ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the idea of two registers of communication at a theoretical level. It explores the empirical illustrations of transactions at both registers and explains the interpretation of freedom as the capacity to switch from one register to another. The chapter provides a case study of the Ronald Coase theorem, one of the most actively discussed topics in economic science. However similar intellectual exchanges with “ancient philosophers” and fellows within arm’s reach may appear, each of the transactions has significant particularities. A blend of personalized power with an inward orientation of transactions lies at the origin of the eventual drift into sexual harassment. The availability of both registers is important in every transaction, not only in scientific communication. The strength of depersonalized communication in science—the interest in the signs and symbols specific to other networks and shared mental models—turns into a weakness. The register of depersonalized and universal communications corresponds more closely to the normative ideal of science.
