Bienes comunes en común

This contribution aims to engage in an epistemic work around the idea of the “common” by distinguishing between different ideas and finalities and the currents of thought in which they belong. To do so it takes a lexicographical approach, sorting out the terms in common use: common goods, the common good, commoning, common. It maintains that these syntagms are not superimposed on one another, but rather that they reflect a progress in the building-up of an idea of the common, where each stage is fed by the preceding one, explaining and broadening it. It draws the conclusion that the challenge of securing the common good is not to be met only by developing social practices “with one another” or “for one another”. It must lead on to a reinterpretation of juridical and constitutional issues, a rebalancing of relations between the private and the public, and the democratic control of institutions.