Regulatory Metalanguage: A Brief Inquiry into the Ontological Processes of the Regulatory State

Resumen

Purpose ”“ This paper consists in a philosophic research on the ontological doctrines of naturalism and non-naturalism, which we find essential to the description of the ways we can perceive existence, in order to draw a diametrical bridge into the realm of legal disciplines and market protective practices, especially regarding the general rules of state regulation, taking as historical and political milestones three distinct economic times: the Liberal State, the Welfare State and the Regulatory State, the latter one which culminates in the virtually global design for autonomous hetero-regulated economy present in the capitalist State.

Methodology/approach/design ”“ Considering that any language used to describe the phenomena which we can roughly call reality is produced from a metalanguage, and therefore, prior to the description of these phenomena, the following analysis aims to clarify what is (or what ought to be) the metalanguage responsible for the genesis of the regulatory phenomenon and its logical-epistemological limits. It is an interdisciplinary research conducted by analyzing and comparing the works of Philosophy authors, as Hume and Rosset, and Economic Theory authors, as Smith, Keynes and Hayek.

Findings ”“ After the systematic consideration of the concepts, we argue that there are no necessary ontological instances that determine the discovery of a special natural order to the market, which is why any thecné that claims to be genuinely regulatory must remain in the field of contingency, which is also the domain of politics. We think it is imperative that legal fields currently put closer to the technological sciences take a step back into their humanistic origins to (re)discover their social features and therefore the importance of subjectivity in making sense of their fundamental role.