Abstract

The idea of «regression» is not at the center of contemporary philosophical and political debate. The reason for this absence is not accidental. It depends on two structural factors: on the one side, the non-evaluative perspective that characterizes contemporary social sciences; on the other side, the conceptions of time and history that are dominant today. Indeed, it is possible to speak of «regression» only if there exists a linear perspective of history that has characterized large sections of modernity, but which today seems to be replaced by a conception of time and history as «instant», understood as «eternal present».