencesare powers any longer,but
solelyskillsput to work, in a new way, to stir up the collective as a
whole and get it moving. The only recognized powers, according to
the sketch in the preceding chapter, are those of taking into account
and putting in order, in whichall trades and professionsshare, accord-
ing to their calling. Now, the very principle of the separation of pow-
ers requires us to be highly suspicious of the encroachments of one
function on the others, since each one, although necessary, aspires to
hegemony. We too need our checks and balances. A simple glance at
the summary chart (Box 4.1) shows us that none of the skills necessary
for the activation of the collective and neither of the two powers in
question, the power to take into account or the power to put in order,
could be interested in the quality of the learning curve and concen-
trateexclusively on it.
Left to itself, the upper house, especially if it is alert, will take into
account everything that comes its way, without being at all concerned
about the capacities of the other house to establish a hierarchy among
the candidates presented. The lower house, on its own, will do its
work of hierarchy and institution, simplifying life for itself by re-
jecting as definitively as possible the greatest possible number of be-
ings, reducing them to nonexistence. Moreover, how can a strict sepa-
ration of powers between these two agencies be ensured? The lower
house will always be tempted to prevent the upper house from becom-
ing perplexed by raising as objections the harsh necessities of the
common world, and the first assembly will drown the institutions* of
the second without mercy, while making it see that its established or-
der does not do justice to the incommensurable worlds of the new ar-
rivals. Who is going to take care of guaranteeing the quality of the in-
vestigations that we have listed (see Box 4.2) and that are necessary to
EXPLORING COMMON WORLDS
203