Abstract

The text is a critical note on the collective book Tempo di beni comuni. Studi multidisciplinari (Commons Time. Multidisciplinary Studies). The Author addresses the following issues: 1) whether the idea of commons is only a powerful slogan or the very core of a new social theory; 2) whether the commons doctrine belongs to the realm of clear and well-built ideas; 3) whether the notion of homo empaticus can provide us with an anthropological alternative to the so-called possessive individualism that grounds our market societies; 4) what role, if any, the commons doctrine can play in the political and institutional order of a contemporary representative democracy. The last paragraph briefly discusses some Italian experiences that in the «Communards'» mind anticipate the arrival of the «time of the commons».