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An Ethics of the Pre-individual
by
Aislinn
O'Donnell
A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Continental Philosophy
University of Warwick, Department of Philosophy
June 2001
Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements
Abstract
1
iv
V
Introduction
1.
ii.
iii.
iv.
V.
Vi.
vii.
viii.
disequilibriurn
technophobia and nature
thinking otherwise than being
activating concepts: philosophy and resistance
singular transformations
the engendering of the virtual
the pre-individual as state of excess
the appropriation of difference
4
6
12
16
17
19
23
Chapter One
Diffe rence and Diversity
26
1.1.
I. ii.
I. iii.
I. N-.
Lvi.
Lvii.
26
27
30
38
43
48
philosophical underpinnings
relevant or relative
theory and practice
difference, chversity and division
racism and raciology
the essence of essentialism
Chapter Two
Embracing Difference: Capitalism and Philosophy
51
51
potentia versus Potestas
54
the disciplinary apparatus
11.111.the end of ideology
58
11.1-,
62
-. creeping capitalism and aspects of assemblages
II. N-. managing the diverse; modulations of control
64
II. N-1. hybridity and difference; a new world order?
71
ILN-11. the end of history, the demise of becon-ungs: claustrophobic capital
ll. ix.
the changng,, -,-Iiole of the face of capitahsm
mechanism or machinism?
75
79
86
Chapter Three
Spinoza: The God-Intoxicated
Man
111-1.
90
ethics and immanence
III. 11. natural right and power
III. iii. rights, duties and powers
111.1v.'bolshevik' versus 'fascist': the Badiou/Deleuze encounter
III. v. univocity, eminence, analogy
III. VI. a degree of power
III. Vii. Benechctus,Malechctus
III. viii. Spinoza's heresy
IILIX. the active essence
III. X. confrontation and sacrilege;contesting Morahty
III. Xi. the art of inamersion
III. Xii. decentering the human
III. xiii. transitions
III. XiV. the disparate and the possible - toward the pre-individual
90
91
93
97
104
107
110
ill
117
119
125
129
132
134
Chapter Four
Simondon's Crystalline Becomings
135
IV. 1. paradox
IV. ii. thinking With the grain
IV. 111.snapshots
IV. iv. multiplicitous beings
lV. v. revolutionary states
IV. v1. mediators
IV. vii. difference affirmed
IV. viii. crystalline visions
lV. ix. an ethics of the pre-individual
IV. x. flashing intensities
135
137
139
142
144
146
148
152
153
159
Chapter Five
A Nomadic Image of Thought
16-5
V. i.
the radical thought of empiricism
V. ii. idealism or immanence
V. iii. the art of creating concepts
V. iv. restoring the rights of immanence
V. V. the possible of the possible: a revolutionary becoming
V.vi. doxology and the State
V. vii. the State versus the nomad: counterposing multiplicities
V. viii. the idiot
V. ix. an encounter with Proust
V. X. swimming and thinking
V. xi. culpable, complicit, co-opted?: philosophy versus capital
165
168
173
175
177
182
185
187
193
194
200
Chapter Six: Conclusion
An Ethics of the Pre-Individual
204
V1.1. lily-hvered liberals
VI. ii. a critical freedom
VI. iii. pragmatics and incorporeals
VI. iv. subjectivity before the subject
VI. N'. processesof emergence
VI. vi. an ethics of the pre-individual
104
207
208
211
214
218
Bibliography
222
Acknowledgements
Lots of people have hurled innovative and exciting ideas my way in the
course of researching and writing this thesis, opening worlds I never
realised existed. I want to especially thank the members of the
Philosophy Graduate Department who continue to frequent that corner
of the Arts Centre. Special thanks are due to Judy Purdom and Rachel
Jones for those long chats full of support, ideas and encouragement. I
am also grateful for all those Wednesday evenings spent with the
stalwarts of the Feminist Philosophy Society.
I am extremely grateful for my Warwick Award and the AHRB funding
that made this time of writing possible. Thanks also to Professor Keith
Ansell Pearson for the wealth of boundless enthusiasm and jubilation
that propelled me into action each time my energies waned. His
love
supervision, patience, careful comments, provocative questions and
of philosophy were much needed and appreciated; to those Warwick
lecturers whose courses I attended; to Professor Richard Kearney for
insisting I apply to Warwick in the first place; to my other friends who I
have both neglected and bored with incessant and obsessive
conversations about my thesis; and to Catherine Hoskyns and all
her
household
for
connected with
providing such a supportive
for
environment
much of my work.
Dr. Hisham Sharabi set me off on this philosophical journey. I want to
thank him warmly for being a most extraordinary teacher, for his
for
ideas,
tentative
and
philosophical
unreserved encouragement of my
hope
down
bringing
I
that the critical and
to
earth.
philosophy
always
his
ideas
of
and practical engagements pervade this
constructive spirit
thesis. I have no idea where I would be had I not attended his courses at
Georgetown, but I am sure it would be far away from the place I am.
Finally thank you to my family for always being challenging and never
letting me get complacent about my ideas. More importantly, thank you
for being a wonderful, exciting, vibrant and loving bunch of people. I
for
better
family.
for
And
Paul
thanks
to
not
a
could not ask
house
for
landed
his
'complete'
I
to
a short visit
at
complaining when
his
for
Without
assiduous copy-editing, proofa year.
and stayed
intellectual
engagement, philosophical critique, and emotional
reading,
been
have
task
this
a more
undoubtedly
of writiirl-g would
support
less
enjoyable endeavour.
arduous, more protracted and
IN
ABSTRACT
Deleuze opposes ethics to Morality. He claims that an ethics develops immanent criteria
to evaluate modes of existence,while a Morality imposes transcendent principles. This
thesis explores the question of ethics, and I invcstigate the possibilities of an ethics of the
pre-individual. Consequently this enterprise involves the development of an alternative
ontology of becoming corresponding to a philosophy of difference. By taking this
trajectory, I seekto show that an anti-human human-ismis possible and demonstrate ho\"this might work.
Deleuze and Guattarl always emphasise the practical and concrete nature of philosophyl
therefore, in order to situate their concepts I begin the thesis with an examination of
different theoretical approaches to the question of difference. However, I suggest that
difference and heterogeneity cannot be simply affirmed in and of themselves since ne,,-%forms of domination also affirm difference. Mv next chapter follows up on this idea bN
interrogating the allegation that philosophies of difference have made a political covenant
with global capitalism. I draw on a distinction between power (Potentia) and Power
(Potestas)in order to explain how different modes of social organisation and domination
can minimise the creative and transformational capacities of humans. By analysing a
number of theoretical accounts of capitalism I demonstrate how and why it differs from
other social formations. Nonetheless, I conclude that philosophy can indeed be
distinguished from capitalism. Philosophy, as the art of inventing concepts, develops the
conditions for real experimentation and new ways of thinking, being and existing.
By turning to Spinoza's Ethics I propose that by thinking about the human differeiitiallý',
as a part of nature, we can develop an immanent ethics. I explain how Spinoza's ontology
operates especially in terms of its renovated conception of the human. In generating an
ontology that is not centred on the individuated individual but grasps instead the
individual as both relational and a degree of power, the pre-individual and transindividual
dimensions of the human are emphasised and she is opened up to her non-human
becomings.
Simondon's account of metastable being explores this in greater detail. He argues that we
ha\,e tended to extrapolate from the individuated individual in order to try to understand
its conditions of existence. Alternatively, we have relied upon a principle of individuation
that pre-exists the process of individuation. By intertwining his focus on the process of
his
being
that
idea
is more than unity, more than identity and
individuation with
fundamentally incompatible with itself, I present SiMondon's account of an ontology of
becoming and his correlative conception of a pre-individual field. Residing at the core of
his endeavour is a theory of difference and disparateness that understands identity to be
derivative.
emergent, partial, relative and
Repetition.
I
Simondon's emphasison disparatenessrecurs in Deleuze's work Difference
and
distinguish
between
to
this
idea in order
a createdpossible and a realisable
mobilise
distinction.
The
this
the
to
implications
concept
of
ethico-political
possible, and elucidate
of the 'image of thought' that rests on a series of non-philosophical pre-suppositions
helps us to critique dominant modes of thinking and acting. In addition to critique, I seek
focus
Once
I
thinking
again
to construct other ,vays of
and existing.
upon the prehuman
I
dimensions
the
transindividual
in
chapter
of
my
concluding
vvlien
individual and
different
the
conceptions of ethics and subjectivitý,that emerge once we transform
m,ap
An
ethics of the pre-individual relies on ii-ni-nanent
ontology.
our understanding of
does
fetishise
human,
for
the
and ultimatelýnot
evaluating modes of existence,
criteria
being
things
othetwise.
constructs the possibilitý,of
IXTRODUCTION
i.
disequilibrium
The process of hominisation "takes" in us, the way a crystal undergoes a phase
change and solidifies: does becoming human consist of forever unbinding so as
to be elsewhere and otherwise?
Nfichel Serres,The NlafuralContract.(1992: 101).
We need to have a contract With the world. The incessantpollution, technological
mastery, and expropriation of the resources of the earth have left a vold that
responsibility must fill. Such is Michel Serres' diagnosis. We need a natural
contract of symbiosis and reciprocity, rather than continuing to exist parasitically;
fact,
"In
the
the Earth speaks to us in terms of forces,
vampires upon
earth.
bonds and interactions, and that's enough to make a contract" (Serres,1992: 39).
Economists create their models to assessresource management using models of
timeless, competitive equilibrium, and forget to factor in the indeterrmnac)-of the
future (Ormerod, 1994: 75-6). They conclude all is fine with the world. Threehumanity
hovers
quarters of
on the verge of starvation; the rest hover on the
humanity.
An
'
false
'enlightened
that
atmosphere of cynicism
verge of
is an
consciousness' (Sloterchjk, 1987: 5) pervades the domains of those who need to
behaviours
A
their
alter
and values. stranglehold of exploitation shacklesthe rest.
The system may teeter on faulty foundations but no-one will rock the boat. Serres
thinks that perhaps more than even a morality, this calls for a religion to attach
(refigare)us to this world, so radical and tumultuous is the necessity for the
fabrication of a new series of relations with all beings, animate and inert,
face
In
to
global
essence,we need a global philosophy
microcosmic and cosmic.
"Like the tail of a comet, throwbacks or continuations of an ancient objective necesslt\
both
diseases,
hunger,
linger
third
the
and
and
and
new
residual,
ravaging
misery,
still
fourth worlds, growing exponentially. And those who should be held accountable - those
livim, in the brilliant head of the comet, leavinL, this abject misery in their \\ake and
is
I
This
(and
ing
it
them)
this
the
am
of
a
one
who
seek
ones
\ý
isdom.
are
ery
\
rnultiplý
issuing
frorn
the results of our
conditions
second responsibility. a neN\ obligation, more
1990:
(Serres,
blo\\
latest
the
to
the
the
of
collective
narcissism
wealthy
nations"
actions 176).
l'NTRODUCTIO\'
dangers.
Since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, humankind has known that it holds the power to
destroy itself From that time, sciencehas dominated other spheresof knowledge.
But science knows too little of culture. Philosophy, for Serres,is a constructive
enterprise; by inventing the conditions of invention (Serresand Latour, 1990: 86),
it asks questions about everything. However, he is concerned that we are hurtling
toward an era which is centred increasingly on domination and mastery which we
ourselves cannot master.
Imperialistic thinking imposes a single method upon any problem. By employing
does
local
to
try
a meta-language, it
not
approach
and singular problems with
methods that are re-cast each time. That would be an exercisein composition that
gets close to the singularities that are its material. For Serres,substantivesand the
be
to
verb
violently impose their presence with regularm,, erasing these
different
him.
Their
horrifies
"Sterile,
texts
singularities.
constant recurrence in
facile. There is nothing new under such a sun. In such a way the atomic bomb
hills
(93).
Diverse
the
plain over which it explodes"
and multiple rolling
vitrifies
him;
(93).
that
to
is
pluralism
appeal
A vectorial operation of thinking that does not seek to dissolve but to create
A
Serres
It
movement.
proposes. seizesand sustains
relations or rapportsis what
describe
(substance)
such processes of
cannot effect or
verb or substantive
becoming, he claims, so another understanding of relations is called for. Invoking
brimming
basin,
with relations and
the image of a glacial river's percolating
he
freeze,
fluctuate
suggests that this turbulence and
and
networks that
fluctuation interspersed with crystallisation and the carving of corridors or
difficult
(105).
these
ideas
passages is a more adequate manner of thinking
Greek
PlOrmesis,
pra.%7'S
combinations of improvisational
and 1ýletis,the ancient
his
foreshadow
the
maritime map where every
of
example
cunning,
and
action
fragihtýbe
this
traverses
and
vulnerability
absolute
an
while
invented
route must
spaceof risk.
INTRODUCTION
As we know, his method of abstracting no longer relies on the substantivC or
N,erb, such asfteedomand beiq. (104). Instead it begins with the relation, a relation
in movement, like a x-ector or a diagonal, that is not captured at any point.
Likewise, the billowing and metastabihty of the flame evades capture and
'existence' by always remaining far from equilibrium (105). A tWe-position
('toward', 'between' or 'With', for example) resists capture, gliding, dancing and
tracing relations in flux rather than fixing them. Instead of solid perception these
notions operate in a realm of liquid or gaseousperception. Solidity emergesfrom
a temporary coagulation or viscosity in this play of relations.
Bergson and Lucretius catapulted us into movement and turbulence. Different
fade
forth,
become
Time
throws
relations criss-cross, surge
possible and
away.
