%0 Journal Article
%T Natural-Historical Diagrams: The ¡®New Global¡¯ Movement and the Biological Invariant
%A Paolo Virno
%J Cosmos and History : the Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy
%D 2009
%I Cosmos and History Publishing Co-op.
%X This article puts forward the thesis that the contemporary global movement against capitalism, and the post-Fordist regime it is responding to, is best understood in terms of the emergence of ¡®human nature¡¯ as the crux of political struggle. According to Virno, the biological invariant has become the raw material of social praxis because the capitalist relation of production mobilizes to its advantage, in a historically unprecedented way, the species-specific prerogatives of Homo sapiens. Through the concept of ¡®natural-historical diagrams¡¯, the article explores the significance of socio-political states of affairs which directly display key aspects of anthropogenesis, and, making use of Ernesto De Martino¡¯s concept of ¡®cultural apocalypses¡¯, considers the different relations that a biological ¡®background¡¯ and a socio-political ¡®foreground¡¯ entertain in traditional and contemporary societies. The attempt to develop a ¡®natural history¡¯ of such diagrams leads Virno to reflecting on the importance of the language faculty, neoteny, non-specialization and the absence of a predetermined natural environment for political action. This reflection on the contemporary importance of political anthropology leads Virno to a set of concluding remarks on the role of ethics and the idea of the ¡®good life¡¯ in the practice of the ¡®new global¡¯ movement.
%K Anthropology
%K Capitalism
%K Chomsky
%K De Martino
%K Human Nature
%K Language
%K Marx
%K Neoteny
%K New Global Movement
%K Peirce
%U http://www.cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/129