Legitimation is the process by which a legislator is authorized to promulgate such a law as a norm. - Jean-François Lyotard

Let us wage war on totality; let us be witnesses to the unpresentable, let us activate the different and save the honor of the name.

Science has always been in conflict with narratives. Judged by the yardstick of science, the majority of them prove to be fables. But to the extent that science does not restrict itself to stating useful regularities and seeks truth, it is obliged to legitimate the rules of its own game.

What is new in all this is that the old poles of attraction represented by nation-states, parties, professions, institutions, and historical traditions are losing their attraction. And it does not look as though they will be replaced, at least not on their former scale.