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Continued from here.
The Anthropological Foundation of Politics
The exertion of influence by human beings on one another is a fundamental condition of man's existence. In essence, politics is wielding influence. In order to live, man therefore occupies himself interminably with activities that are political in nature, though they may not coincide with a narrower conception of politics—like the sort of stuff reported in the politics section of your daily paper.
The Needs-Inventing Animal, Human Language and the Infinity of Human Learning
Human beings are a special part of nature—not something alien to or outside of nature. What makes human animals special is their ability to survive by a unique form of adaptation: in order to survive, human beings change the environment in which they live. They do this by imagining and inventing or discovering new desires, which they then seek to attain. In all other animals, the ability to imagine new desires and to manufacture the satisfaction of newly derived needs is far less developed than in humans. Unlike human beings, whose ability to learn is virtually unlimited, all other animals are narrowly constrained by their instinctual apparatus in (a) their propensity to expand their understanding of the world around them and (b) their capabilities to continuously and systematically acquire new knowledge. Ultimately these limitations are due to the fact that animals, though equipped with linguistic abilities, lack the higher functions characteristic of human language which endow us with exceptional learning capabilities.
In
particular, humans are able to describe inner states, personal
experiences, and visions intelligibly to fellow humans, thus turning subjective perspectives into objects of common experience. Unlike other animals, human beings are capable of building unlimited networks of shared experience allowing for cooperative learning that relies on competitive assessment of the
common objects of experience from dispersed and in certain respects unequal standpoints. Humans are able to develop mental
techniques improving the logical consistency, the empirical veracity, and
the practical usefulness of a world assembled in their communicating minds from experiences dispersed enough to cause varied perception yet also sufficiently similar to make for shared objects of reference.
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Humans are able to teach themselves and other
humans to apprehend completely new aspects of the world—including, how
to improve their learning ability. Indeed, the social nature of
processing cognitive input is the key to human intelligence and the
continuous broadening and improvement of mankind's stock of knowledge.
Human language vastly increases and alters in quality the human drive to influence other humans. To survive, man must be cognitively active, yet to be cognitively active is to experience in so many ways a different world than your fellow creatures.
Epistemologically speaking,
- human objectivity in the sense of being able to make subjective cognitive states of one person the object of experience by other human beings, and vice versa
This ability of communicating a mutually experienceable world is perforce hugely invasive, as it is liable to make us question, undermine, shatter, and perhaps even destroy, the views on which a person's conception of the world is based.
Language in its specifically human variant and the peculiar form of objectivity that it gives rise to set us apart from all other animals, making us humans, i.e. needs-inventing animals that adapt to their environment by constantly discovering new needs and trying to fulfil them.
Discovery of new needs and trials of fulfilling conceived
desires necessarily give rise to conflict but also help develop cooperation, and ensure tolerable or even improved coexistence. People
are constantly engaged in figuring out whether they are in a
conflict-type of situation or in one that allows for cooperation. Admittedly, this holds for other animals as well. But the
supply of choices is immeasurably more ample and complex in the case of
human animals. Thus, uniquely, we can even figure out what other humans are
trying to figure out given their ability to know that we might be
figuring out what they are figuring out.
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Language and the Social Nature of Man
At the deepest levels of humanity — language, communication and self-conciousness — which delineates the basic condition of being human rather than any other animal, man is a social being, as opposed to a pure individual. He is affected by the perspectives and responses of other individuals and the constraints that emerge in the process of coordinating several human action. His identity is tied to relations with other individuals and the institutions and effects on him of human interaction. He is a relational being, not an owner of monadic qualities — such as exclusively personal rights — that are falsely supposed to ensure a natural and absolute autonomy of the individual.
There is no such thing as self-ownership — any possessive status, indeed any right, must be (a) fought out or (b) negotiated with other human claimants, or (c) accepted or (d) endured on account of results brought about by the action of other humans. There are no rights other than those commanding temporary social acceptance subject to contestation by other members of the community and eventual withdrawal. In short: social relationships are all-pervasive in defining the individual's scope; they make up the texture of sanctioned and forbidden relations that stake out latitude and limits of individual self-expression.
