1 Theorising Agency in International Relations In Hobbes's Wake ...
1 Theorising Agency in International Relations In Hobbes's Wake ...
1 Theorising Agency in International Relations In Hobbes's Wake ...
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possibility of social life. The symbolic designates the broader grid onto which the <strong>in</strong>dividual is hooked,<br />
as it were, as part of her becom<strong>in</strong>g a social, which is to say political be<strong>in</strong>g. This process of hook<strong>in</strong>g<br />
onto or <strong>in</strong>scription is illustrated by the function of nam<strong>in</strong>g (Lacan 1977, 74). The acquisition of a<br />
proper name marks the moment when the child is <strong>in</strong>scribed <strong>in</strong>to the symbolic order. This is the<br />
constitutive moment for the <strong>in</strong>dividual’s identity, the one that makes possible all ulterior identities.<br />
Centrally, this passage from the biological, or the state of nature, to the social order is operated by a<br />
signifier.<br />
Second, the symbolic constitutes one of three ontological categories that structure the<br />
<strong>in</strong>dividual’s relationship to the world, or her ‘reality’. It is thus best understood <strong>in</strong> relation to, on the one<br />
hand, ‘the real’ (which is thus not to be confused with ‘reality’), and ‘the imag<strong>in</strong>ary’ on the other. The<br />
category of the real has been considered Lacan’s central contribution to philosophy (Juranville 1984). It<br />
designates that which is irreducible to words and thus to our efforts to apprehend the world around us.<br />
For to know is to put words to th<strong>in</strong>gs; it is an act of symbolisation. The real thus marks the hard limit of<br />
symbolization; grossly simplified, where words flounder. Examples would be the experience of death or<br />
natural disasters. The imag<strong>in</strong>ary and the symbolic for their part stand <strong>in</strong> relation each another as the<br />
orders of nature and culture respectively. The imag<strong>in</strong>ary constitutes the realm of identifications and<br />
imag<strong>in</strong>ary projections. It is what which humans share with animals. <strong>In</strong> the animal k<strong>in</strong>gdom imagos and<br />
lures form an <strong>in</strong>tegral part of the biological mechanisms of survival and reproduction, notably <strong>in</strong> the use<br />
of camouflage. <strong>In</strong> a developmental perspective, the imag<strong>in</strong>ary is where the <strong>in</strong>dividual dwells before she<br />
enters the social order and which she never completely leaves beh<strong>in</strong>d. <strong>In</strong> that sense it rema<strong>in</strong>s the<br />
<strong>in</strong>dividual’s primary doma<strong>in</strong>, ruled by images and lures, rather than by symbols, which are dist<strong>in</strong>ctly<br />
human trait. The imag<strong>in</strong>ary is thus, as will be shown more extensively <strong>in</strong> the next section, the<br />
<strong>in</strong>dividual’s very own state of nature.<br />
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