Soft Power

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: FROM SEMINAL SCIENTIFIC HYPOTHESES TO SOCIO-TECHNICAL REALISATION

Vivien García — 2025-10-29

This paper, excerpted from Que faire de l’intelligence artificielle ? Petite histoire critique de la raison artificielle, offers an account and genealogy of artificial intelligence (AI)’s technical foundations and philosophical implications from its mid-20th-century origins
to the present. The narrative underscores how early scientific hypotheses continue to influence current AI paradigms. Part one uncovers foundational hypotheses—predating the 1956 Dartmouth workshop—that informed both symbolic AI (prevalent
until the late 1980s) and the surge of connectionist methods in recent decades, demonstrating their shared premise of mind and brain as logical machines. Part two examines the sociotechnical labor of AI development, using the ImageNet database as a case study to reveal the hidden work of crowdsourcing in training modern models. By juxtaposing these theoretical foundations with practical industry practices, the paper highlights enduring continuities and transformations in AI research and invites reflection on the technical and social processes shaping the AI industry today.

FROM PERVASIVE TECHNOLOGIES TO TECHNOLOGY OF THE SELF. A COUNTER-SUBJECTIVATION ARGUMENT FOR A SHIFT IN THE CRITICAL THEORY OF CYBERSPACE

Ilaria Santoemma — 2025-11-18

This paper aims to contribute to the discourse on the intersection of power dynamics and subjectivation processes as explored in critical theory, particularly in response to the digital transformation brought about by information and communications technologies and cyberspace. It argues that, despite some important attempts being made in literature to conceptualize a Foucauldian analytics of power regarding the impact of the digital dominion on subjectivity production, there is a lack of understanding of the technology of the self. The premise of the argument is that of info-dominion and subjectivity production, found in mechanisms such as profiling, dematerialization, and machinery determinism, that are extensively reliant on a subject as the inscription surface of digital reality. This paper will contribute to the subjectivity-making debate in the digital shift, recasting some conceptualities from French philosopher Michel Foucault that are relatively undeveloped in the critical studies of cyberspace, arguing for a thesis of counter-subjectivation.

SIMONDON TODAY: RATIONAL AGENTS AND DIGITAL INDIVIDUATION

Mauro Saitta — 2025-10-29

In light of the techno-scientific progress achieved to date, this paper aims to assess the continued validity of the notions of information, form, homeostasis, and points of indeterminacy within machines, as elaborated by Gilbert Simondon, in reference to rational agents, as understood by artificial intelligence. Additionally, I will examine the concept of individuation developed by the French philosopher and attempt to rethink it, considering how the digital milieu affects humans. It can be argued that the digital subject represents a technical individual distinct from the human subject. In this regard, I will endeavour to understand how the individuation process of the latter is profoundly influenced and short-circuited by the former, to the extent that the individual becomes a dis-individual.

The POLITICAL POWER OF ROBOTS. FORGETFULNESS, TRUST, CONFLICT

Santi Di Bella, — 2025-10-29

The essay describes the possible effects on human political competence of a world populated by socially autonomous machines. Forgetfulness, trust, and conflict are the main topics addressed.

BEYOND COMMERCIAL PLATFORMS: THREE MODELS FOR DIGITAL POLITICS FROM THE GRASSROOTS

Gabriele Giacomini — 2025-10-29

This article explores possibilities of digital participation which are autonomous from large commercial platforms. Firstly, it questions the democratic value of the current digital environment dominated by big tech in an era marked by individualism and depoliticization. Secondly, three models of democratic participation through alternative platforms in opposition to commercial ones are analysed. The first is the representative model, which seeks to innovate parties through technology. The second is the
participatory model, which emphasises the direct engagement of citizens through civic platforms. The third is the deliberative model, which proposes a decision-making process based on a representative random sample, which activates an inclusive deliberation process also using ICTs. In conclusion, the article discusses, through mental examples, the challenges of integrating these models into a system that responds to the current needs of democracy.

LEVIATHAN(S) 4.0: THE POLITICAL POWER OF PLATFORMS AND OPTIONS FOR LIBERATION

Mattia Frapporti — 2025-10-29

Expanding the growing collaboration between platform studies and infrastructure studies, we argue that platforms shape behaviours into a form of algorithmic governmentality through data accumulation. However, we present how the development of digitisation also raises social forces to overturn the power of platforms.Counter-behaviours, counter-power, exit or democratisation are four paths that are increasingly widespread within society to appropriate or oppose digital governmentality.

