The chapter investigates the concrete origin and phenomenology of the human experience of politics. Kafka’s ‘Before the Law’ allowed portraying the law of nature into which the political is rooted from a symbolic and literary point of view. It is now necessary to establish the correspondence between this hermeneutic and the tangible reality experienced and perceived by human beings. This need requires careful consideration of Aristotle’s political (and moral) theory, in particular his notion of desire. Aristotle’s faceted understanding of desire—particularly when the general desire as orexis is more specifically defined as epithumia—helps in comprehending the natural drives that literally propel humans to the movement, in time and space, towards (and within) the political. This movement indeed sets the initial conditions from which political experience originates and within which it is grounded. Therefore, questions such as ‘What is politics?’, ‘What is its foundation?’ and ‘Does politics really have and/or need a foundation?’ must all be addressed in light of this primary founding movement. Is the movement to which Kafka’s man from the countryside is subjected already political in itself, or rather may it lead towards the political? The only logically viable answer is ‘both’, and for this reason (perhaps only), apparently aporetic. This original movement is political insofar as it serves as an indispensable precondition; without such a drive, politics cannot exist. At the same time, it also leads towards the political and must, therefore, be fathomed to understand the nature and implications of its trajectory. From the prior chapters, it is a matter of examining the relationship between this movement and the being and/or becoming of the political. Notably, man is not at the origin of this primary movement to which it is subjected; however, man can determine its trajectory. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to discuss how politics is, on the one hand, an ontologically spontaneous and innate condition—demonstrated by the idea of ineludible movement—that renders the being of humans fundamentally political. On the other hand, the (political) being of humans also implies an actuation, a becoming, that can also not be accomplished. This indicates that politics is a space/time experience into which humans are naturally thrust, yet it is also an experience still to be positively accessed and fully realised. In this sense, the being and becoming of humans are co-existent in politics. This tension between ‘being already political’ and ‘being political yet to come’ (or be-coming political) evokes Aristotle’s distinction between power and act, or the difference between being differently. On the one hand, Aristotle’s distinction adeptly addresses the question of the ‘becoming of being’; on the other, it must contend with the rigorous application of Aristotelian logic, which prohibits overlooking the argument about the univocity of being, which cannot be so easily divided internally. Given the principle of ‘tertium non datur’, it becomes essential to comprehend whether, how, and when the being political and the becoming political coexist or are differentiated. Thus, this chapter concludes by asserting that politics is an ontological evolution—precisely and substantially—a movement, a dynamis, a perpetual and unfolding endeavour, the actuation of which requires the continuous pursuit of the animal-man’s potentiality. Politics serves as that movement that gives a trait-d’union between the Aristotelian animal-man who alone is and can continue to be political. The scope of the next chapters is thus to emphasise and deepen the evolutionary process inherent in politics and its implications.

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The Moving Animal: Aristotle’s Political Desire

  • Elia R. G. Pusterla,
  • Francesca Pusterla Piccin

摘要

The chapter investigates the concrete origin and phenomenology of the human experience of politics. Kafka’s ‘Before the Law’ allowed portraying the law of nature into which the political is rooted from a symbolic and literary point of view. It is now necessary to establish the correspondence between this hermeneutic and the tangible reality experienced and perceived by human beings. This need requires careful consideration of Aristotle’s political (and moral) theory, in particular his notion of desire. Aristotle’s faceted understanding of desire—particularly when the general desire as orexis is more specifically defined as epithumia—helps in comprehending the natural drives that literally propel humans to the movement, in time and space, towards (and within) the political. This movement indeed sets the initial conditions from which political experience originates and within which it is grounded. Therefore, questions such as ‘What is politics?’, ‘What is its foundation?’ and ‘Does politics really have and/or need a foundation?’ must all be addressed in light of this primary founding movement. Is the movement to which Kafka’s man from the countryside is subjected already political in itself, or rather may it lead towards the political? The only logically viable answer is ‘both’, and for this reason (perhaps only), apparently aporetic. This original movement is political insofar as it serves as an indispensable precondition; without such a drive, politics cannot exist. At the same time, it also leads towards the political and must, therefore, be fathomed to understand the nature and implications of its trajectory. From the prior chapters, it is a matter of examining the relationship between this movement and the being and/or becoming of the political. Notably, man is not at the origin of this primary movement to which it is subjected; however, man can determine its trajectory. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to discuss how politics is, on the one hand, an ontologically spontaneous and innate condition—demonstrated by the idea of ineludible movement—that renders the being of humans fundamentally political. On the other hand, the (political) being of humans also implies an actuation, a becoming, that can also not be accomplished. This indicates that politics is a space/time experience into which humans are naturally thrust, yet it is also an experience still to be positively accessed and fully realised. In this sense, the being and becoming of humans are co-existent in politics. This tension between ‘being already political’ and ‘being political yet to come’ (or be-coming political) evokes Aristotle’s distinction between power and act, or the difference between being differently. On the one hand, Aristotle’s distinction adeptly addresses the question of the ‘becoming of being’; on the other, it must contend with the rigorous application of Aristotelian logic, which prohibits overlooking the argument about the univocity of being, which cannot be so easily divided internally. Given the principle of ‘tertium non datur’, it becomes essential to comprehend whether, how, and when the being political and the becoming political coexist or are differentiated. Thus, this chapter concludes by asserting that politics is an ontological evolution—precisely and substantially—a movement, a dynamis, a perpetual and unfolding endeavour, the actuation of which requires the continuous pursuit of the animal-man’s potentiality. Politics serves as that movement that gives a trait-d’union between the Aristotelian animal-man who alone is and can continue to be political. The scope of the next chapters is thus to emphasise and deepen the evolutionary process inherent in politics and its implications.