We
thus avoid the imposition of spatiality that a
everything out of equilibrium.
beings
like
'network'
"Relations
phrase
spawn objects,
and acts, not
carries with it.
dance!
body,
So
Like
the
the
Mind
needs
run,
move,
stand
jump,
vice versa.
up,
(107).
movement, especiallysubtle and complex movement"
Concepts are often used to totalise, demarcate, and obfuscate, argues Serres.He
worries about philosophers taking on the role of public prosecutor, criticising,
has
kind
This
a
of enclosure of concepts
judging, tripping up and catching out.
law
and geometry since it presupposes the permanence
particular relation with
fiXity
of values in the ascribed attributes and
and stability of an outline and a
fluctuation.
This
fuzziness
Serres
and
wants to create concepts in
properties.
At
but
they remain rigorous.
stake is the invention of a
makes them anexact
for
'inventions
the
of
possible
conditions
transcendental space which opens up
Serres
We
future
(117).
then
says,to cast off
equipped, as
the
are
Michel Serres expresseswith evocative poetic (and scientific) imagery a number
does
he
follow
Not
kcýtranstTnt
that
only
to
the
that
chapters
the
themes
are
of
becon-nng,
as opposed to a metaphysics of
the movements of a philosophy of
Jarnes
William
demonstrates
he
that,
but
as
a thought of external relations
solids,
3
INTRODUCTION
(1912) emphasises,remain irreducible to their terms. Serres'
from what follows in this thesis, but as a 'shortcut', it
differs
work
greatly
communicates q#&-filely
some of the concepts that we will explore. His resolute status as bntvlelff,
gathering diverse materials to assemble and invent concepts, displays an
irreverence found in Deleuze's and Guattari's works. His wandering relations and
vagabond essenceshave echoesof Spinoza.
ii.
technophobia
and nature
Without history, becoming would remain indeterminate and unconditioned,
but becoming is not historical.
Gflles Deleuze and F61lx Guattarl, ll,"hat I'SPhilosoply?(1991 a: 96).
What is it to be human in this world? Is there an ineffable essenceof the human,
human
Can
look
behaviourists,
for
to
or a
nature?
we
geneticists,
psychologists
a
human
do
human
How
set of
characteristics?
abstract
rights affect concrete
human existence?Can we construct an ethics without a theory of the essenceof
human nature? We will not forget the human; humans are at once the things most
harmful
Spinoza
But
to
one another, as
useful and most
once said.
employing an
fetish
little
'human'
the
tells
is a
abstract category of
about the
and
us very
possibilities of
the human. Is it possible to pull the human from its
bomo
This
to
to
is the
its place as
return it
natura?
anthropomorphic pedestal
has
before
Only
that
is set
an urgency that is unsurpassed;
now it
challenge
us.
have
Spinoza
imagined.
could not
one that
We will seek to situate the human within complex settings of relations, examining
humans
2
different
the
processes of subjectification that shape the image of what
humans
We
(and
think thcy
will talk of a N-arietyof ways in which
others) are.
di-versity,
difference
arguing in turn that Nveneed to
and
articulate questions of
I in this thesis I do not examinealternativetheoriesof the subject.Subjectivitý. for Guattarl.
is
is
to
the
not confined
object
and
that
and
subject
ontologically prior
entails a process
Simondon's
is
It
boundaries
to
the
accountsof processesof
closer
subject.
of
\N'ithin the
in
be
This
my conclusion.
clear
made
Nvill
individuation.
4
INTRODUCTION
think býtbreand beyoildthe human condition in order to understand the emergence,
and the potentials, of humans. Rather than delimiting a frame that would capture
the essenceof the human, -\x-cwill develop a theory of affectivity and an ed-Ucsof
singularities that displace the centrality and unity of the human by showing how
this is the ýffeaof a power take-over3.
Nature and artifice together name the process of production of the real. A
from
humanity
narcissistic and anthropocentric separation of
nature will no
longer hold water, and appeals to the sanctity and uniqueness of buviati
consciousnesswill be challenged. SamuelButler remarks,
'Plants [ ] show no sign of interesting themselves in human affairs. We shall
...
never get a rose to understand that five times seven are thirty-five, and there is
fluctuations
in the price of stocks. Hence we say
talking
to
no use
an oak about
that the oak and the rose are unintelligent, and on finding they do not
business
do
But
their
that
they
own.
our
understand
conclude
not understand
know
intelligence?
in
Which
talks
this
about
what can a creature who
way
'
intelligence?
He,
the
shows greater signs of
or
rose and oak?
Samuel Butler, Erewhon(1872: 170).
Although contemplations upon consciousness will be largely implicit in this
helps
hilariously
Butler's
thesis,
us to re-consider the
controversial passage
bring
to any examination of the question of subjectivitV.
presuppositions we
Significantly his 'Book of the Machines' announces that Man is a machinate
far
(160).
limbs
his
away
on the earth, some near and some
mammal, scattering
Technology is not a tool but part of a machine (or assemblage)that modifies the
human (which is another element of this assemblage).His Witty and remarkable
descriptions of prosthetic devices herald the birth of the cyborg and are
He
Artificial
Intelligence.
notes
suggestive of many contemporarý- approaches to
lots
'extra-corporeal
members', placing
of
that as one grows older one utihses
ines'
(160).
brandishing
'see-en
91
one)smemorý- in a pocket-book and
With Butler, sLiblectivity undergoes a radical twist. His writings generate a strange
26-7).
19722a.
Guattari
(
Deleuze
See
this,
to
and
-1
related
5
INTRODUCTION
idea of subjectivity and the human that no longer focuses steadfastly on interhuman relations. Instead, we need to
human
that
come up with other ideas of the
longer
no
prioritise the integritý, and self-identity
of the organism to the exclusion
of all else. Deleuze saysin his seminars that he and Guattari never imagined that
the organism would become defunct. The point is to consider both the varied and
complex conditions that constitute certain patterrungs and sedimentations of
relations, and to create other forms of relationality. They reiterate that we are all
Humans must no longer beheve themselvesto
groupuscules,
we
are
all
multiplicities.
,
be cut off from the world, transcendent and isolated. A new ethics must
rest
upon an anti-human humanism.
iii.
thinking
otherwise than being
This non-human pre-personal part of subjectivity is crucial since it is from this
that its heterogenesis can develop. It would be to misjudge Deleuze and
Foucault - who emphasised the non-human part of subjectivity
to
suspect
them of taking anti-humanist positions!
F6hx Guattarl, Cbaosmosis.
(1992a: 9).
One always has to make a strategic decision when writing about Deleuze; his
philosophical repertoire is vast. The rhizomorpl-iic nature of his philosophising
lose
focus
his
to
the
trails
makes it easy
one's
chasing
of
concepts through the
labyrinthine wanderings of both his own work, and those texts written with
Guattari. By trying to cover everything, one can end up sayingvery little. Deleuze
develop
Guattari
They
to
think that philosophy is
a practical philosophy.
and
aim
the art of inventing concepts. In the spirit of their enterprise, I seek to stage
between
productive encounters
a number of their concepts and those of
Simondon and Spinoza; Deleuze and Guattan call this process one of
crhizomatising' concepts, bringing different concepts together in unexpected
how
Mýto
show
an in-imarient ethics of the pre-individual
ultimate aim is
wa),s.
it
I
this
think
to
of ethics in
Nxay. readilýmight operate, and whý- is necessary
develop
have
been
taken to
these ideas, such as
admit that other trajectories might
through
I-eibniz. Trý-ing to negotiate between critical commentar)- and
6
INTRODUCTION
constructive concrete philosophy is a precipitous path to follow, fraught with risk.
Critical commentaries have focused on Deleuze's work on Nietzsche, on the idea
literature,
of a minor
on the concept of 'becoming-woman, and a renaissanceof
Bergson has also been precipitated, in part, through Deleuze's readings of
Bergson. However, Deleuze's relation to the Spinoza/ Simondon axis remains a
severely neglected area of study (as does Simondon's own work). In fact,
Deleuze's reading of SiMondon only warrants a few scattered pages in the entire
literature
both
English
for
have
French.
It
I
secondary
in
this reason that
and
is
concentrated on these thinkers. This focus makes this thesis a novel and original
one.
The theme of the pre-individual is central to the philosophies of Deleuze,
Guattari, Simondon and Spinoza. I show why addressing this theme constitutes
The
idea of an ethics of the
an important critical and constructive endeavour.
difference.
Deleuze's
pre-individual is closely interwoven with
own philosophy of
Therefore, I begin my first chapter by discussing some contemporary approaches
difference.
difference
However,
the
to the problem of
and
capitalist embrace of
diversity highlights the fact that difference cannot be positivised in and of itself.
Understanding the relation of capitalism and philosophy has to be of vital
for
anyone trying to provide a concrete philosophical account of
importance
I
ethics. continue to examine this theme throughout the thesis, while providing a
positive account of an immanent ethics of the pre-individual through the work
Simondon.
Spinoza
and
of
By critiquing the assumed centrality of the individuated individual that pervades
human
'an
displace
I
the
as
a conception of
many philosophical accounts, seek to
helps
The
to
the
only
us
not
pre-indivIdual
of
concept
empire within an empire'.
but
the
provides
a
also
individual,
of
the
relationahtýembedded
understand
svsternatic
becoming.
The
critical and
and rigorous account of a philosophy of
demonstrated
dimension
I
forma
tiona
of this ethics of the pre-individual is
trans
'disparate'
Thought'
I
'Image
the
5
the
ideas of
as explore
of
in chapter on the
7
INTRODUCTION
and the 'treatedpossible'. If we presuppose an identity, rather than understanding
it as emergent and contested, we set up what Deleuze and Guattari call an
disjunction;
locked
An
exclusive
an identinin on itself
individual is,never closed
on itself
Its pre-individual and transindi-vidual dimensions constitute key
dimensions of its realin-, opening it to diverse registers of alterin-, alloN-v-ing
it to
dissensus.
affirm
"We cannot conceive of a collective recomposition of the sociUs,correlative to a
resingularisation of subjectivity, without a new way of conceiving pohtical and
democracies
that respect cultural differences - without multiple
economic
molecular revolutions" (Guattari, 1992a. 20-21). In certain respects Deleuze and
Guattari's pro)ect reactivates Marxist problematics, especially in the context of
their critique of capitahsm. However, they challenge a conception of the human
human
'Master
Universe,
the
that
the
as
of
proposing instead
is a part of nature.
They explore the non-human becorMngs of the human that constitute its
for
human
The
transformation.
is not presupposedin their accounts.
potential
Marcuse's 'One-Dimensional
Frankfurt
Man14 was symptomatic of the impasse that the
School arrived at. Its futile turn to aesthetics in order to disrupt the
became
forced
It
gesture.
capitalist movement of generalised equivalence was a
difficult to see how a quahtati'\Tetransformation of modes of existence might be
Frankfurt
Like
the
effected.
School, Deleuze and Guattari develop an ethico-
however,
focuses
their
that
immanent
processes
of
creation;
on
aesthetic paradigm
brimming
disparate
with
and
system is always at odds with itself, metastable,
dis)unctions
disparities
The
that
to
task
inclusive
produce
is
ethical
potentials.
but
"There
to
a
only
is
return
nature,
transversal
no
connections.
open up
political problem of the collective soul, the connections of ý,x-hich a society is
4 At those tirnes that I use the term 'rnan' and 'he' to stand in for all humans in this thesis it
is because I arn paraphrasing the words of other philosophers. Although a critique of the
is
different
this
a
constitute
would
necessary.
authors
of
assumptions
sexist
and
ethnocentric
in
be
how
the
decided
have
their
itself.
I
ser%ice of
in
to
activated
can
concepts
see
thesis
both critical and transformational strategies, rather than revealing their own shortcomings.
illustrate
ho,
the
to
This is, of course, a shortcoming in rný own Nvork, ýNever.in order
forced
decision
it
I
in
detail,
idual
to
make.
the
was
a
\\as
pre-indi\
of
ethics
an
of
necessitý
8
INTRODUCTION
capable, the flows it supports, invents, leavesalone, or does a,,ý-ayNvith" (Deleuze,
1993a: 52). 1 will continue to explore these
idcas throughout the rest of this
introduction.
From his earliest works, Deleuze was keen to construct
a philosophy purged of
transcendence. Arguing from a Spinozistic perspective, he indicates that only a
philosophy of immanence can serve to put ethics on a new footing, but this
requires another way of thinking about the subject, or more specifically about
processes of subjectification. The reason this seemsnecessaryto him is because
by
forms
of the sad passions and ressentiment
induced
of social organisation and
existence which serve to stifle a "logic of multiple affirmation and therefore a
logic of pure affirmation and a corresponding ethic of joy" (1962: 17).
This thesis explores the difficulties engenderedby this philosophy of im-manence.
Deleuze and Guattarl have been accusedof philosophical idealism' and it is easy
to see why this Might be the case.Their philosophy rhapsodises about nomads,
becoming, singularities, forces, abstract machines, haecceities; a vast array of
fabulations.
It also seemsto operate at a level and in a domain verý,
philosophical
far
removed
from
people's everyday experiences and
cornmon-sense
understandings of themselves. It is sometimes as though the actuality of the
has
been
dissolved
favour
fluxes,
flows
forces.
The
'
in
of endless
world
and
framework
the
the
subject and
of a systern of morality vanish
solidity of
left
forces
discourses.
and
with is a play of
vanquished, and all we are apparently
Ethics consequently appears impossible. Such readings fail to grasp the radicahtý,
Guattari's
I
Deleuze's
of
ethics
and
subjectivity.
understanding
will show
and
of
the critical, concrete and constructivist nature of their philosophy in chapter 5.