There is no such thing as self-ownership — any possessive status, indeed any right, must be (a) fought out or (b) negotiated with other human claimants, or (c) accepted or (d) endured on account of results brought about by the action of other humans. There are no rights other than those commanding temporary social acceptance subject to contestation by other members of the community and eventual withdrawal. In short: social relationships are all-pervasive in defining the individual's scope; they make up the texture of sanctioned and forbidden relations that stake out latitude and limits of individual self-expression.
In order to manage his identity, and the attendant personal interests, he must relate to others, engage in and handle relationships that feed back into the profile and the limits of his individuality.
Man is bound to be the target of influence exerted by other agents. He can deal with these influences and his own needs only by becoming an influence-seeker himself, trying to affect what affects him, impacting back what seeks to impact him, or initiating acts of influencing to advance his interests.
Political Conduct Is Built Into Human Nature
Therefore, in his most fundamentally human condition, man is a political animal, a political agent, the source of political designs. Politics becomes a specialised branch of the division of labour among human beings, boasting a dedicated infrastructure, institutions—royal courts, parties, parliaments etc— and a political order—aristocracy, monarchy, democracy etc.
However, this should not make us forget that eventually politics becomes a special practice, even a profession, only because the fundamental force of politics is inherent in the human condition as it inevitably makes itself felt in the ordinary conduct of human life. We have always been political, even before we specialised in politics as a distinct form of art and artisanship, craft and wizardry, pastime and profession. To be human is to be political. See also my The Political Habitus for an explanation of how massive political impetus is lodged in private activities conducted in civil society as opposed to the the arenas expressly dedicated to politics.
However, this should not make us forget that eventually politics becomes a special practice, even a profession, only because the fundamental force of politics is inherent in the human condition as it inevitably makes itself felt in the ordinary conduct of human life. We have always been political, even before we specialised in politics as a distinct form of art and artisanship, craft and wizardry, pastime and profession. To be human is to be political. See also my The Political Habitus for an explanation of how massive political impetus is lodged in private activities conducted in civil society as opposed to the the arenas expressly dedicated to politics.
Diversity and conflict, the capacity and need to exert and balance influence among human beings, inhere in the most basic of all human characteristics: the ability to employ the human language, to speak as only a human does. Everything specifically human flows from this crucial competence, which is naturally social, conflict-inducing but also conflicting-resolving.
The Political Nature of Language and Human Intelligence
Animals
do not negotiate. They do not alter what is fixed by instinct. Man
transcends instinct. He does things that nature would not allow him to
do. He flies, he is cosy and warm in the winter, he sees things that
nature does not allow him to see. He acts against what are settled
issues, as far as nature is concerned. Man changes the framework that
conditions him. He does so thanks to a language that allows him to
expand his intelligence beyond its innate scope, and he pursues this
project not only as a private agent but by linking up the entire species
in the incessant pursuit of enhanced knowledge.
The practice of language creates objectivity among human beings. It makes (parts of) our innermost experiencing—something incommunicable in other animals—accessible to examination by alien minds. Human objectivity—the exposure of private thought to public scrutiny—means that our minds interpenetrate. We admit another person to our thoughts, even in stating something as trivial as "It's a lovely day". The pronouncement has invited another person to share what is going on in my mind, to take possession—in a sense—of my thoughts by co-experiencing, empathising, evaluating, doubting, challenging, correcting, denying the part of my inner that gets released to the outside world through language. The use of human language is a public act. Naturally interpersonal, it lifts the veil of privacy from our thoughts. The use of human language is a social act, a practice whereby we engage in social relationships, an event whereby we relate to one another by entering into the minds of other people. Language is intensely social. It creates relations between people—relations of mutual influencing. What I say affects the listener; what I say, or write for that matter, is an influence on her, however minute or banal. It adds at least an accent to our relationship, thereby establishing it to begin with or changing it. Such as when my chattering causes a silent stranger at the neighbouring table in a café to think "Can't he just shut up!"
