A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

intend, in this document, to develop the philosophical aspect of the
issue, but rather to look at it sociologically - in other words to study the
way in which the Common Good of Humanity notion is posited today.
In fact, this third concept is different from ‘common goods’ because of
its more general character, involving the very foundations of the collective
life of humanity on this planet: our relationship with nature, the production
of life’s necessities, collective organization (politics) and the
interpretation, evaluation and expression of reality (culture). It is not a
matter of heritage, as in the case of ‘common goods’, but rather of a
state (of well-being, of buen vivir), that results from the way parameters
combine to govern the life of human beings men and women, on this
earth. It is also to be distinguished from ‘common good’ – as opposed
to ‘individual good’ – as it is defined in the construction of a State, in
other words the res publica, even if the concept of ‘universal common
goods’ was introduced by the UNDP in its 1999 Report. In fact the concept
of the ‘Common Good of Humanity’ includes the production and
reproduction of life on the scale of all humanity: in sum it is a question
of life and its capacity to reproduce itself.
Clearly, the concept of the ‘Common Good of Humanity’ includes the
practical notions of ‘common goods’ and of ‘common good’ as currently
interpreted. If we are starting out with some reflections on the current
crisis, it is for the simple reason that this crisis is jeopardizing, not only
‘common goods’ and the ‘Common Good’ but also the very survival of
human life on the planet and the capacity of nature to regenerate itself,
i.e. the ‘Common Good of Humanity’. Thus a review of the nature of
this crisis becomes urgently necessary. It was indeed the accumulation
dynamic that began to undermine the ‘common goods’ in Europe in the
XIII century. Today, the land grabbing going on in the continents of the
South for developing industrial agriculture (particularly agrofuels) and for
mining is a new phase of the ‘enclosure movement’. The same logic
has impaired the idea of the ‘Common Good of Humanity’, both at the
centre and in the peripheries of capitalism. It is the logic of death that
prevails and not that of life. If we are to find solutions we must tackle
the problem at its roots: in other words we must redefine the require-
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