5 See Keith Ansell Pearson (1999: 185-9) and Franqois Laruelle (1986: 58-9).
6 These kinds of readings are so wide-ranging it is impossible to indicate all the authors.
They range fi-om introductory texts on so-called 'post-i-nodernism' to Judith Butler (1987:
'10ý-217) to anything written by Terry Eagleton. This kind of interpretation appears to
hedonistic,
'desire'
Anti-Oedipils
from
as
erotic.
in
of
a particular reading
emerge
spontaneistic and primordial.
71 do not include Keith Ansell Pearson's and Franqois Laruelle's assiduous critiques in this
cateoorv.
9
INTRODUCTION
Like Serres,Deleuze strives to oust the donunance
be'.
'to
He
the
thinks
of
verb
philosophy has remained rooted in the problem of being IS and wants to
reflect on conjunctions and relations (Deleuze and Parnet, 1977: 56-7) By
supplanting 'to be' with an ontology of becoming, alternative logics and physics
bodies
of
and relations become possible. This philosophy, like that of Serres,is a
logic of multiplicities (Deleuze 1990a: 147; Deleuze
Parnet,
1977:
This
and
viii).
logic of multiplicities does not rest on a formula,
or set of principles; it is not
reductionist. It does not try to dissolve heterogeneity but operates through
symbiosis or sympathy. Its syntheses are not unified: they gather clusters of
differenciated8 relations.
This is not a philosophy of fragmentation but of fragility. Serres claims that the
mechanics of materials teach us that a philosophy of fragments would be
conservative (1990: 120). By shattering an object into tiny fragments ý-oucreate
tiny localities that are incredibly resistant. "So a philosophy of fragments is
hyperdefensive; it is the result of hypercriticism, of polemics, of battle, of
hatred" (120). Some of the philosophers we will draw upon have been accusedof
this hyper-fragmentation; a fragmentation that shatters the subject so much that
becomes
ethics
impossible.
On the contrary I want to emphasisethat terms like 'partial objects' do not imply
division or fragmentation. Instead they develop ways of thinking about how new
be
fostered
and new syntheses and symbioses
connections and relations can
different
A
hyper-differenciation
that
the
proliferation of
encourages
emerge.
groups, each appealing to an essentialistand eternal identity, will not create ncN-,
being.
A
diversity
seeksto
capitalist appropriation of
connections and modes of
limits,
differences
valorising them in accordanceN6th
within relative
contain those
how
discover
\Vc
these ideas work throughout the
will
its (mlý-universal: moneý-.
different
how
demonstrating
tlicýof
can provide a
Nx-aýrest of this thesis,
thinking about ethics.
8 Deleuze's concept of different ciation is explained on p 144 of m.\ thesis.
INTRODUCTION
Deleuze's philosophy of difference rests, according to Franýois'Laruelle, upon a
thought of the inclusive disjunction - the relation of the non-relation (1986:
_13).
This inclusive disjunction is at the core of Deleuze's claims to be at once a
philosopher of immanence, a thinker of unrs,,
ocity, and a pluralist, empiricist and
Deleuze
advocate of polyphony and dissensus.One of the Nvaysin -\,,
and
-hich
Guattari express this is through the concept of the assemblage.
Sometimes this concept is interpreted as a temporary and static clustering of
heterogeneous elements. It may be that Brian I\fassUMI's (1987) translation of
'assemblage'
has
dynamism
has
the
this
term
qgencement
as
meant
and activity of
lost its impetus in English. It is for this reason important to emphasisethat the
concept of assemblageentails a way of thinking about an active relationality that
is not simply the affirmation of an aggregateof distinct terms. Instead terms can
be
how
do,
the
theý,
they
in a given
only
understood in
context of
work, what
Spinoza.
The
This
becomes
the
chapter on
ethical
assemblage.
especiallyclear in
dual
has
technology
problem of
always emphasised the importance of the
use
have
be
In
things
to
other words,
a part of
assemblagethat the technology is to
be understood in their milieu rather than in abstraction. And the addition of
another element may entirely transform the nature of the assemblage.
To state what a 'thing' is is to speak of it in abstraction, as though it existed
A
set of properties is thus ascribed, and
isolated, immutable and self-identical.
possibilities of
existence and transformation
delimited
and ordered.
are
Furthermore, the genesis of its being, as well as the historical and social
formations and geological sedimentations of power that mould it, are ignored.
(Foucault taught us that power is diffuse and operatesin networks of relations of
forces.)
Deleuze denounces Hegel for ridiculing pluralism as a naive consciousnesssaying
depending
has
'thing'
Fvery
4).
(1962:
here,
on
'this, that,
multiple senses
no,\x-'
what
destructions
these
that
the
or
aff1hations
in
and
relations it is caught up
INTRODUCTION
relations bring. Every 'thing' is a multiplicityý I explore this thought of
multiplicIty, a thought that is, unsurprisingly, irreduciblv complex. I Nvantto see
what the implications of such a thought are for ethics and for subjectivity. The
draw
I
function
concepts
on are a
of this problematic.
Consequently the conjunction AND
keýplays a
role in the theory of
assemblages,)ust as the prefix 'pre-' provides us with a way of thinking about the
dimensions
humanity.
It does tl-lis by decentering the human from
non-human
of
the heart of its investigations, by no longer presupposing the human as the origin
or telosof these investigations, in order to think all the better the potentials of
humans.
A logic of multiplicities displaces the centrality and primacy of individual terms
It is
in order to grasp the reality of relations, a reality that is no longer elposten*ofi.
longer
the
thought
the
grounded in
multiple is no
of a multiplicity in which
an
but
longer
With
One
this
the
adjective
a substantive.
is no
concept of multiplicity
but
into
Multiple,
to
the
terms
opposed
multiple
enter
a symbiotic relation that
imposition
Guattari,
42).
(Deleuze
1972a:
the
resists unification or
of identity
and
By focusing on this logic of multiplicities we can explore many of Deleuze and
Guattarl's concepts ranging from the concept of 'difference-in-its elf' to those of
logic
This
'virtual'
'assemblage'.
the
the
of multiplicities critiques the image
and
that thought gives to itself of what it is to think; it constructs a thought without
image.
iv.
activating
Thinking
is
concepts:
philosophy
and resistance
interpreting
but
always experiencing, experimenting, not
is
always actuality,
with,
experiment
experimenting and what we experience,
histon,
Without
being,
taking
into
shape
what's new, what's
what's coming
the experiments would remain indeterminate [ ...1.
Gilles Deleuze, A'(gotiations(1990a: 106).
Donna Hara,,N-aN-says that "A comn-ntment to mobfle positioning and to
I -)
INTRODUCTION
passionate detachment is dependent on the impossibility of innocent 'identity'
politics and epistemologies as strategies for seeing from the standpoints of the
subjugated in order to seewell" (1991: 192). This shift in perspective is evident in
Deleuze's work. He admits in his televised inter-,
Claire
Parnet
(1994-5)
-lc,\x-swith
that all his works have tried to discover the nature of the event, since such a
concept could undermine the domination of the verb 'to be'. I have indicated the
ethico-political
implications
of
such a move throughout
this introduction.
Haraway warns us that to see from below is a problem; it
is not an innocent
position, even though 'subjugated' standpoints are to be preferred (191). Even an
attempt to 'see well' still blinds Deleuze to his own ideolog 1cal position as a "f ir stworld
intellectual
masquerading as the absent nonrepresenter who lets the
oppressed speak for themselves", according to Gayatri Spivak (1988: 292).
Spivak's hostile reading of Deleuze (and Foucault) presents them as thinkers
who
consistently ignore both "the episten-nc violence of imperialism and the
international division of labour" (289). She accuses them of constructing a
homogeneous Other (of third-worldism) (288-9). Because these philosophers
have no truck with the concept of ideology, she feels they do not consider the
desire,
relation of
power, subjectivity and cannot therefore articulate a theory of
interests (273).
She is, of course, correct to note that Deleuze and Guattan eschew the concept
Guattari,
Peleuze
1972a:
104).
They
of ideology
and
argue that when the masses
because
but
illusion
their
they
to
interests,
it
is
own
not
act against
are subject an
from
the position of
the
they
make
concerns rather
unconscious investments
desire. This is not the same as speaking of a subject wbodesires.Their renovated
differentl)desire,
to theories
power, subjecti-,7-itA,
and interests operates
relation of
but
does
It
the
it
identities speaksof,
exanuinesthe
not presuppose
of ideologý-desire
(for
for
the
inN-estments
of
emergence of certain collective
conditions
be
by
fascism,
simply explained
an appeal to
which cannot
example the case of
ideologý)-
13
INTRODUCTION
Like Spinoza, they simultaneously affirm that 911i en the seriesof causesthat havc
produced any given reality it is as perfect as it can be - even if that means
populations are at the lowest ebb of their activity - and strive to transform that
reality through an etl-iics of liberation. These positions are not contradictory bUt
rest on a Bergsonian critique of the retrospective illusion of the 'possible'
(Bergson, 1889). The realisablepossible extrapolates the future from a present
condition. The future then seemsto pre-exist as a ready-made solution to a givcn
problem. Deleuze introduces the concept of the 'virtual' to avoid the mechanism
of resemblance that we perceive in the 'possible-real' relation. The virtual is
but
to
the
opposed
actual
is absolutely real.In this context, the virtual operates as
the real condition for the creation of new modes of existenceas a t-reatedpossible.
These do not pre-exist their actualisation in the guise of models or plans. Their
from
to
the
their idea of the virtual as a
resistance
notion of ideology stems
logic
the
possible
it
is
as
conjoined with
conception of pluralism and
of
t-reated
discussed
that
multiplicities
earlier.
we
Creating is a form of resisting, claim Deleuze and Guattarl. Their clusters and
dominant
They
the
thinking.
orders of
oppose a
networks of concepts challenge
hierarchical
thought
to
thought
and
rhizomatic
an arborescent
which is
fashion
A
the
rhizome operates in
of a network without any
representational.
dWre
Its
is to seek connections,
raison
unifying point or organisational principle.
been
have
be
thresholds
quahtatively transformed once certain immanent
and to
life
This
is
as experimentation.
reached.
The arborescent image of thought (Deleuze, 1968a: 129-167) not only has a
describes
but
a principle of organisation, what terms,
philosophical importance
A
thought that rests upon
concepts or values are privileged, NNhatis exclude&
differences,
reducing them to its categories, cannot
and assimilates
U11lVersals
All
been
has
Everything
that
in
advance.
set
out
already
singularities.
grasp
becomings,
"belongs to a thought without image - nomadism, the xvar-macl-:
iine,
languages
or
nuptials against nature, capture and thefts, interregnums, minor
-)eleuze
denounced
Ian
as
a
nuisance"
and
11
crushed
etc.
guage,
of
-s
stammering
14
INTRODUCTION
and Parnet, 1977: 14). The art of creating taxonomi*esand classifications will not
shudder to an early end if principles of universahn- are not made to bear down
upon them, but will operate differently, finding new relations of non- subsumptive
commonality.
Spinoza explains with joy the importance of composing different relatiions
finding the relations and activities that suit you, as
and
well as the ways that these are
expressed.His understanding of a philosophy (and ethics) of immanence as one
force
(puz*ssamelpotenfiq)
of
and not of properties or propositions is absolutely
crucial to Deleuze's argument that Being is univocal. It also helps us to further
ic of multiplicities. Deleuze says, "Human forces
our understanding of a lo 91
1
(having an understanding, a will, an imagination, and so on) have to combinewith
forces:
form
from
other
an overall
this combination, but everything
arises
depends on the nature of the other forces with which the human forces become
linked" (1990a: 117).
Deleuze and Guattari invent new ways of
understanding processes of
subjectification and singularisation. In tandem with this is the blossoming of
kind
another
of ethics. Throughout their works they draw upon the conception
field
of a pre-individual, pre-personal
of singularities in order to grasp a
dimension of being (becoming) that is no longer individual nor personal nor
This
is important not just to trace the genesis of the individual, a
universal.
has
that
the individuated being as its telos,but to comprehend the
movement
domain of
transformation that cannot be designated in energetico-spatio-
temporal terms. This domain does not fulfil the criterion of being a condition of
but
for
for
the
the invention of the new.
offers
possibility
experience,
conditions
This transformation of the waý-that we think about the individual feeds into our
being.
The
kind
'subject'
thought
the
that
and
of
subject,
understanding of
Deleuze and Guattari talk about (on the occasions they use the word) concerns
longer
that
personal.
are no
processes of subjectification and singtdarisation
Reahtv is dvnarnic, processLialand creative and thev create mobile concepts in
accordance with this.
15
1'-',
ýTRODUCTION
V.
singular transformations
A singularity is a threshold point; the moment N-,
-here everyd-iing is transformed.
These transformations make a bistog but the event is the imperceptible and
critical point of transformation. Deleuze quotes P6guy,
Events have critical points just as temperature has critical points points of
fusion, congelation, boiling, condensation, coagulation and crystallization. And
even within the event there are states of surfeit which are precipitated,
crystallized, and determined only by the introduction of a fragment of a future
event.
Charles P6guy quoted in Gilles Deleuze, TI)eLouic of Sense.(1969: 53).
I want to concentrate on the incorporeal, transformational and critical aspect of
This
denigrate
disn-niss
history
(and
this
thesis.
to
in
an event
is not
or
memory)l
This
be
ludicrous
(and
as unimportant.
would
unhveable).If to create is to resist,
as Deleuze and Guattari assert, it is to create from a situation with a set of
limitations.
