CHAPTER TWO
▲▲▲How to Bring the
Collective Together
The lengthy chapter preceding this one sought to make it clear that
the terms “nature” and “society” do not designate domains of reality;
instead, they refer to a quite specific form of public organization. Not
everything is political, perhaps, but politics gathers everything to-
gether, so long as we agree to redefine politics asthe entire set of tasks
that allow the progressive composition of a common world*. Now,
professional politicians are not the only ones who have taken on these
tasks: for a long time, in the West, scientists have occupied a prepon-
derant place, thanks to the kingly power they have held by natural
right. Political philosophy, in spite of Hobbes, has never really under-
stood the Gospel text according to which “every kingdom divided
against itself is headed for ruin” (Matt. 12:25), for political philosophy
has gone on focusing exclusively on the world of human politics, as if
there were nothing the matter, leaving most questions to be sorted out
elsewhere, in secret, out of court, in an assembly of nonhuman objects
that were undertaking mysterious operations to decide what nature
was made of and what sort of unity we humans formed with nature.
By dividing public life into two incommensurable houses, the old
Constitution led only to paralysis, since it achieved only premature
unity for nature and endless dispersion for cultures. The old Constitu-
tion thus finally resulted in the formation oftwo equally illicit assem-
blies:the first, brought together under the auspices of Science, was ille-
gal, because it defined the common world without recourse to due
process; the second was illegitimate by birth, since it lacked the reality
of the things that had been given over to the other house and had to
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