lective, it usurps the functions of political ecology and paralyzes sci-
ence, morality, and politics simultaneously, by imposing a third form
of naturalization. But once it has been emptied of its political preten-
sions, it becomes a profession indispensable to the functions of the
new Constitution, and each of its members brings, through the inter-
mediary of individual skill,an individual contribution to the furnishing of
the houses(p. 136).The contribution of the sciences(p. 137) is going to
be much more important than that of Science, since it will bear on all
the functions at once: perplexity, consultation, hierarchy, and in-
stitution, to which we must add the maintenance of the separation of
powers and the scenarization of the whole. The big difference is that
the politicians’ contribution(p. 143) is going to bear on the same six
tasks, thus permitting a synergy that was impossible earlier, when Sci-
ence was concerned with nature and politics with interests. These
functions are going to become all the more realizable in thatthe contri-
bution of the economists(p. 150) and thenthat of the moralists(p. 154)
will be added, defining a commonconstruction site(p. 161) that takes
the place of the impossible political body of the past.
Thanks to this new organization, the dynamics of the collective is
becoming clear. It rests onthe work of the two houses(p. 164), of which
one, the upper house, represents the power to take into account and
the other, the lower house, represents the power to arrange in rank or-
der.Reception by the upper house(p. 166) has nothing to do with the
old triage between nature and society: it is based on two investiga-
tions, the first undertaken to satisfy the requirement of perplexity, and
the other to satisfy the requirement of consultation. If this first assem-
bly has done a good job, it makesreception by the lower house(p. 172)
much more difficult, because each proposition has become incom-
mensurable with the common world already collected. And yet it is
here that the investigation into the hierarchies that are compatible
among themselves must begin, along with the investigation into the
common designation of the enemy* whose exclusion will be instituted
by the lower house during an explicit procedure. This succession of
stages makes it possible to definea common house(p. 180), a State of
law in the reception of propositions, which finally makes the sciences
compatible with democracy.
chapter 5:A collective whose dynamics has just been thus re-
defined no longer finds itself facing the alternative betweena single
POLITICS OF NATURE
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