They
length
'assemblages'
'machines'
talk
materials and
at
about
and
(the Feudal machine, the Capitalist machine ) that produce different kinds of
...
formations,
subjectivity, power
modes of existence and relationality. "If you tie
him
be
'Express
friend',
he
to
the
someone up and say
most
able to
yourself,
will
he
doesn't
be
96).
(Deleuze
1977:
In
Parnet,
that
to
tied
is
say
want
up"
and
being
they
to
tap
into, and create, other ways of
and capacities of
essence,
want
expression.
A singularity is a bifurcation point. Things are no longer as they used to be... Our
language is filled with expressionsspeaking of these states- 'I'm cracking up'... 'It
9 Deleuze writes a great deal on memory. His book Bergsonism (I 966a) explored this theme
in depth. His chapter on 'Repetition' in Difference and Repetition (I 968a) explores different
kinds of tirne and memory (and the constitution of different selves) from the passive
Bergson
habits
that makes time pass, and
the
to
the
of
virtual
memory
present,
of
contractile
future.
is
LThe
1101,
In
Cinema
the
Nietzschean
that
of
the
a
repetition
CI)IC171return
eternal
.
It?7age (1983) he draws upon this Bergsonian image of the virtual \vhole and describes an
he
Guattari,
(1972a)
In
Anti-Oedipus
ical
mobilises
with
conception of mernory.
ontolo,,
Nietzsche's theatre of cruelt\ to discuss a memory embedded in the flesh that marks a
collective rnernorisation.
16
INTRODUCTION
has reached breaking point...
'under pressure'... 'enough is enough'. These
phrases express an intolerable situation, the point where something has to give.
'I'l-iis may take place on the grand-scale
imagine
a society arrives at such a
-
supersaturated state that a minor incident triggers a revolution (or a war). The
aftermath of the assassinationof Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a nineteen year
idified and routinised existence can also be utterlýold student illustrates this. Ri91
transformed by the addition of a new, apparentlý, banal element to one's
existence. Suddenly everything changesand possible worlds are actuahsed.11'
Guattari. spent a great deal of time figuring this out when
working with
schizophrenics in La Borde chnic." If creation is resistance,,it attempts to
transform concrete conditions and to create a space for other modes of
valonsation and existence.If a rhizome is an anti-memory it is becauseit escapes
don-unantmodes of identification and invents new connections and relations.12
vi.
the engendering
of the virtual
Deleuze explains how this strange ontolog), that we have been exploring might
function by developing a difficult but revelatory theory of difference in Dý1,
1ýrent,
e
.
Repelition
(1968a).
his
From
1956 essay on 'Bergson's Conception of
and
Difference' Deleuze had tried to show the necessity for developing a concept of
'difference -in-its elf'. I will argue in chapter 5 that there is not Just a philosophical
for
but
this
motivation
exercise
an ethico-political one."
10This idea has resonanceswith contemporary researchesinto chaos theory that speak of the
famed 'butterfly effect'. See also Prigogine and Stengers, (1988). Entre le temps et
VýIcrnitj. Librairie Arth&me Fayard.
'' Guattari worked at La Borde clinic with Jean Oury and Franqois Tosquelles (who himself
for
long
Fanon
Frantz
time).
a
worked with
I) See Keith Ansell Pearson (1999: 223-4) on history and politics in relation to the event.
13Like Paul Gilroy, I try to hold together ethics and politics in order to set out a practical
beyond
He
that
to
need
get
argues
we
nationalism in order to reevaluate the
philosophy.
significance of the modern nation state, and to examine closely political and economic
information
in
the
the
the
politics of
relationship of
and the practices of
context of
relations
He
goes on to say "Its effects underpin more recounisably political
accumulation.
capitalist
h
like
transnational
throu,
the
centrality
of
ecological
movements
which.
growing
changes
-,
their insistence on the association of sustainabilivy and justice, do so much to shift the moral
built"
the
modern
separation
of
politics
and
ethics
on
was
which
and scientific precepts
(1993): 7). See also Paul Patton (2-1000)and Ian McKenzie (1997) for sorne ideas of ho\\
I -/
INTRODUCTION
Deleuze was fascinated with the concept
'becoming'.
He revelled 'in the ,-,-a)of
that this notion eluded all Plato's attempts to capture and contain it
bigger (than she was) and smaller (than
Alice
getting
-
be)
The
she will
simultaneously.
slippery
nature of such an idea resounds with the notions of intensitýyand singularity that
we will examine in detail in chapter 4. A temperature, redness, a wind, to run, a
laugh... all of these transmit his idea of becoming
because
they
and intensity
be
cannot
captured, identified and delimited. They are pre-personal and preindividual.
We saw earlier the importance of symbiotic relations in Deleuze's and Guattarl's
thought. The concept of symbiosis is connected to the idea of a becoming
because it gives reality to the relation between two terms in a way that does
not
make it simply an effect of the encounter of those terms. In that encounter there
is a qualitative transformation. Butler showed us how humans are modified býtheir prostheses. We will see how this kind of idea relates to concepts of
becoming and intensity in chapter 6.
Deleuze mobilises and 'synaesthesises'all of these ideas in order to articulate his
conception of a pre-individual transcendental field in 'Immanence: A Life...'
(1995). Here, he demonstrates clearly that this idea of transcendental philosophy
does not signify a quest to map the conditions of possibility of experience, but is
for
the production of reality and the invention of
the
concerned with
conditions
the new In this vein of thought, he remarked of the will to power that,
if it constitutes a superior empiricism, this is because it is an essentially plastic
is
it
that
than
no wider
conditions, that changes itself with the
principle
what
determines
itself in each case along with what it determines.
conditioned and
The will to power is, indeed, never separable from particular determined forces,
from their quantities, qualities and directions.
Philosopý)),.
Gilles Deleuze, A'ielýsche
(1962:
50).
and
Deleuze's and Guattari's concepts might impact upon political theory and the field of
political philosophy.
18
INTRODUCTION
Earlier we looked briefly at the concept of the virtual in relation to the conditions
for the production of the new When we come to speak further of the role of the
virtual in this philosophy in relation to a 'transcendental empiricism', the
circuitous nature of a kind of 'autocatalytic' feedback between it and the actual
be
borne
must
in mind. There are many virtuals operating in Deleuze's
philosophy]4 but I want to suggest a couple of points of contmonahty between
them. The virtual never operates in a transcendent manner; it always names a
spaceof potential or transformation, whether it be the diagonal Ariadnean thread
that makes the Whole open in Cinema/: TheMovementImage(1983), the field of
potential of DýJýrenteand Repetition(1968a) or the event of 11"bat1SP&losopl!
y?
(1991a). The aspects of the virtual that I want to concentrate upon relate to my
how
Deleuze's and Guattari's philosophies of inunanence work.
to
concern show
The virtual/actual relation so key to DýJýren(-e
Repetition
does
Alain
and
not, as
Badiou (1997) would have us believe, imply a Platonism of the virtua115.Instead it
forces us to think of the possibilities that can be unleashedwithin a system, the
donuinant
that
subjective and affective relations
emerge once we rupture a
image
difference
In
thought
that
to,
it
of
conjoins
identity.
subsumes
under, or
effect, it
from
'common-sense'
to
move
exhorts us
a
understanding of reality, that thinks
in accordance with a representational model of thought and operates in
accordance with a principle of recognition, to the thought of a pre-individual
field. T I-Lisopens up a space for a politics of transfiguration, and an ethics
16
that
invent
modes
can
new
of existence.
premised upon immanent criteria
vii.
the pre-individual
as state of excess
Gilbert Simondon haunts all of Deleuze's work right until his final article
'Immanence: a Life...'. His understanding of protvsSes
of individuation rests on the
14See Keith Ansell-Pearson (forthcoming) for meditations on this theme.
Neither does it correspond directIN NvItha sensiblelintelligible dichotomy.
Gilroy (1993a: 37) takes this term from Seyla Benhabib as he asks ho%vutopias are
concei\ ed.
19
IXTRODUCTION
initial articulation of a transcendental field harbounng pre-individual singulanties.
Writing just after the publication of Prigogine's groundbreaking "vork on
dissipative systems, he is attuned to many of Prigogine's ideas. He blended
physics, biology, chemistry, sociology, technology and philosophy into a fantastic
concoction. This absolutely captivated Deleuze,',, and Simondon's theoretical
apparatus would be key to Deleuze's enterprise of constructing a transcendental
empiricism refreshingly and resolutely bereft of appeals to any transcendent
realm.
SiMondon claimed that by solely focusing on the individual or group we linger on
the verges of an impoverished reality. With this observation he strikes close to the
heart of Deleuze's and Guattari's philosophical adventures. He explains that we
fail
do
pr&,
to
to
the
need understand
of individuation and we will
so if we trý,
esses
to explain the genesisand becoming of the individual by extrapolating from traits
being,
by
the
or characteristics of
or
appealing to principles
already individuated
hylomorphism
He
introduces the concept
of individuation such as
or atomism.
be
field
describe
'zone'
the
to
that
pre-individual
in order
cannot
explained
a
of
by appealsto categoriespren-nsedupon a pre-existing subject or object.
This understanding of pre-individual singularities, married with the differential
how
by
Guattarl,
Deleuze
to
these ideas are
reveals us
and
ontology proposed
fundamental to re-thinking subjectivity and ethics. Indeed Etienne Bahbar couples
SiMondon and Spinoza and argues that Spinoza, contrary to Hegel's claims, is
4,1
In
prot-esses
seek to show
chapter
of individuation.
only ever thinking about
how all these themes resonate by clarifying further the concepts of the preSpinozist.
Simondon
believes,
Bahbar
make
a
individual and transindividual that,
SIpinoza, like Sffnondon, will be revealed to be a philosopher of immanence and
force. He proposed an understanding of the individual and relationahtý- that is
heretical
dynamic
the
of
understanding
an
concealing
collective,
and
processual,
relationships
of
bodv,
and individual
mind and
17Scc Deletize (1969: 104-5,1344 n.3) and (I 968a: 146).
-
Nature.
His
theorv of
and
1
INTRODUCTION
affectivjtý, and philosophy of force are central to our task of re-imagining ctliics
(and subjectivity).
Spinozaunderstandsthe imagination to be impressionistic.It revealsthe stateof
body
(and mind) as it is affected by other bodies (and minds). An abstract
our
phrase or imagewill evoke different imagesdependingon how a body has been
by
shaped the relations it has enteredinto. Spinozasaysthat a soldier who sees
the tracks of a horse will think of the rider and of war, while a peasantwill think
of a plough and a field JI. pr.18. sch.). This is a passiveand reactivc mode of
existencethat indicatesthe stateof our bodiesrather than cultivating relationsof
com.monality that enhanceour powers of existing, helping us to discover our
thresholds.Only through an ethicsof experimentationcan we learn what is good
for us. Abstraction as generalisationerasesthe specificityof different bodiesand
An
minds.
essentialismthat can neither cope with those specificities,nor engage
bodies
diverse
formations
their
in
with
activitiesand
and compositions,provides
fertile
for
a
ground
reactive stereotypingand prejudice, or in-group claims to
superiority.
Spinoza's conception of essenceis nod-iing other than such a dynamical and
relational activity. He calls it conatusJIL pr.7), which relates it to his philosophy of
34).
3
learn
how
(Potentia)
J.
In
Spinoza's
power
pr.
chapter we will
ethics is one
both
'network'
terms
the
terms
power
in
of singularities, expressed
in
of
of
and
This
"'
of relations with other existing modes.
conception of reality as processual
for
fluid
longer
taxonomies,
premised upon principles of
no
and relational calls
homology,
but
(SiMondon
the
resemblance or
on
commonality of singularities.
beautiful
for
logic
the
that grasps and
passageson
need
a new
writes some
)
Spinoza
differences.
'transduction'.
Finally,
He
calls it
volunteers a
comprehends
foster
(Poteslas).
Power
Power
their
to
capacities
strips individuals of
critique of
by
denuding
them,
imposing an abstract image
multiple affects and connections,
181 realise I arn introducing sorne unfamiliar terms here, terms I will explain later. but I do
indi\
idual.
be
It
draw
the
the
to
this
to
this
of
concept
of
may
radical
re-working
attention
that such a teri-n is no longer appropriate.
21
INTRODUCTION
that servesto deny and block diversity and movement.
I will examine Spinoza'sEMICsin some detail and show how he thinks about a
praxiology of liberation that rests on new forms of association.In chapter 61
fuse
these ideas with Deleuze's and Guattarl's complex theories of
will
relationahtyand emergence.Their ethologIcaland musicalmotifs lead us toward a
philosophy of praxis that seeks to compose new relations and invent new
possibilitiesof existing.By displacingthe centralityof the human they accentuate
the reality of a non-human nature that traverseshumanity and makes ethics
possible.I try to tl-iink, along with Nietzsche,beyond the human condition and to
suggestother ways of d-tinkingabout subjectivity,relationahty,and consequently
ethics.
This pre-occupation with the question of difference led Deleuze to cultivate, in
his own writings and his work with Guattari, a veritable bestiary of concepts
clustering about this idea of 'difference-in-itself'. Maný- of these concepts are
unfamiliar, counter-intuitive (or intuitive if you are a Bergsoman) and force a
radical shift in the ways we think about the emergence of subjectivity. Vincent
Descombes (1991: 120) says that the penchant for critiquing the subject and
subjectivity amongst French philosophers remained limited to critiquing the
T
Guattari
Deleuze
the
to
that
of
subject
and
subjectivity.
t'oncepts
want
show
and
futile
does
have
the
agree
element
of
is
would
critique
if it
not
as its correlate
transformation and construction of new possibilities of thinking and being. We
favour
displaced
the
in
are swept into an atmosphere in which
of
subject is
further
detail.
processesof singularisation, an idea we will explore in
It is sometimes difficult to understand why Deleuze and Guattarl make frequent
'assemblages'
(qgenivments),
'abstract
monstrous
concepts
such
as
machines'
use of
feeble
do
These
'transversal
neologisms
not constitute a
communication'.
and
desire for obscurantism but are an integral part of their understanding of v,-hat
does
Philosophy
not seek to expose an underlying reahty or to
philosophy is.