The SECRETS OF TRANSPARENCY: THE SEARCH ENGINE EXAMPLE

Thomas Berns — 2025-10-29

This article shows the paradoxical links between transparency and secrecy, using the example of the search engine and, more broadly, the emergence of new forms of normativity, including those of a technical nature, which are analysed from the point of view of their difference from legal normativity. In so doing, the danger of diluting the principle of publicity in the idea of transparency is also highlighted.

JOYSTICKS IN WHOSE HANDS? HACKING THE SELF AS A CRIME AND AS CORPORATE PRACTICE

Ignas Kalpokas — 2025-11-18

Despite the pervasive integration of digital technologies into all aspects of our lives, the emergence of novel technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), generative artificial intelligence (AI), and brain-computer interfaces, has led to a significant expansion in the scope and depth of technological influence, such as the generation of experience, knowledge (or a pretence thereof) and communicative expressions, as well as the removal of the very separation between the biological and the digital/machinic. Under such circumstances, the idea of an independent self (if one ever existed) becomes structurally impossible. Instead, the self becomes enmeshed with digital technologies to the point of co-constitution. Here, the self becomes susceptible to hacking in two important ways. One is through the more traditional cyber-criminal activities, such as human joystick attacks pertaining to VR environments and, potentially, brain-computer interfaces. However, it may be argued on a more fundamental level that it is possible to achieve the same results without hacking. In fact, this is exactly the way in which corporate algorithmic governance of the digitally enmeshed self already takes place. This process involves the structuration of digital spaces and soon, the establishment of corporate control of brain-computer interfaces as well as training and ownership of AI models, all of which help structure the individual self with corporate, rather than personal, interests in mind. In combination, these two modes of determination are seen as alternative but structurally similar ways of hacking the self and, effectively, turning individuals into human joysticks controlled by an intangible – but no less potent – hand.

The ACADEMIC TEACHING OF COMPARATIVE LAW IN ITALY

Lucia Di Costanzo — 2025-10-29

This paper aims to summarize the reasons for and the significance of comparative law, along with the development of legal comparison as an academic discipline and as a research field, with particular reference to the Italian legal system. The integrative phenomenon, following the intensification of exchanges and the globalization of economic, social, and political relations, has raised the problem of understanding how and through which disciplines the relationships that inevitably arise between subjects belonging to different legal systems can be regulated. In this context, legal systems are called upon to adapt territorial law to a global phenomenon. Thus, comparison often becomes the principal tool through which to justify strategic choices and represent different legal cultures. The impact on legal training is also inevitable, as the jurist must recognize that law is no longer confined to mere internal logics, incapable of relating to the totality of multinational legal experience. Italian jurists now recognize that legal teaching cannot ignore the role of legal comparison, which has been the protagonist of significant development, both scientific and educational.

SOBRE WITTGENSTEIN, FILOSOFÍA, RELIGIÓN Y PSIQUIATRÍA. TRADUCCIÓN AL CASTELLANO E INTRODUCCIÓN A LA OBRA “THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF MAURICE O’CONNOR DRURY. ON WITTGENSTEIN, PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION AND PSYCHIATRY DE MARÍA ARÁNZAZU NOVALES ALQUÉZAR

Valeria Giordano — 2025-10-29

Las confusiones de la época que vivimos convierten en imprescindible el esfuerzo de situar la ciencia, la religión y la filosofía en el lugar que les corresponde. Esta es la finalidad de la esperada traducción al español realizada por María Aránzazu Novales
Alquézar del libro de la editorial inglesa Bloomsbury titulado “The Selected Writings of Maurice O’Connor Drury: On Wittgenstein, Philosophy, Religion and Psychiatry”. La traducción al castellano, de 708 páginas, publicada por la editorial Apeiron, lleva
por título “Sobre Wittgenstein, filosofía, religión y psiquiatría”, y transforma, en buena medida, la interpretación habitual de las aportaciones de Wittgenstein a la filosofía anglosajona y continental, al desligar al filósofo vienés de las posiciones defendidas por el
positivismo lógico. La profesora Novales agrega a su traducción de la recopilación de escritos de Drury una introducción crítica y numerosas notas al pie, que resultan de gran interés para el lector.

