Abstract

The lecture begins with a definition of violence as contingency – i.e. corporeity and morality – considered as the essence of man and instrumental to it. It will be then pointed out how the relationship between violence and politics has been understood by the main tradition of modern thought: rationalism, dialectics and negative thought. Lastly, it will be shown that the main modern political institution – the State – is not able anymore to neutralize violence, and that the latter permeates through the whole social, economical and political body both in new and in old shapes.