The
It
thinks
in, concepts.
nonrepresent and mediate experience. invents, and
INTRODUCTION
philosophical presuppositions that shape the dominant image of thought of a
society are laid bare in order to create new possibilities of thinking (and
consequently of acting). Deleuze ah,,,ays insisted that thought and existence were
restricted by the prevailing dogmatic image of thought and continued to expand
on this theme until the end of his life. 19
Although Deleuze seldom speaksof ethics at length, an ethics rumbles along the
cracked surface of all his writings. Moreover, despite the fact that his specific
allusions to a new thought of subjectivity remain somewhat guarded and
(although
this is always animplicit motivation in all of his writing) the
sporadic,
proliferation of concepts he introduces - haecceities, singularities, desiringmachines...- are all implicated in this different understanding of the potentials of
subjectivity. Guattari also develops a conception of processual subjectivity and an
his
Again
how
this operatesin our
ethics of singularities in
own work.
we will see
final chapter.
viii.
the appropriation
of difference
We lack creation. We lack resistance to the present. The creation of concepts in
itself calls for a future form, for a new earth and people that do not yet exist.
Europeanization does not constitute a becoming but merely the history of
becoming
the
prevents
of subjected peoples.
capitalism, which
Gilles Deleuze and F6hx Guattari, Wl'hatis Philosoply?(1991a: 108).
In the meantime, however, I want to ground my theoretical apparatus. I am
full
flight
Marx
launch
the
and
into
of philosophical abstraction when
reticent to
Engels' scathing remarks echo to the present day. In The GermanIdeolqV(1932)
they comment with disdain upon the way that philosophers attempt the
'liberation' of 'man' through abstract phraseology, ignoring the real struggle of
first
This
I
liberation
two chapters
is \N-hy want to spend rny
in the real world.
real
has
debate
difference,
debate
that
real
a
concerning the question of
situating this
ethico-political implications.
19See Deletize (1962 and 1968a).
23
INTRODUCTION
The invocation of so maný,difficult
be
and unfamiliar terms can only
Justified if
they serve to break existing habits of thought that limit possibilities of thinking
and existing. These operate, like most sanctions, as an invisible and inaudible
realm that springs to life in the face of transgression. The sedimentation of
ical structures, or NvaN-s
being,
social, political, cultural, economic and psycholo91
of
1
be
cannot
considered without an understanding of power relations. In my first
I
chapter want to explore some of the ways that difference, in the broadest sense,
has been silenced and also the ways that it has come to voice. I
want to positivise
difference, dissensus and diversity, but not in a way that ignores the specific
realities of different power formations, and not in a way that appeals to
essentialismin any absolutist (and particularist) manner.
I believe Deleuze and Guattari's critique and invention of concepts rests to a
large extent upon an opposition to what bell hooks calls White Capitalist
Patriarchy. In my first chapter I will examine some of the ways that people haN-e
articulated their thoughts, concerns and ideas about 'difference'. This is not
simply to contextuahse my own problematic but also serves to communicate the
concrete nature of the philosophising I am engagedin.
In chapter 2,1 contend that a fruitful way to grasp the radical nature of Deleuze's
Guattari's
responses to these questions is to situate their work in the context
and
Although
I recognise both the limited (and polemical) nature
of global capitalism.
feel
I
bone
this
that
that
this
of my exposition of
area,
it is clear
of
was a major
for
both
After
'Capitalism
thinkers.
they
two
contention
all,
wrote
volumes on
fact,
Schizophrenia'.
have
In
Deleuze
"I
Guattan
F6hx
I
think
and
once said,
and
different
but
both
Marxists,
You
two
in
remained
our
seewe
of us.
ways,perhaps,
think that aný-political phflosophý-must turn on the analysisof capitalism and the
developed"
171).
has
(1990b:
waý-sit
Guattaris
final book
ChaoswoSIS (1992a)
was written in exphclt opposition to what
lic understood to be the mass-mediatisation of society and the restricted and
'14
IXTRODUCTION
deformed nature of capitalist subjectivitýýSubjectivi
i
i ity for Guattari,
1 is never prebut
existent
is produced. Deleuze also pinpointed a shift in the machination,s of
from
'societies of discipline' to 'societies of control' (1990c); the latter
societies
signifies a mutation of capitalism into a society of communication based on
labour
Antonio
Negri
immaterial
and modulating operations of power.
and
Michael Hardt take up this analysis of global capitalism in their book Empire
(2000). My analysis of this text is primarily concerned with the processes of
flUldity
fle
ibility
'new'
the
that they
the
subJectification and
1
and xi
of
capitalism
delineate. I also exarrunethe commodification of difference. I want to show wllýthe capitalist appropriation of difference and diversity does not signal a deathknell for an ethics of liberation.
As I have indicated the rest of the thesis will seek to lay out a philosophical
framework that emerges from these problems. I will conclude by showing how
Deleuze's and Guattari's concepts opens up new ways of thinking about
identity
subjectivity,
for
by
and ethics
showing not only the necessitý-
be
Serres
but
how
these
transformational praxes,
says,cast
composed and, as
can
off
25
DIFFERENCE
I.i.
AND DIVERSITY
philosophical underpinnings
What follows is not pure philosophy. (What philosophy ever isý Contan-unation
and symbioses are enriching.) It gravitates about two central themes - subjectIvAN,
These
familiar,
discourse.
and ethics.
themes
are
even well-worn,
in philosophical
My aim is not one of synopsis, overview or criticism of these fields. That would
be hubn's.Rather I engage in a positive and constructive endeavour, trying to
extract the ethico-political ramifications of a certain series of philosophical
foreign
My
concepts.
presentation of ethics may seem
since I will seek to show
how the thought of an emergent and partial subjectivity necessitatesputting aside
philosophical approaches that rest on a presupposition of either subject or object
(phenomenology, positivism ).
...
However, rather than rushing headlong into the minutiae of the strange ontology
that Deleuze and Guattari elaborate,it is important to situate their problematic. If
does
fantastical,
this
the
philosophy is invention, shot through with an element of
banish
It
to
is also a pragmatics, concerned with transformations
it
idealism.
not
Such
a pragmatics requires, as we will see,an understanding of
of social practices.
the virtual, the potentialof transformation.
Franýois Laruelle believes that all of Deleuze's work is a 'prodigious' variation on
difference
For
Laruelle,
(1986:
7).
Nietzschean
the one theme of a
concept of
Difference
(La Dýffýren(-e)names a constellation of thinkers and a particular
problematic
(15) arising from nowhere to fight a battle on several fronts,
has
dialectical
Difference
contradiction.
including those of phenomenology and
dominated the philosophy of the twentieth century (17). It concerns a distinctive
waý- of
articulating
Difference
philosophical
language by expressing the autonomy
of
from the principles of Being and Unin-, raising it, in the case of
Deleuze and Nietzsche, to the po-\x-cr of a principle
(18). As a philosophical
decision, not onlý- is it a sN-ntax,but it expresses a particular understanding of the
(16).
Laruelle
the
takes
the
issue
NX-1th
real
of
experience
certain
a
real, and is also
I
(39),
thinking
shall
this
something
mode
of
of
circularity
and
presuppositions
26
DIFFERENCE
AND DIA'ERSITY
return to later. I think, however, that in the above insights he offers an acute
diagnosis (and critique) of the symptom
The question of
difference.
of
difference constitutes an implicit starting point for this
exploration of subjectivity and ethics. A philosophy that can think 'difference-initself',
rather than always situating difference in relation to "forms
of
representation which reduce it to the Same [ ]" (Deleuze, 1968a:xix) finds itself
...
more capable of comprehending emergence, process and the invention of new
modes of existence.
relevant or relative
Paul Patton (2000) reminds us that Deleuze does not write political philosoph)
but shows instead how philosophy is inherently political. Dý)ýrent'e
Repe
io
zfi
and
11is
.
not simply a philosophical treatise on the interrelations of difference and
repetition but contains the lagged beauty of untamed thought that vies with
formahsm. in order to give birth to a possibility of thinking and being otherwise.
Deleuze, as Laruelle intimates, posits difference as a principle and gives it a
primacy over identityý Previously the concept of difference had been reduced to
cmerely'a conceptual difference (difference-ftom).
This giddy affirmation of difference and intensities provokes a whole new way of
thinking about the subject. This is a world of pre-personal singularities and nondiluted
but
that
personal individuations
is not
into an elusive spiritualism
is
thrown instead into practice. It is an exciting doubling in philosophy that explores
the interrelation of virtual and actual. The detective work of tracing these
future
that awaits creation.
concepts takes place in a
But another question foflo,,xs in these tracks that asks what the illicit preit
the
that
shape
understanding of what is to think
philosopl-ýcal presuppositions
(and what can be thought) are. The dominant and dogmatic image of thought
hinges upon a modcl of recognition that seeks to assirmlate difference to the
llý
Ii
'on
ý)
1968a:
Iti
I
analogy and oppos'
e eLzc,
xv).
catcgorlcs ()f identitv, slMllaritv,
DIFFf'REINCE
AND DIVERSITY
This addressesmany of the questions about representationalism and universalism
that traditional political theorists refuse to acknowledge.
Deleuze's work interrogates a philosophit'al
difference,
concept of
N-etit shares
many of the concernsand criticisms of those thinkers whosewritings we will be
A
Nietzscheamsm
Deleuze's
through
examining shortly. subversive
runs
oeuvre
that endeavoursto re-evaluateall values.The upheavalsthat trail in the "X-ake
of
his thought do not stem from a postmodern obduracy on his part, but from a
refusalto submit to conventionalwaysof seeingand questioning.
Deleuze never tried to get rid of the concepts of identity and samenessbut "was
forms
how
it
identity is constituted, and what
concerned with the question of
from
29).
(Patton,
2000:
He
the mechanisms of a
to
takes"
escape
sought
burrowing
through its architectonics to create new
structure of representation,
logic
his
kernel
I
of
entry points and exits. will argue that this ambition is at the
This
this.
of multiplicities and will show the ethico-political implications of
Power
to
that
the
seal off
attempt
of
organisations
argument
with
an
constitutes
fundamentally
that
challenge their modus operandi.
thoughts and practices
Otherwise variation and invention are only permitted within certain limits.
Guattari's
Deleuze
In addition, we will consider the striking situatedness
and
of
We
the
their
in
context of
the
read
collaborations
must
political.
philosophy of
do
They
to
the
critique and create
challenge
off
shrug
not
global capitalism.
labyrinthal
from
flight'
'lines
the
of
neointerspersals
of
or
escape-routes
Uncannily,
'deterritorialisations'
and
capitalism(s).
of
relative
archaisms and
disconcertinglý- for some, they summarily refuse to approach the question of the
human in accordance with traditional (or even contemporarý-) norms as when
The\the
"Human
market with manNon
coexist
can
axioms.
are
rights
theN-claim,
are
the
property,
which
of
security
those
concerning
other axioms, notably
(1991a:
[
]"
them
theýthan
contradict
them
more
even
suspend
or
unaware of
...
107). Is this an indifference to the fate of humanity, satisfying their critics that an
desired
their
the
of
cocoon
in
NN-omb-hke
immersion
was
thesc two philosophers
28
DIFFERENCE
AND DIVERSM7
own desiring- flows
Contrary to appearances,at stake here is not the assumption of an anti-human
stance that repudiates humanity. Remarkably enough, the opposite is true. Let us
take an example to show where their real concerns he. Democracies are
majorities, say Deleuze and Guattari (1991a), so we need to ask about the
democracy
elements of a
that elude its grasp; its 'becomings-tn.noritanan'. The
material and incorporeal universes that strip humans of dignitý- create a zone of
intoleration - the threshold point that we came across in our introduction - and
potentially the transformation of
By
discovering
a miheu.
and inventing
'problematics' which result from a disparateness,a tension in a sN,,
stem, they
construct their inunanent philosophy of the political. But this philosophy is one
founded in critique. As Eric Alliez stresses,their philosophy is an etho-ontology
(1997: 85).
Spinoza's Ethics rests upon at least one negative (i.e. empty) though fundamental
human
far
We
to
that
proposition
the crux of
about
nature.
could
go
so
say
as
Spinoza's ethical theory is located in the proposition that humans are nomhere
born
free and are everywhere in chains. Ethics for him is a ceaselessprocess of
liberation. Liberalism, that posits a discrete or atomistic individual, and
by
Spinoza's
'common
that
con-imunitarianism,
abstracts a
good', are challenged
he
believes
(though
too
that
complex account of individuation and relationality
democratic forms of organisation and association best nourish the potentials of
humans).
