ISR/IST, Lisbon 16 June 2008

1. UNDERSTANDING THE ECOLOGY OF INSTITUTIONAL LANDSCAPESThe Contribution of Political PhilosophyViriato Soromenho-Marques(University of Lisbon and Lisbon Academy of Sciences) ISR/IST, Lisbon16 June 2008 www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

2. Table of Issues • Why do we care about artificial societies? • What is the political realm of the “mortal God”? • Why are individuals and «factions» social disrupting factors? • The Major Danger: How to Dwell on Earth? • Is there a Political answer? • Final Words www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

3. 1 Why do we care about artificial societies? www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

4. Why do we care about artificial Societies? (1) • The modern perception of social dynamics driven by design shifts: technology, political software, growing individual performances… • The growing feeling of an «ingenuity gap» (Th. Homer-Dixon), also pervasive to the core of political institutions. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

5. Why do we care about artificial Societies? (2) • The belief in the «technological fix» ideology, or in its extreme form: «technological fatality» (the «principle of plenitude» against the «precautionary principle», see: Hermínio Martins). • The constellation of alternative artificial societies: from biopolitics (J.B.S. Haldane, 1923 and John Desmond Bernal, 1929) to transhumanism (Nick Bostrom et al.). www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

6. 2 What is the political realm of the “mortal God”?. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

7. Basic Semantics in Political Philosophy (1) • Three modalities to consider political phenomena: • Politics: The field of pluralistic experiences. • Policy: Trying to stabilize the long run horizon. • Polity: Framing a world for ourselves. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

8. Basic Semantics in Political Philosophy (2) • Two major schools of thought in Western Tradition: • Looking societies as teleological driven experiments (key concepts: unity; efficacy in fulfilling ends; common good). • Looking societies as compacts (pluralism; abiding by rules; pursuit of happiness). www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

9. Three Polity Models(1) • Priorities in Hierarchical Polity Model • Administration (strongly bureaucratic) • Politics (centre<>periphery) • Constitution • >Extreme situation: Military Power www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

10. Three Polity Models(2) • Priorities in Organic Polity Model • Politics (clubs, like in 19th century GB) • Administration • Constitution • >Extreme situation: Tribal Society www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

11. Three Polity Models(3) • Priorities in Covenant Polity Model • Constitution • Politics • Administration • >Extreme situation: Anarchy www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

12. 3 Why are individuals and «factions» social disrupting factors? www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

13. Individuals as a disrupting factor (1) “For there is no such finis ultimus, utmost aim, nor summum bonum, greatest good, as is spoken of in the books of the old moral philosophers […] Felicity is a continual progress of the desire, from one object to another; the attaining of the former, being still but the way to the later […] www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

14. Individuals as a disrupting factor (2) “[…]So that I the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death”, Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (1651), cap. XI, 85-6. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

15. Individuals as a disrupting factor (3) ”É cosa veramente molto naturale e ordinaria desidare di acquistare; e sempre, quando gli uomini lo fanno che possano, saranno laudati o non biasimati..”, Maquiavel, Il Principe (1513). “La servitude volontaire” in Étinee de la Boétie (1530-1563). Die ungesellige Geselligkeit, in Kant (1784). www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

16. Individuals as a disrupting factor (4) • «Le danger de la liberté antique était qu’attentifs uniquement à s’assurer le partage du pouvoir social les hommes ne fissent trop bon marché des droits et des jouissances individuelles.» (liberty to) • b) Le danger de la liberté moderne, c’est qu’absorbés dans la jouissance de notre indépendance privée, et dans la poursuite de nos intéréts particuliers, nous ne renoncions trop facilement à notre droit de partage dans le pouvoir politique. »( 616) (liberty from). www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

17. Sub-societies as a disrupting factor (1) “By a faction, I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community”, Madison, Federalist Paper (1787) 10. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

18. Sub-societies as a disrupting factor (2) • Gender discrimination • Social Classes • Bureaucracies • Vested Interests • Economic Sectors avoiding innovation. • Ethnic Groups with overwhelming decision power. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

19. Remedies against the two first disturbing factors (1) “Constitutions of civil government are not to be framed upon a calculation of existing exigencies, but upon a combination of these with the probable exigencies of ages, according to the natural and tried course of human affairs […] There ought to be a CAPACITY to provide for future contingencies as they may happen”, Hamilton FP 10 www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

20. Remedies against the two first disturbing factors (2) • The Practical Reason Triangle: Ethics, Law and Political wisdom. • The «original position and the veil of ignorance» (John Rawls, 1971) • The “Promise” against “unpredictability” and “pardon” against “irreversibility” (Hannah Arendt). www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

21. 4 The Major Danger: How to Dwell on Earth? www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

22. How to dwell on Earth: the crucial disruption factor (1) “The moment we started natural processes of our own – and splitting the atom is precisely such a man-made natural process – we not only incresead our power over nature (..) but for the first time have taken into the human world as such and obliterated the defensive boundaries between natural elements and the human artifice by which all previous civilizations were hedged in.” H. Arendt, The Concept of History, 60. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

23. How to dwell on Earth: the crucial disruption factor (2) “To act into nature, to carry human unpredictability into a realm where we are confronted with elemental forces which we shall perhaps never be able to control reliably, is dangerous enough. Even more dangerous would it be to ignore that for the first time in our history the human capacity for action has begun to dominate all others.” H. Arendt, op. cit.,62. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

24. Are we able to avoid global collapse? In the path of John Stuart Mill… “(…) system failure will eventually slow down and simplify things for us, whether we like or not. (…) So confronting and changing our values, I’m convinced, will be our greatest challenge of all”,Thomas Homer-Dixon, “Ingenuity Theory: Can Humankind create a Sustainable Civilization?”, 2003 www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

25. What’s new in the environmental global crisis? …exacerbated by the climate change • Planetary dimension • Irreversibility and entropy (massive extinction) • Cumulative acceleration • Growing political and social unrest (decline of classical State's power) www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

26. 5 Is there a Political answer? www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

27. Between “Old” and “New” Values (1) • Ideology of Progress. • Scientific and technical Optimism. • The Core Role Played by State structures (the Ermitage metaphor). • The Teleological (final oriented) conception of historical process • The War Analogy in the Reading of Political Process (Feind-Freund political theory). www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

28. Between “Old” and “New” Values (2) • Pluralism instead of Progress ideology. • Critical Reading of Science-Technology. • Suspicion about State's Power & Performance Capabilities. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

29. Between “Old” and “New” Values (3) • Refusal of any 'end of history' worldview (the 'show must go on'...). • Political Process as integrating Co-operation Behaviour aimed at common Survival. • New Emphasis on the Local Participatory Political Process and in the care for Local Cultural Roots. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

30. Promoting new institutions for common survival and welfare (1) • Promoting a Covenant Polity Model at European and wider Scales (spill over dynamics). • Helping to Promote sustainable development by the rule of law at international cooperation • Contributing to Political and Institutional Improvement: a better Interface Administration<>Civil Society www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

31. Promoting new institutions for common survival and welfare (2) Enhancing societal Conditions for sustainability: • Capacity of Innovation and Reform. • Capacity of Long-run Planning. • Capacity of “social burden-sharing” in a “war-like” experience. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

32. 6 Final Words www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

33. Final Words (1) • “If I had to lay bets, my bet would be what everything is going to go to hell, but you know, what else have we got except hope?” Richard Rorty, interviewed in the Believer, 29 June 2003. www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com

34. Final Words (2) “It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.” Winston Churchill www.viriatosoromenho-marques.com