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    Notes On "Space and Nomos" by Felipe Martínez Marzoa

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    Diego Martínez
    The document discusses the concept of "space" and how it relates to "nomos", which is the Greek word for law or boundary. It argues that viewing space as indifferent to boundaries, where any division is as valid as any other, would mean that no division is actually valid. It also examines the idea of space lacking any collective identities or communities, with only individuals and individual rights existing. This prospect would eliminate sovereign communities and internal group delimitations, resulting in no collective identities at all.

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    Notes On "Space and Nomos" by Felipe Martínez Marzoa

    Uploaded by

    Diego Martínez
    42 views2 pages
    The document discusses the concept of "space" and how it relates to "nomos", which is the Greek word for law or boundary. It argues that viewing space as indifferent to boundaries, where any division is as valid as any other, would mean that no division is actually valid. It also examines the idea of space lacking any collective identities or communities, with only individuals and individual rights existing. This prospect would eliminate sovereign communities and internal group delimitations, resulting in no collective identities at all.

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    Notes on “Space and Nomos” by Felipe Martínez Marzoa

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    The document discusses the concept of "space" and how it relates to "nomos", which is the Greek word for law or boundary. It argues that viewing space as indifferent to boundaries, where any division is as valid as any other, would mean that no division is actually valid. It also examines the idea of space lacking any collective identities or communities, with only individuals and individual rights existing. This prospect would eliminate sovereign communities and internal group delimitations, resulting in no collective identities at all.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    42 views2 pages

    Notes On "Space and Nomos" by Felipe Martínez Marzoa

    Uploaded by

    Diego Martínez
    The document discusses the concept of "space" and how it relates to "nomos", which is the Greek word for law or boundary. It argues that viewing space as indifferent to boundaries, where any division is as valid as any other, would mean that no division is actually valid. It also examines the idea of space lacking any collective identities or communities, with only individuals and individual rights existing. This prospect would eliminate sovereign communities and internal group delimitations, resulting in no collective identities at all.

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    Notes on “Space and ​Nomos​” by Felipe Martínez Marzoa, S​ outh Atlantic Quarterly​ 104:2 (2005): 307-311 

     
    Space  is  to  be  divided.  Perhaps  we  can  assume  space  is  nothing  but  the  pure  possibility  of  division,  that in 
    which  no  particular  boundaries  are  better  than  others.  This  indifference is the reason why every attempt to 
    match  space  with  ​nomos  must  be  a  seriously  doubtful  thing.  Space  rather  seems  to  be  the  absence  of  any 
    nomos​.  Space,  as  far  as  it  really  involves  indifference  as  to  the  option  among  particular divisions, cannot be 
    accepted  as  a  primary  phenomenon,  for  such  a  primary  condition  would  make  every  boundary  as  valid  as 
    every  other,  with  the  consequence  that  no  division would be valid at all. p. 307 [D: intercambia espacio por 
    tiempo  y  se  obtiene  cierta  línea  argumentativa  de  ​Heidegger  y  su  tiempo​.  Es  interesante  que  aquí  Marzoa 
    asume que h​ ay, por supuesto, validez​.] 
    The  necessity  of  giving  this  complex  a  very  initial place brings Schmitt to speak of “primitive meaning” of a 
    word,  a  very  unrigorous  notion,  whose opportune (and erroneous) application to ​nomos sets the concept of 
    a  division  of  space  at  the  basis  of  all.  The  spell of such a prestigious Greek word should preserve the secrecy 
    of  the  compatibility  between  space  being the indifference as to the location of boundaries and, on the other 
    hand,  the  fact  that  there  should  be  qualified  limits,  space boundaries that are ​nomos while others are not. p. 
    308 
    In  any case, the presupposition of space in this modern sense [i.e. space as indifference to the limits] involves 
    something like a contradiction, because being is inseparable from limit. p. 308 
    Thus  we  are  induced  to  ask  where  this  dynamics  [the  indifference  as  to  the  limits  and  therefore  of 
    unlimitedness]  is  taking  us;  it  seems  [...]  the  suggested  unlimitedness  will  involve  two  aspects:  gradual 
    elimination,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  status  “beyond  the line” and, on the other hand, also disappearance of 
    the  internal  delimitations  (collective  identities)  on  this  side  of  the  line;  so,  in  both  senses,  no  collective 
    identities at all. p. 308 
    [...]  the  prospect  is  that  there will not be sovereign communities anymore, only individuals and rights of the 
    individual  ─  that  is  to  say,  the  classical  principle  (or,  perhaps  better,  nominal  definition  of  “right”)  that  I 
    have  the  right  to  do  what  I  decide,  as  far  as  this  is  not  incompatible  with  the  fact that everyone else can do 
    the  same,  which is tautologically the rule in a situation in which the individual does not essentially belong to 
    any community. p. 309 
    [...]  the  acknowledgment  of  something  that  must  be  the  same  for  all  generates  a  uniform  space,  whose 
    uniformity  makes  arbitrary  [p.  310]  any  location  of  the  limits  of  this  space  itself  and  thus  bursts  the 
    community whose statue should have been established. pp. 309-310 
    Another  way  to  say  the  same  thing:  regular  interchange within the community (“you are you, I am I,” “this 
    is  this,  that  is that,” the distance which makes this be this and that be that) presupposes a community, so the 
    fact  that  there  are  binding contents, binding things, so also the fact that the interchangeability is not general 
    (i.e.,  that  things  are  not  exchangeable  for  other  things  without  limitations  as  to  the  type  of  things),  and  so 
    on: this history has already been related. p. 310 
    When  I  said  above  space  as  indifference  to  the  limits  began  to  be  valid  with  the  Hellenistic  epoch,  this 
    “began  to  be  valid”  was  a  way  to  refer  to  the  situation  that  results  from  this  bursting  of  the  polis  which  I 
    have just said is the consequence of the fact p​ olis i​ tself. p. 310 
    [...]  in  order  to  understand  certain  things  Schmitt  seems  to  take  for  granted,  we must assume a situation in 
    which  not  only  has  that  community  “burst,”  but  also  basic  suppositions operate that positively involve the 
    absence  of  any  community,  namely,  that  there  is,  at  least  as  ruling  tendency,  what  we  call  the  ​ware​,1  the 
    thing  as  exchangeable  for  other  things  without limitation as to the type of things, which, tautologically, can 
    occur  about  a  thing  only  in  the  case  it  occurs  about  every  thing;  this,  as  we  have  already  said,  implies  the 
    absence  of  binding  contents.  The  concept  of  ware  in  this  sense  involves  the  whole  structure  we  call  civil 
    society,  and  this  it  is  this  structure  that  I  have meant when I spoke of basic position of space as indifference 
    to the limits. p. 310 
     

    1
    ​See my articles ‘‘Estado y legitimidad’’ and ‘‘Estado y pólis,’’ in Los filósofos y la política, ed. M. Cruz (Madrid: Fondo 
    de Cultura Económica, 1999), 85–115​. Nota al pie luego de aparecer la palabra w ​ are​ (mercancía). 

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