Deleuze and Guattarl radicalise these ideas, mobilising his theory of affectivity in
f',
I'%Tour
becomings
and multiplicities.
of a theory of assemblages,and accounts of
These terms are prior to form and structure, object and subject. Thcy displace the
An
centrality of the subject and re-imagine the question of subjectiITJty. eagerness
to invent a new- conception of
domains
from
that
travcrses
subjectivity
basket-weaving
to
and ancient mythology to
technology to poetry, quilt-making
ecology, reveals the extraordinarily ambitious and unusual nature of their \x-()rk.
i9
DIFFERENCE
AND DIVERSITY
Like Michael Hardt (1993) and Paul Patton (2000), 1 believe Deleuze and Guattan
are gesturing toward a radical democracy by proposing a concept of critical
freedom. The radical nature of this democracy does not sImply address the
question of inclusion. Tt is a mutant mosaic of figures from Alarx and \Lffl to
Butler and Aristotle.
Although Deleuze and Guattarl have coherent theoretical accounts of the
emergence and operations of over-coding of the State, as well as a rigorous
theory of capitalism, it is beyond the scope of this thesis to discuss these
detail
the
they deserve.My work will concentrate on the 'utopianism'
elements in
by
their
trying to set out how this operates in the context of the
of
philosophy
State and capitalism. In order to articulate the radicahty of their venture it is
important to situate it alongside other theoretical approaches.
I. M.
theory and practice
A non-evaluative definition of democracy presents it as a "system of decisionmaking in which all those who are subject to the decision have equally effective
determine
to
the political outcome of the decision-making" (Hyland, 1995:
power
81). Although I can understand the concerns about 'moral imperialism' and
'relativism' that precipitate such a definition, the formalism of this account of
democracy leaves something to be desired, even as it purports to include
Athenian
democracy
previously excluded groups.
is often posited as qualitatively
democracies
despite
to
its exclusion of much of the
contemporary
superior
legendarily
Aristotle
had
But
postulated that no manwho needs to work
populace.
for a living could be an effective citizen. Does democracy in mass capitalist
democracy
Greek
hijack
to mask its own
the qualitative superiority of
societies
democracy
have
face?
do
Or
the
to
re-think
question of
-\N-e
Solely quantitatwe
altogether?
Like many ferninist and post-colonial critics I Nvantto contend that the exclusions
but
dismissed
be
democracies
ultimately
as innocuous, unfortunate,
cannot
of
0
DIFI, ERENCE AND DIVERSITY
democracý.
functioning
The
"11
incidental to the actual
of a
co-option of
differences under the umbrella of universahsm still retains a thought of
difference as deviation from a norm, refusing to re-imagine democracy through
diversity. As Slavoj Zizek often surnUses,marginalised groups are 'included out'.
Political theorists have consistently failed to interrogate the processes of
has
traditionally upheld as an invisible constant
normalisation of a system which
"aN-erage-white-heterosexual
European-malethe
speaking a standard
or standard
language [ I" (Deleuze and Guattan, 1980: 105). Humanism has an insidious
...
by
been
has
these
tainted
underbelly of racism, classism and sexism, and
be
This
ignored.
practices.
cannot
Human rights say nothing about the immanent modes of existence of people
provided with rights.
Gflles Deleuze and F6hx Guattari, If"hal is Philosoply?(1991a: 107).
The final passagesof Fanon's The [Vrelthedqj' tl)e Eartl) decrý,the inhumanity of
Europe's humanism. He says "Leave this Europe where theýýare never done
The
311).
(1961:
1"
find
[
Man,
them
talking of
yet murder men everywhere they
...
Africa
b)be
hypocrisy
Europe
a
rewarded making
are not to
of
recklessnessand
be
Fanon
For
Europe.
to
the
this
create a renovated
opportunity
could
new
ical
humanity, one no longer shrivelled, amputated and enslaved bý- raciolo91
discourse and practice. The challenge is then not to oppose the whiteness of
Europe with a reinvigorated blackness of Africa, but to invcnt a new concept of
Ie
for
Man
I
"When
the
humanity. He remarks,
stý, of
in the technique and
search
Europe, I see only a succession of negations of man, and an avalanche of
documented,
been
have
The
and
(312).
wellterrors
modernity
of
murders"
In
been
have
the
of
spirit
sustained.
purported
it
to
the
universalisms
challenges
human.
I
the
Fanon's work, seek to imagine other possibilities of
differences arise from
specific
constructing
or
understanding
Some
different
of
conceptions
-avs.
theorised
v,
in
therefore
problematics, and are
Ways of
20'-,ee Carol Paternan (1988), GenevieNe Lloyd (1984) and Molra Gatens (I 996a).
DIFFERENCE
AND DIVERSITY
difference even requirea theoretical position of 'ustification
discrin-uinatorv
the
-
practices of racisms, for instance (Bahbar and Wallerstein, 1988: 19). By
examining how difference is mobilised and articulated as a category, we NX-111
how
difference can be mobilised as a principle and a force of
consider
transformation. Exploring texts relating to "race", gender, ethnicitv, culture and
does
nation
not conflate these different zones but will, I hope, draw
out the
richness of relations and complexity between and within these domains, both 'in
terms of critique and the constructions of new waý,s of being.
The very category of the human needs to be re-thought. Humanism has been
consolidated and tainted through a systematic inhumanity (Gilroy, 2000: 18).21AU
of the critical work I discuss should be read as complementary to Deleuze and
Guattarl's
own work,
although
much
of
it differs
insofar
as non-human
beconlings of the human constitute a major part of their particular 'utopian'
.Q
22
pragmatics.
The well-being and the progress of Europe have been built up with the sweat
and the dead bodies of Negroes, Arabs and Indians, and the yellow races. We
have decided not to overlook this any longer.
Frantz Fanon, The lf,"retchedof the Earth (1961: 96).
Straqe Mulfiplicio: Constitutionalismin an
Ige of Diversio maps a critical and
-,,
highlights
that
constructive enterprise
a number of the presuppositions and
blindspots in the dominant constitutional traditions; i. e. nationalism, liberalism
book,
TuUN,
23
In
James
this
negotiates the unstable
and communitarianiSM.
I It is for this reason that Gilroy (2000) unearths the links between raciological thinking and
hurnanism and emphasises the necessity to construct an anti-race humanism. Although the
be
thinking
and practices are apparent and must not
concrete realities of raciological
ignored, this does not mean that ýve should not try to "free ourselves from the bonds of all
had
long
before
(2000:
15).
Fanon
in
a novel and ambitious abolitionist project"
raciology
for
black
both
de-hurnanisation
that
the
and
accompanies raciological categorisation,
shown
is
humanism'.
'toward
His
a neýN,
rallying cry
white people.
22 See Deleuze and Guattari (1980: 99-100) on utopia and its relation to Sarnuel Butler's
Ei-eii,hon.
2', The Lakota Sioux Elder, Luther Standing Bear saýs. "Did a kind, wise, helpful and
bene\ olent conqueror bring this situation about? Can a real, true. genuinelý superior social
had
human
American
havoc?
Did
the
of
qualities
worth
possess
not
native
order NNorksuch
DIFFERENCE
AND DIVERSITY
territory of conflicting claims for cultural recognition in the context of Canada.
Adopting
a method
of
historical
cultural
critique, he identifies those
presuppositions and conventions that haN-einformed the debate over recognition,
but have not been explicitly examined. There has been
an ambiguous relationship
between pluralism and sameness. Diversity
.,-cn
and pluralism are often 91
1
lipservice by liberals, who then simultaneously
announce that 'we are all the
The
same'.
assumption of a labula rasa", or 'cultural neutrahtv', when investigating
difference rrurrors uncomfortablý- the terra nullius
proclamation that served to
'justify' the expropriation, extermination and enforced
assimilation of indigenous
peoples across the world. 25
Difficult
as many
conservative thinkers
in
the
main
traditions
of
constitutionalism find this, an adequate means of 'grasping' difference and
diversity in all their entangled crossovers and distancings is
an imperative, not an
Despite
the good intentions of Rawls and Habermas, their theoretical
option.
apparatuses prove hopelessly inadequate at valorising, and even recognising
diversity
(and embedded power differentials). Any attempt to reach
cultural
universal consensuson norms, principles and justice servesto filter out difference
rather than trying to invent new forms of association.
Antonio
rather
Negri believes that the entire Rawlsian system appeals to a practical,
than
metaphysical,
realm
of
convictions,
ignoring
initial
conflicts,
antagonisms or differences. An adherence to pluralism is thus vanquished by the
idea that there is one sense of justice which is grounded in the institutions of a
democratic regime. Stability is valued rather than social difference, and difference
from
to create a generic unity. Negri adds, "Postmodern
is abstracted
liberal
tolerance is thus based not on the inclusion but actually the exclusion of social
the Caucasian but been able to discern and accept them; and did not an over\\eening sense
blindness?
in
"
bring
(quoted
Tully. 1995: 20).
this
about
of superiorItN
2' See Gatens (1996: 4) as she explores the notion of tabula rasa in relation to gender
theory.
25Genevieve Lloýd discusses the tenuous manner in which terra nullizis %\asinvoked. but
being
how,
than
an illusion, this notion constitutively constructed a social
rather
shows
indigenous
barbaric
31).
(2000:
the
-Invisible'
against
peoples
practices
%\orld and justified
-
DIFFERENCE
AND DIVERSITY
difference" (Hardt and Negri, 1994: 235). Trý-ing to balance different inputs in
becomes
to
order
concoct a stable equilibrium
pnMary, and anything that nught
fall into the realm of difference from this norm is a personal affair. Raxx-ls's
like
deontolo
does
Hyland's,
ical.
It
that
account,
is
of
91
not propose aný-notion of
the social good or teleological structure of the human subject. Feasibihtý-takes
desirability.
Negri believes, with Weber, that the essential
precedence over
ingredient in ensuring a stable equilibrium is the police. Weber notes that ...Every
founded
force'
Trotsky
Brest-Litovsk"
(Weber,
1921:
78) adding
state is
on
said
at
famously that the State "claims the monopolyof the legitimateuse q1'plySiCaljýrt'e
within a given territory" (78).
domination
is
invention
European
tool
as a rational
of
and control,
a
and was initially applied to non-European peoples [ ... I Wherever Europeans
and natives faced each other, terroristic practice was the colonizers' norm. It
be
should
noted that neither the practice nor the theory which sanctioned and
institutionalized it could have been sustained without the doctrine of European
cultural and racial superiority -a doctrine implicitly or explicitly predicated on
a view that placed Europe and the Europeans at the center of a world
by
backward,
surrounded
primitive cultures and peoples.
Terrorism,
(1987: 69).
Hisham Sharabi,lVeopatharcly.
Deleuze (1988b) remarks that processual pluralism is replaced by a dualism that
did
from
discourse
though
not rest within
tries to separate
violence
violence, as
discourse. Correspondingly James Tully argues that the historical drive of
modernity
toward
uniformity
by
was paralleled
horrifying
sNýstematic
from
Canada
Nations
First
the nineteenth century
in
cxtern-unations of the
longer
difference
Their
21
it
was
as
respected
no
autonomy
was
and
onwardS.
based
1664;
Treaty'
Wampum
Row
'Two
treaty
on
in
a
negotiated
the
was
when
by
down
boats
the sameriver, side side, where neither
travelling
the image of two
based
least
This
theory,
in
in
at
the
was,
agreement
to
other.
tries
steer
partN,
friendship
and respect.
peace,
formalised.
it
thinking
to
once was
Paul Gilroy discusses the added \ IrUlence raciological
31
(2000:
scientised, nationalised and rationalised
3'4
DIFFERENCEAND
DIVERSITY
The conser%-ativeinterpretations of the traditions of nationalism, liberalism and
communitarianism are stunningly indifferent to these traditions of pluralism,
reciprocity and respect. Tufly notes that, 'ji]n each case,the demands [for cultural
recognition] are seen to be a threat to the unity of a constitutional associationand
the solution is to assimilate, integrate or transcend, rather than recognise and
diversity"
The
left
(1995:
44).
'solution'
to
affirm, cultural
only remaining
dissenterswould appear to be secession.
There are more tolerant responses that seek to permit a fair accommodation of
diversity,
but
their advocatesremain unconvinced that a true recognition
cultural
domain.
Canada,
diversity
is
In
the
the
case of
possible in
of
constitutional
modern constitutionalism is pervaded with a masculine, western, individualist
bias. This is not an adequatebasis for creating different modes of relationality in
diverse,
94)
"culturally
(1994:
post-imperial"
country.
a
There are many critics of the dominant models of constitutionalism. Postmodern
bias
European,
Tully
of
male and imperial
claims, tend to stress the
writers,
They
seek to undermine concepts such as identity and
constitutionalism.
have
how
these either exclude, or co-opt those who
recognition to show
how
By
from
been
identity
the public sphere.
showing
excluded,
previously
from
from
both
differs
tool
they
of
a
provide
useful
others,
itself
and
always
believes
downfall.
He
this
However
that
approach
their
this
is
also
critique.
fragments society beyond recognition paradoxically creating a homogeneous
differences
dissolving
that
conservative
of
resembling
paralysis
and
a
of
culture
critics.
Cultural
fet-ninists also emphasise the masculine bias of constitutional
according
how
do
Tully,
Nvomen can enter into
they
to
not show
Nvith members
being marginahsed.
NTetultimatelv,
dialogue
language
Finally, intercultural
of authoritarian
citizens
and writers,
Young, criticise the homogeneous
n-iain traditions
traditions
without
hooks
bell
such as
conceptions
Marion
Irl's
and
of identitýT and association of the
liberator)the
possibilities
and are sceptical of
dcconstructive
of
35
DIFFERENCE
post-modernism.
