Fagioli’s Birth Theory and human sociality

The word “socialist”, from the Latin “socialitas”, emerged in Italy and in Europe in the mid-eighteenth century to indicate those who believed in human sociality. The paper begins by challenging the view that Left and Right are divided by different attitudes to equality and freedom (as theorized by the Italian political philosopher Norberto Bobbio), and argues that the political distinction between Left and Right must be sought in the fact that forces inspired by socialism believed it was possible to found a society based on human sociality, something which is refuted by anthropological pessimism that characterizes much of Western culture. Yet the question of why humans are inherently social has never had an adequate answer until the publication by Massimo Fagioli of Death instinct and knowledge. The paper goes on and analyses some of the Enlightenment ideas on sociality and the formation of human thought, obtained by means of the five senses and reason, and connects these to the social contract theories of Hobbes, Locke and Rousseau. The paper shows where Fagioli’s Theory of Birth fits into that debate and how it can found a new materialism, as well as show the dialectic method that can lead to effective social transformation. Beyond the Enlightenment, which links thought and ideas to the sensations of the body, and Marxism which brings them back to economic relations, Massimo Fagioli’s Theory of Birth shows the close relationship between the formation of human thought at birth and sociality. The paper explains that relationship in details. The paper concludes that Fagioli’s Theory of Birth does not offer shortcuts to solve the profound and many problems that affect contemporary society, but it paves the way for a new political culture, which many feel the lack of. In fact, it allows us to identify what favors and what hinders human sociality, supported by a corresponding dialectic method.

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