Non common

Abstract

In this essay, part of his book Politics and negation: for an affirmative philosophy, the Italian philosopher Roberto Esposito analyses property as a political category of the Modern. As such, property would have been constituted and would operate through the negative, that is, through the denial of its contrary. For, such as it occurs with the sovereignty and freedom, is typical of the fundamental categories of the Modern their definition through the denial of what they are not, remaining constitutionally coupled with their opposites. Archaeologically exploring the modern construction of the institute – from its definition as a natural right, fruit of human labor, until its volatilization as a mere legal title –, Esposito demonstrates that the property was constituted not as a positive entity, but in the form of the negation of the original reality which is in its basis: the common.