AND DIVERSITY
Nonetheless, despite demonstrating
the necessity for various
levels of self-rule, and the recognition that they are not )ust t-ollsfituted1)ý-their
but
by
tbwarted
their constitutional associations, their claims - in Tullvs
cultures
fall
eyes - still
prey to unexamined norms of uniformity
such as Rawls' reasonable
legal
(1995:
55).
pluralism or a uniform
and political order
Tully identifies Charles Taylor's idea of 'deep diversity' as providing a fruitful
image that portrays the many ways of participating in and identl(ying witli
Canada. Unsurprisingly, actualising this image would require a constitutional
deal
to
upheaval
With pluralism and the politics of cultural recognition in an
The
propensity in modern constitutionalism is to propose a
adequate manner.
legal
"legal
This
the
political
contrasts
system.
and
with
centralised and uniform
81).
An
law
(1994:
Europe"
imaginarýpluralism and customary
of pre-modern
homogeneous
belong
to
the
to
appeals a
community of
nation
which all citizens
The
the
modernity of the constitutional nation-state
idea of
political community.
Such
for
titutionalism.
modernity is proposed in
modern cons
is another requisite
'other'.
2ý
Finally,
the political identity at stake is a
to
the
exotic
contradistinction
bounded and distinct unity. In what Tully calls a second wave of anti-imperialism,
brought
being
biases
to task.
are
all of these inherent
Gatens and Lloyd (1999) traverse the worlds of Spinoza, Deleuze and Guattarl,
Negn and Tully. They do not understand Tully's work to be a quest to rehabilitate
Instead
(of
they
it
as
close
see
titutionalism)
reforryusm.
or
of
cons
concepts
old
(and
demonstrate
Spinoza's
the constitutive
productive) power
to
own attempts to
fear,
fictions
better
than
upon
prerrused
ones
to
social
the
create
imagination
of
The
transform
(Power).
to
Potestas
is
move
a
such
of
aim
superstition and
being.
institutions and collective practices of
27 Sharabi distinguishes betweeri modernity (structure). modernisation (process) and
is
a
20-21).
(1988:
as
consciousness
-[M]odernity
construed
(consciousness)
modernism
from
the
differentiating
b)
itself
Europe
itself
recognised
model through which modern
longer
heralded
of
no
He
21).
an
age.
that
(1988:
Other"
modernitý
argues
(nont-nodern)
dominant
between
subordinate
and
but
centre
a
of opposition
cultural interchange,
Arab
a
marriage
of
the
a
result
is
Nvorld
believes
in
socletý
that
neopatriarchal
periphery, and
(-I).
imperialism
patriarchý
and
of
)6
DIFFERENCE
AND DIVERSITY
Rather than imposing a modern constitutionalism, Tully believes that a premodern constitutionalism is better equipped to cope ý,
N-ith these entangled
demands and shifting intercultural relations, including the role of the women's
movement. His work shows us that a majority is not necessarilya quantitative
but
homogeneity
tendency
toward
superiority,
concerns a
and a standardmeasure,
that is, a treatment of the variations of a society to create a constant. This is not
but
does
illusion
He
organises reality in particular ways.
an
not engage in
by
Nor
trying
to
the
reformism
confines of majoritarian standards.
work within
does he employ a quasi-transcendentalideal speech situation to harmonise the
different voices. The difficulties he faces are augmented by the strangely
Canadian
multiplicitous nature of
society.
"When a minority creates models for itself, it's because it wants to become a
be
have
(to
has
to, to survive or prosper
a state,
majority, and probably
from
But
for
it's
its power comes
NX-11at
example).
recognised, establish its rights,
depend
but
doesn't
managed to create which to some extent goes into the model,
on it"
(Deleuze, 1990b: 173). Wallerstein endorses this understanding of
by
long
been
has
by
"it
analyststhat minorityhood is not
noted
stating,
minorities
degree
based
to
the
of social
concept; it refers
necessarily an arithmetically
differences
82
Rather
(1988:
through
we
consensus,
than
reconciling
power"
-83).
dual
dissensus.
We
the
of
to
nature
explore
continue
to
will
affirm
need
becominglater
discussion
directing
the
toward
idea of
in
chapters
our
minorities,
n-unoritarian.
ýs Sharabi notes, many identities have been constructed through the antagonism
icaflý,
Only
91
they
nostal
differential
endowed
are
afterwards
relations.
power
of
fictitious
po%\,
ct,.
them
emotive
greater
-8
giving
origin
a
the
of
authenticity
with
for
forms
281 can understand why such essentialisms have emerged as strategic
of resistance
discusses
of
the
(22000)
affirmation
Gilro\
of
process
historical
reasons.
political and
the
t-)c\ond
thinking,
criticises
and
racialised
blackness but he argues that \\e must rno\c
is
Our
to
back.
moýe
been
challenge
has
its
indtistrý
on
that
constructed
multicultural
I
hurnanit\.
this
a
ino\ernent
call
of
beýond particularisms toward other understanding s
larl
commonahtý Of SingLI ties.
'7
DIFFERENCE
X-',ýD DIVERSITY
Within the Canadian context the further splintering
of identities and solidification
of those fragments Might well lead to an exacerbatedmoblhsation of identities
in
the quest and competition for scarce resources. The task is, as Chantal Mouffe
(1995) points out, to construct a 'we.
Tully's understanding of the hberatonT
i
potential consonant Nxith embracing
diversity resonates with Guattari's effilco-political
lie
concept of disseiisits
'\ý-hich
values above and against what he views as the infantilisation of thought in its
drive toward consensus and uniformity. Guattari's
writing is far more exphcltlv
militant than that of Tully, and his understanding of subjectivity gravitates toward
an anti-humanism that Tully might feel uncomfortable with. (His decision to map
three ecologies - psyche, soclus,nature - is a provocative mutation of the age old
philosophical concerns with Man, Society and Nature.) Yet their mutual
enthusiasm to valorise difference and diversity conjoins them in indicating a new
way of thinking about identities and subjectivity.
My efforts to emphasise concrete struggles and dilemmas is inspired in part by
Sharabl'squestion, "What is the point of namzý.
ýUthe oppressed,the margInalized,
" (1988: 123-124).
the hurnihated, if the enterprise stops at an abstractgesture?
Liv.
difference,
diversity
and division
The fact that must constitute the point of departure for any discourse on ethics
is that there is no essence, no historical or spiritual vocation, no biological
destiny that humans must enact or realise, because it is clear that if humans
had
be
to
this or that substance, this or that destiny, no ethical
were or
experience would be possible, there would be only tasks to be done.
Giorgio Agamben, The ComitiaCommuniý,.(1990: 43).
Given the nomadic nature of the thoughts that wil-I follow, I hesitate to celebrate
'difference', 'heterogcneity', 'mobil-ity' and the myriad of related terms in
'discovery'
The
the
and
capitahst
enforced movcments of refugees,
abstraction.
botli
by
Paul
documented
(,
exploitation of multicultural-ism, something well
difference
'positivisation'
hooks)
bel-I
that is
of
as well as the insidious
Ilroy and
38
DIFFERFNCE
AND DIVERSITY
emblematised by the differentialist racism discussed by Pierre Taguieff and
Etienne Babbar, are clear indications that 'difference'
is a malleable term. The
commodification
otherness is revealed in the ,,.-aN-differencc is- often
I
"fabricated in the interests of social control as
-well as commoditN-innovation"
25)29
(Hal Foster quoted in hooks 1992:
of
The following excerpt from M. Nourbese Philips' poem ODiscourse the Logic
on
Language""
of
encapsulates my ambivalence and reticence to simply valonse
difference over identity without
formations,
dominant
examining power
forth.
It shows how Power can be consolidated by multiplying
symbolics and so
divisions and differences.
English
EDICT
is my mother tongue.
Ereg oxnerqf slares
A mother tongue is not
sball,whereverpossible,
foreign
Ian
Ian
lang
not a
Mal
his
slares
ensure
language
I/anguish
beloii to asmanyethno,T
lingmsfic,
groiosas
anguish
ý( //)ý),can
possible.
-a
foreign anguish.
1
notspeakto eachother,
theycannottbenfomeni
rebellionandrevolution
N1. Nourbese Philips expresses the lack of identitý- and sense of dislocation
described
by
Fanon
by
so acutely with
induced
slaverv and colonisation, one
destiny
has
black
he
that
is
the
and
that
man
only
one
says
rage
when
white-cold
insidious
her
destiny.
In
the
pohcýof
relays
she
poem
impossible
an
white;
Babelotis
by
'divide and rule' that tried to preclude communication
proliferating a
don
Kente
19 11
black
1960's
gold
black
cloth,
When ý'OI.
rhetoric.
mouth
people
Ing
ith.
hang
folks
the
they
diss
the\
way
hair
expose
dread
out
\N
the
their
white
and
medallions,
den\
ing,
meaning,
and
these
lntegritý
political
of
signs
meaningless corni-nodification strips
As
for
their
signs
action.
political
concrete
the possibilit-N that thev can ser\e as a catalyst
Communities
is
diffused
the\
cornmodified.
are
when
to
consciousness
critical
ignite
power
3).
3
1992:
(hooks
by
communities of consumption"
of resistance are replaced
A) M. NOUrbesePhilips (1993).
19
DII-FERENCE
AND Dn'ERSITY
multiplicity of tongues. She articulates a paradoxical state of being that, on the
hand,
one
is at odds with the enforced majoritarian languageand strn-cs to make
that language stutter, and on the other hand, percewes the necessitýyto find a
common thread or language to articulate a common condition. We need to take
this dichotomous condition seriously and examine fruitful conceptualisations of
relationality premised upon difference, rather than searching for all-subsunung
This
universals.
poem is a refusal to allow amnesia to dissolve the comprehension
of the power- structures and formations that delimit possibilities of expression
and existence. M. Nourbese Philips highlights the efforts of a hegemonic power
to disintegrate what it perceives as 'other' and a threat, in order to then
'other'
better
this
the
consolidate
all
as a tool in the capitalist processes of
exploitation and slavery.
It is important to recall that the consolidation and composition of identitý-,rather
than its fragmentation, are more often than not called for. As we will see in
2,
heterogeneity
be
the
most
chapter
radical
re-appropriated in the era of
can
least
have
been
The
demanded
by
that
is
modern capitalism.
groups who
very
oppressed and subjugated is a recognition of the identity and value of tbez'r
difference. But as Paul Gilroy (1993a: 2-3) and bell hooks (1991: 29) point out
this can easily slide into claims for an ethnic absolutism or apn'On'essentiahsm.
CesarePoppi comments on some of these ideas in a piece called 'Wider Horizons
The
(1997).
Globalization'
Subjectivity,
Ethnicity
Details:
Larger
and
with
multiplication
'imagined
that
to
the
waning of
of ethmcities corresponds
he
Ethnicity,
states, shares in common ,vith
community' called the nation-state.
A
(285).
nationalism a presumption of the universality of its shared subjectivity
been
has
'difference'
'locality'
concomitant ,ý,-ith an
and
tendencN, to stress
'difference'
'locality'
"yet
the
presuppose
\-cry
and
globahsation,
expansive
devclopment of
dynamics
of
worldwide
institutional communication and
legitimation" (285).
Hic fragmentation of the subject promulgated in contemporary social theory "is
40
DIFFERENCE
AND DIVERSITY
celebrated to the point of becoming the new, theoretical foundation of the
concept" (285). However, the emergence of new ethnicities and subjectivities
cannot be understood apart from the global dynamics in which they are
embedded. Criticisms of master narratives highlight the ways in which radical
power relations like "race" and gender tended, in the past, to be subsumed into a
discourse on class.Now, a Hegelian 'immanent subjectivitý-' is counterposed with
"celebration
fluidity,
a
of subjectivity which stresses
contingency, non-identitýy,
'fractal'
creativity,
individuality
Subjectivity' posits itself
(286). Yet, problematically, this 'New
"relatively
by
as operating
economic
unfettered
determinafion,
e' (287), whilst the processes of production and reproduction of
free
follow
to
their own internal logic, "free of constraints
capital are similarly
from
the 'superstructural' " (287). So what precisely is going
and impingements
here?
on
Poppi notes that the recent trend of what he calls the New Subjectivity
determined
behaviour
'qlla
the
the
emphasises
subjective, culturally
of
subject
This
kind
(288).
exchanger and consumer'
of subjectivity seemsto present itself
free-floating,
deternunations.
has
faded
from
Production
to
as
oblivious
objective
focus with the growth of the tertiary sector; it is instead an invisible dimension
A
Culture
is a commodity.
informing the construction of these subjectivities.
fragmentation of societies into different movements, each claiming national,
has
become
the primary object of
now
cultural, and ethnic autonomy,
both
lot'al
does
being
How
the
theorisations of
andgloW,
ethnicity,
as it is
social.
Subjectivity?
New
this
sit with
Ethnicity is a subjectively constructed phenomenon, and it is also a relational
for
býfinds
'Inventing'
Each
the
reasons
its
a common
existence
group
concept.
historý-. Since the instance of production has been eschewed b)- theories of the
New Subjectivist-n,"the result is that both the productive and the cultural aspects
of
former
become
the
relfied:
as a non-negotiable, objective
subjectiN-ity
fashion"
be
filled
latter
after a pick-and-choose
as a container to
constraint, the
(290-1). This account gives a positivist, de fiitm understanchng of ethnlclt\-.
41
DIFFERE-NCE
AND DIVERSITY
Ethnicity is more than a subjective choice, however.
The celebration of
'difference', as Poppi sees it, accompanies a cultural
homogenisation and "historical obliteration of 'diversity'
(291). A formalism
or cultural codification dictates what ,.vill be accepted as the representation of the
identity of an 'ethnic group'. He believes that "what is needed to explain ethnicity
is a tbeog of articulationbetween hitherto diversesociocultural systems turned into
d#ferin gstems.Globalization, in turn, is the process by which the choice of
,g
'selected traits' [...] comes to cover a wider spectrum
(292). It is through their
similarities that such groups can be perceived as different. This has turned
cultural niches into exchange-values rather than use-values. 'Diversity' then
'difference.
