Salvo Vaccaro
Università degli Studi di Palermo (salvo.vaccaro(at)unipa.it; orcid: 0000-0002-2244- 3836).
Abstract: The article analyzes anarchist thought as a constitutive negation of the archē, understood both as a political principle and as an ontological foundation. Starting from Catherine Malabou’s observation on the paradox of contemporary anarchism, the author traces the origin of the tension between the negation of authority and the possibility of a non-hierarchical social order back to classical Greek antiquity (Herodotus, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle). Modern anarchism, which emerged in the context of Enlightenment critique, is characterized by the joint articulation of liberty and equality, surpassing the limitations of both liberalism and socialism. The article argues that anarchism does not constitute a political theory but rather a philosophical-political practice, marked by a relational, mobile, and contingent ethos. Far from any definitive palingenesis, anarchism appears as an infinite project of emancipation, rooted in becoming and in the horizontal care of social bonds, with no hetero-normative hypotheses nor mystical foundations of authority.
Keywords: Anarchism; Archē; Political Philosophy; Ethos; Emancipation.