WHO IS AFRAID OF FEMINISM? MISRECOGNITION AND THE POLITICS OF ACTIVE IGNORANCE

Eleonora Volta — 2025-10-29

Una giustizia a due dimensioni. Redistribuzione e riconoscimento nell’opera di Nancy Fraser includes an introduction and seven chapters written by Anna Cavaliere. In all, this is an excellent work that plumbs the dimensions of redistribution, recognition, and
political representation in Nancy Fraser’s theory of justice in light of the changes that have occurred with the rise of neoliberal globalisation. In this note on Cavaliere’s book, I will focus my comments on selected chapters to address two interrelated issues. In the first section, I build on Nikolas Kompridis’s critique of Fraser’s standard of publicity to highlight the role of active ignorance in defining what merits the title of injustice. In the second section, I take my cue from Fraser’s critique of second-wave feminism to shed light on the conceptual hostility that actively distorts feminist claims and weakens their transformative power.

THE NEW DIGITAL ERA

Salvo Vaccaro — 2025-10-29

SOBRE EL LIBRO AU VOLEUR! ANARCHISME ET PHILOSOPHIE DE CATHERINE MALABOU

Tomas Ibañez — 2025-10-29

La importancia de su libro para esclarecer la relación que mantiene la filosofía crítica
con la anarquía, así como para ayudarnos a repensar el anarquismo, queda sobradamente
evidenciada por la enorme repercusión mediática que ha tenido y, sobre todo, por la
cantidad de reseñas, citas, comentarios y debates que ha suscitado tanto en los medios
libertarios como fuera de ellos.
Le adelanto que soy una de las personas a las que su libro ha seducido; sin duda, esto
se debe a que me siento en sintonía con sus argumentos, aunque me preocupan algunos
aspectos que mencionaré al final de este comentario.
Si no voy a abordar aquí sus observaciones sobre lo que usted llama el “anarquismo
de hecho”, es sencillamente porque mi ignorancia en la materia es colosal. Aun así, comparto
la importancia que otorga a este fenómeno y la idea de que, gracias, sobre todo, a
la revolución informática, el capitalismo se ha “anarquizado”, por así decirlo, pero solo
por así decirlo.

ANARCHISM AND PHILOSOPHY

Donatella Di Cesare — 2025-10-29

The meeting between anarchy and philosophy has been preparing for some time now, for years now through meetings, debates, conferences, miscellanies, but above all individual contributions. First of all, it is a question – as I happened to say in an article
published for the Italian journal Aut aut and for the American website Ill Will – of deconstructing anarchism to redeem anarchy.
Classical anarchism has fallen into the trap of naively understood power relations. Just think of that very modern way of understanding both the subject and the State which culminates in a Manichaean vision: if the subject were by nature good, and the
State bad, it would be enough to overturn the scheme personified by Hobbes's Leviathan, for which the good State it would redeem the human individual otherwise devoted to being a wolf. This very simplification has not worked – not even in politics.

PHILOSOPHY AND ANARCHIST CRITIQUE

Salvo Vaccaro — 2025-10-29

It is easy to think of anarchism as a political theory in the modern “storm” brought about by the rational enlightenment versus the darkness of religious dogmas and the political theology that inspired theory and practice of absolute sovereignty first, and
constitutional sovereignty afterwards. It may also be conceived as an extreme form of the politically charged theories of the Enlightenment, as opposed to other contemporary political theories such as liberalism and utopic socialism first, or Marxist socialism
at a later stage. As such, over two centuries later, it is subject to the wear of time, to the post-modern nullification with which some seek to liquidate the certainties of a blind, all-powerful reason already denounced, in its defining aporia, by Adorno and
Horkheimer.

AN-ANSWERS

Catherine Malabou — 2025-10-29

I am very pleased and honored to know that on Salvo Vaccaro's initiative, the exchanges
we had in February 2024 at the French Institute in Milan concerning the Italian
translation of my book Au Voleur! Anarchisme et philosophie (translated into English as
Stop Thief! Anarchism and Philosophy, Polity Press, 2024), are getting published in Soft
Power. I would like to thank Salvo, Donatella di Cesare and Tomás Ibáñez for their careful
reading and analysis of the book. Of course, all three have not failed to question the
orientation of the book (resolutely philosophical) or the choice of authors (many could
have been included, such as Plato, or Walter Benjamin). Ibañez wonders whether the distinction between ungovernable and non-governable is really relevant. As for Vaccaro, he deplores the fact that I didn't treat Foucault any better. Indeed, my book insists on contemporary philosophers' denial of anarchism. Here are five examples: Reiner Schürmann, Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Jacques Rancière and Giorgio Agamben. I try to show that, although they are all very close to anarchism, none of them has assumed the fact of being an anarchist, none of them has taken the step of political anarchism.