L’idée de contre-institution. Saint-Simon avec Jacques Derrida

Abstract

“Counter-institution” is a “French thing,” and part of what I would call French institutionalism. My intention is to thematise this ‘contre’ or ‘against’, this resistance to the institution, but also to reconstruct something more than simple resistance. First, ‘contre’ always implies ‘penser autrement’, which has something to do with utopia. Second, it seems to me that Saint Simon is our eternal contemporary and that his words about Europe are still current – then, as now, Europe is “autre chose” (“penser autre chose”) and contre-institution. Third, as I am following Hume and then Deleuze (who state that the institution always carries incorporated or converted violence), it seems to me that I could make the claim that contre-institution or resistance to the institution is actually an attempt to reduce the indelible trace of violence in the institution.