The urge to actively alter or to react to the way another person behaves comes in the same package that gives us language and with it: insight into the intimate world of another person's experience, advanced learning skills, a supple and rich imagination, and access—by written documents and hearsay—to the dead and the millions that we do not and will never know in person. Language makes us position ourselves vis-à-vis other people whose utterances stimulate and mould our dispositions: "what a boring thing to say!", "careful, she does not understand that ...", "I will not tolerate this!", "I think he likes me", "oh, I see! That's how it works", "good thing, he does not realise x, I can go ahead as planned".
An Unending Supply of Political Scarcity and The Productive Power of Dissent
By default, language makes us socially invasive. While it makes us intrude and quarrel and disagree and multiply the rivalry of views and interests dispersed among humans, it is at the same time a competitive force imposing on us discipline and severe evolutionary pressure to enlist cooperative strategies in our struggle for survival.
Both conflict and cooperation are the outcome of human learning, our language-based ability to adapt to new insights and possibilities.
The human capacity to differ on the kinds of social practices deemed desirable is infinite, and so is the range of options to exercise influence in favour of old and new social regularities. For that reason, ultimately, politics is indeterminate in its directions and outcomes. Which is one of the reasons why we do not know the future, and one of the reasons that, even wisely principled, politics cannot be replaced by principles altogether. Observance of certain principles will tend to improve politics. Yet, politics cannot be fully determined by principles, for politics—efforts at influencing what counts as valid in a human community—is the force that translates human learning into social change and inexorably erodes and renews principles.
To be finished.
The practice of language creates objectivity among human beings. It makes (parts of) our innermost experiencing—something incommunicable in other animals—accessible to examination by alien minds. Human objectivity—the exposure of private thought to public scrutiny—means that our minds interpenetrate. We admit another person to our thoughts, even in stating something as trivial as "It's a lovely day". The pronouncement has invited another person to share what is going on in my mind, to take possession—in a sense—of my thoughts by co-experiencing, empathising, evaluating, doubting, challenging, correcting, denying the part of my inner that gets released to the outside world through language. The use of human language is a public act. Naturally interpersonal, it lifts the veil of privacy from our thoughts. The use of human language is a social act, a practice whereby we engage in social relationships, an event whereby we relate to one another by entering into the minds of other people. Language is intensely social. It creates relations between people—relations of mutual influencing. What I say affects the listener; what I say, or write for that matter, is an influence on her, however minute or banal. It adds at least an accent to our relationship, thereby establishing it to begin with or changing it. Such as when my chattering causes a silent stranger at the neighbouring table in a café to think "Can't he just shut up!"
The urge to actively alter or to react to the way another person behaves comes in the same package that gives us language and with it: insight into the intimate world of another person's experience, advanced learning skills, a supple and rich imagination, and access—by written documents and hearsay—to the dead and the millions that we do not and will never know in person. Language makes us position ourselves vis-à-vis other people whose utterances stimulate and mould our dispositions: "what a boring thing to say!", "careful, she does not understand that ...", "I will not tolerate this!", "I think he likes me", "oh, I see! That's how it works", "good thing, he does not realise x, I can go ahead as planned".
An Unending Supply of Political Scarcity and The Productive Power of Dissent
By default, language makes us socially invasive. While it makes us intrude and quarrel and disagree and multiply the rivalry of views and interests dispersed among humans, it is at the same time a competitive force imposing on us discipline and severe evolutionary pressure to enlist cooperative strategies in our struggle for survival.
Both conflict and cooperation are the outcome of human learning, our language-based ability to adapt to new insights and possibilities.
The human capacity to differ on the kinds of social practices deemed desirable is infinite, and so is the range of options to exercise influence in favour of old and new social regularities. For that reason, ultimately, politics is indeterminate in its directions and outcomes. Which is one of the reasons why we do not know the future, and one of the reasons that, even wisely principled, politics cannot be replaced by principles altogether. Observance of certain principles will tend to improve politics. Yet, politics cannot be fully determined by principles, for politics—efforts at influencing what counts as valid in a human community—is the force that translates human learning into social change and inexorably erodes and renews principles.
...
Rivalry is at the heart of knowledge — it is its most precious source.
To be finished.
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