Lenguaje, cultura, autoengaño. De Freud a Hobbes

Abstract

Through three key words –language, civilization, self-deception– the paper addresses the issue of civilization discomfort from a strictly philosophical point of view. The threads that link Freud’s speculation to both the contemporary European debate marked by Kultur-Zivilisation dualism and to Hobbes’ ideas expressed in Leviathan are highlighted. The issues of social relations and how they are established, of sovereignty and its genesis through the original killing up to the forms in which power manifests itself today, as well as the social contract structure that turns out to be intrinsically and constitutively a source of conflict, are addressed and widely discussed. In the conclusions, the discourse addresses the questions raised by the transformation of power into “communication” and medium.