Word and World: The Imperium of Reason and the Possibility of Critique
In the early 17th century, Francis Bacon envisioned the possibility of a world enriched by the fruits of a scientific labour that would '...establish and extend the power and dominion of the human race itself over the whole universe'. Essential, however, to righting this scientific path from the broken course others had put it upon was to address the very foundations of notions (words) taken for granted, notions 'muddled and carelessly derived'. It will be argued in this paper that the imperium at the heart of Bacon's inductive method remains at the heart of contemporary discourses of law and justice through the continued belief that we can, and should, share a single and universal determination of word and world. Against those who would fear of a nihilism or relativism, the possibility of critique and justice without universal determination of word and world will be defended as the possibility of law without imperium.