Distinguishing between acceptable and unacceptable
mutates into
has
been
for
liberals.
has
been
Tolerance
traits
cultural
an exhausting process
twisted into a legitimation of the propositions of a cultural racism that claims that
...different' peoples should indeed be allowed 'to pursue their own cultural values'
for
be
(296).
1
that
thrown
the
try
to
reason
and should
out
of
country"
kinds
difficulties
these
through my conceptualisation of an immanent
address
of
ethics.
In this essay, Poppi argues that it is the failure to understand that ethnic
'schismogenesis-'has a relational, social nature precipitated from a shared and
globalised understanding of
'the nature of difference' that has led to a
'differentialist racism', a term I will discuss shortly. Differences are understood
difference
that organises,
after the manner of an idealist quasi-Platonic model of
difference
Like
them
to
making
commensurable.
gradates and compares claims
Plato's suitorS31,many claimants are unsuccessful. Poppi's account discussesthe
diversitv
implications of this comparative model, concluding that it wipes out
fi-om
differs
difference
difference,
that
a
replacing it with a commensurable
Deleuze's
It
contention that this tendencN-to
is, of course,
something else.
difference
(positivist)
difference
that
terms
means
of
an
empirical
in
understand
31In his discussion of the sirnulacrurn, Deleuze ( 1968a) argues that Plato's real concern was
false
image
The
bemeen
the
distinguish
true
the
of the suitor illustrates this.
copý.
and
to
42
DIFFERENCEAND
DIVERSFIA'
fail
to grasp 'difference-M-itself'. I discuss his account of difference and its
we
ly
ethico-political implications in chapter 5. In the meantiime, I wiill sit
irnp sketch
,
loosely some traits of his philosophical perspective, before I examine this idea of
'differentialist racism' in further detail.
I.V.
racism and raciology
Postmodern theory that is not seeking to simply appropriate the experience of
'Otherness' to enhance the discourse or to be radically chic should not separate
the 'politics of difference' from the 'politics of racism'.
bell hooks, ý-Carningu:
Race,Genderand Cultural Politics. (1991: 26).
Among the advocates of 'anti-essentialist' postmodern identity politics, for
example, one often encounters the insistence that there is no 'woman in
black
there
general',
are only white middle-class women,
single mothers,
lesbians, and so on. One should reject such 'insights' as banalities unworthy of
being objects of thought. The problem of philosophical thought lies precisely in
how the universality of 'woman'emerges out of this endless multitude.
Slavoj Zlzek, TheTicklisbSubject.(1999: 133).
Foucault once famously declared, "perhaps one day this century will be known as
Deleuzian" (1970: 165). He also volunteered this observation; "a lightning storm
day
be
Deleuze:
the
new thought is
given
name of
was produced which will one
following
Deleuze
(196).
the
ventured
possible; thought is again possible"
him.
He
don't
know
Foucault
I
"I
meant, never asked
thoughts in response,
what
have
I
He
that
meant
was the most naive
may perhaps
was a terrible joker.
but
better
[...
]
I
the
than
more naive
others,
wasn't
philosopher of our generation
but
bnit,
kind
the
the
to
most
most
profound
speak;
not
so
art
of
a
producing
88,
"
(1990a:
"doing
least
felt
(the
the
philosophy")
guilt about
one who
innocent
89).
This 'nalve' conviction in the notions of plurahsm or empiricism sustains
does
"the
He
Deletize's philosophical enterprises.
not explain
abstract
remarks,
but must itself be explained; and the aim is not to rediscover the eternal or the
43
DIFFERENCE
AND DIVERSITY
universal but to find the conditions under which something new is produced
((-reafiveness)"
Peleuze and Parnet, 1977: vii). His condemnation of the Hegelian
dismissal of pluralism as the stutterings of a naive consciousness
'this,
chanting
that, here, now' needs to be mobilised in face of Zizek's condescension. Though
Zizek rightly condemns the injunction to 'be yourself' as one that leads to
isolation and anornie (an extreme and horrifying individualism), in his tirade
against the snuggling bedfellows of capitalism and postmodernism he fails to
consider other possibilities, such as an ethics of singularities.
What Zizek fails to understand is the profoundly Spinozistic gesture at the heart
32
of the anti- essentialist endeavour. He mocks, as Hegel mocked Spinoza, those
dare
who
propose an etho-ontology. Deleuze and Guattari advocate an ethics of
singularities and a new thought of
Attitudes
that question
commonality.
hierarchies and dominant modes of organisation can catapult those organisations
into a qualitatively different mode of existenceas we saw with Tully.
However a number of Zizek's comments are both provocative and insightful.
Take for instance his claim that,
Multiculturalism is a racism which empties its own position of all positive
content (the multiculturalist is not a direct racist; he or she does not oppose to
the Other the particular values of his or her own culture); none the less he or
from
this
the
position as
privileged empty point of universality
she retains
depreciate)
(and
is
to
appreciate
other particular cultures
able
which one
for
form
is
Other's
the
the
of
specificity
very
properly - multicultural respect
asserting one's own superiority.
Slavoj Zlzek, The Ticklisl) Subject.(1999: 216).
Paul Gilroy
discusses this slippery
concept
of
multiculturalism
detail.
in
N'lulticulturahsm has been used as a means of interrogating the significance of
112 Like Christine Battersby (1998) 1 do not want to rernain caught in a position of antiin
becomes
This
I
Instead
the
to
chapter
essence.
clear
question of
rethink
want
essentialism.
See Battersby's (1998) chapter on 'Essentialisms, Feminisms and Metaphysics' for a
lucid and innovative re-working of the concept of essence.She maintains that it is necessarý
fixed
is
fluid
in
that
thought
'essence'
of
as
a
and static 'real" that
not
it
-to think
a
Nýay,so
is located in the body and merelý subýjectto historical and cultural variation" ( 1998: 22-3).
44
DIFFERENCE
AND DIVERSITY
nationa -ty in this time of global capitalism. He adds that it may also mark an end
to a European hegemony on ideas. Instead of automaticaUy chsn-u'ssingthis
concept, as Zizek does, he seeksto understand how it does not just refer to the
pressures on the nation-state but can be both an enriching concept and an ethical
principle that helps bypass dichotirnising divisions. He admits, though, that
corporate multiculturalism does plunder different identities. There is a great
danger if an ossified notion of ethnic difference is
mobilised "as a means to
rationalize their own practices and Judgementsin a parody of pluralism which
perversely endorses segregation (2000: 253). An example of such an essentialist
way of thinking about identity is 'differentialist racism'.
In what was called the New Racism the meshing of biology and culture served to
differentiation
justify
on the basis of "race". Pure difference, whether claimed býone group or attributed to another, automatically transmutes into a pure identity
and a consequent intolerance of difference within, or outside, a group. "When
brought
culture is
into contact with 'race' it is transformed into a pseudobiological property of communal life" (Gilroy, 1993b: 24). Taguieff's work on the
biological
how
"race"
differentialist
the
acculturation of
category of
shows
racism portrays itself as a defender of cultural identities.
Differentialist racism is a brand of essentialismthat speaksof cultural identities
from
differing
(allegedly
In
pure,
pure
identities.
other
equally valid)
as
cultural
this way, rights of expression and existence are claimed to have been respected.
However it is precisely the understanding of identity, culture, nation, "race", and
fractured,
homogeneous,
forth,
than
rather
vibrant and contested territories,
so
as
from
It
that concerns me.
posits a notion of self-identity
which one assesses
differences in a wholly negative fashion, despite the positive, liberal spin it
hegemonic
Its
order within the group and
assimilationism imposes a
endorses.
fit.
do
There
those
is no understanding of the complex and
not
expels
who
Instead
through.
that
a presumption
people operate in and
partial identities
fully
predominates that individuals, groups and collectivities are already
distinctive,
quasi-primordial series of a scrics
individuated and in possession of a
45
DIFFERENCE
-ýND
DIVERSUY
of characteristics, practices, cultural traits. Moreover, in order to retain these
fundamental differences, distance and separation must exist between
bounded and unified natures of the identities in question
cultures. T he
be
to
need
interrogated
When cultures are presented as homogeneous they are inevitablý
Tafflicted with an
low
exceedingly
immune system that cannot tolerate foreign bodies. These are
seen as parasitical (in the pejorative sensethat has none of the sophistication of
Nfichel Serres' analysis of this subject) rather than as symbiotic creating new
relations and new possibilities.
Etienne Balibar (Bahbar and Wallerstein, 1988) says that the universalisms of
bourgeois ideology and humanism are not incompatible with a system of
hierarchies and exclusions. He thinks that racism is organised around 'the
stigmata of otherness, operating oftentimes on a micrological level, rather than in
the more evident oppositional and disciplinary mode that is emblematic of
Representations,
discourses
colonialism.
practices, affects, and
are all suffused
New
Racism.
the
with
Bahbar emphasisesthe practices, the social nature of racism, and the organisation
by
These
that
of affects
occurs.
organise affects
conferring a stereotype upon
discourses
'subjects'.
"It
'objects'
this
their
their
is
combination of practices,
and
and representations in a network of affective stereotypeswhich enablesus to give
18).
formation
(1988:
Racism
the
is a social
of a racist community"
an account of
"race"
he
Furthermore,
are interbound
argues nation, ethnicity and
relation.
fictive
the
notion of
concepts and any nationalism is premised upon a racism and
Bahbar
Stretching
the
this to
statesthat neo-colonialism is a
global scale,
ethmcity.
reality grounded in the assertion that constant conflict and wars clearlý-indicate
humanity
that three-quarters of
are incapable of self-governance.
In a similar fashion, by calling the killing of Iraqi citizens 'collateral damage'
General Schwartzkopf dehumanised these non-\X'cstern citizens. Increasingly,
have
S.
by
U.
to
the
no
are
its
alhes
expected
and
conducted
interventions
n-iiffitarv
46
DIFFERENCE
casualties (of
AND DIVERSITY
their own solchers). Howe,,-cr, since sanctions were imposed
thousands and thousands of Iraqi citizens have died. These
are passed o,,-cr
wordlesslý, by both the 'democratic'
governments and the media (saN-ca few
journahsts like John Pilger) of the West. The AIDS epidemic in Africa gained
httle coverage until the recent battle
with pharmaceutical companies. It has faded
once more from the spotlight. Whether your death will be newsworthy depends
on where you are from.
Deleuze and Guattan claim that racism operates by
positing the only face as that
of the "average, ordinary White Man [ ]" (1980: 178).11They characterisetraits
...
that do not conform as degrees of deviance ftorn this norm, explanuinghoxv,
sometimes these traits are allowed to subsist, sometimes they are erased."Racism
detects
the particles of the other; it propagates
never
\xaves of samenessuntil
those who resist identification have been wiped out [ ]" (1980: 178). Racism,
...
they suggest, is never really concerned with alterity or difference, demarcating
instead those 'who should be the same as us' and assimilating or annihilating
them.
White intellectuals who criticise 'essentialist' notions of identitv often do not
question white identity and the way in which essentialisminforms representations
of whiteness. Richard Dyer notes, "[a]s long as race is something only applied to
long
non-white peoples, as
as white people are not racially seen and named,
thcv/we function as a human norm" (Dyer 1997: 1). Since white people are
be
their
to
to
particularity,
see
own
unable
whiteness needs
made strange.
33
' Since Deleuze and Guattari only write sporadically about racism, it would be fruitful to
link their writing on 'race' to that on taxonomies and systems of classification. Deleuze.
through Spinoza, dernonstrates the often prejudicial nature of the abstract fictions that
distinguish
have
draw
As
to
classi(y
and
one
another.
many
writers
emphasised
upon
people
is
important
have
look
forms
it
does
It
to
the
an
unchanging
meaning.
at
not
various
racism
has adopted, why certain typologies emerged,
roles did the state, capitalism and
imperialism play and how social and political structures of behaviour and classification
do.
is
Guattari
Deleuze
Although
that
their critiques of
this
not work
and
sedirriented.
lineages and hierarchical orderings and their fa\OLiring of rhizomatic alliances is useful in
has
Paul
Gilroý
This
to
think
trying
is something
picked
about other modes of association.
his
diasporic
identit\.
discusses
he
the
to
rhizomorphous nature of
up on good effect when
47
DIFFERI"\CE
I.A.
AND DB-ERSITY
the essence of essentialism
Valorising difference can lead to a discourse that fetishises otherness (N%-hiIc
retaining a sense of self-identity or 'normalcy'), and consolidates different
practices of social control and donUnation (bell hooks, 1989: 28-34). bell hooks
seeks to construct social realities that affirm difference by making marginahtý-a
site of resistance.Wary of fixating on one characteristic (of women for instance),
focuses
she
instead upon the concrete conditions for each reality that is
articulated, rather than diluting those differences. She does not deny that there is
but
commonality
proposes a methodology and a logic that can retain both
difference and commonality. This calls for a complex analysis that underlines
multitudinous variables and prOCesses
of subjectification.
Gilroy's idea of 'diaspora' resonates with hooks' strategies of resistance. Like
Deleuze and Guattarl's rhizome, this concept does not have its roots firrjýNTfixed
in a soil and territory but skates along or beneath the surface. This kind of
identity formation disrupts traditional forms of belonging; it is disperse. But
dispersion,
this
than
its movements
are
rather
gathering, regulating and ordering
lineage
kinship
Challenging
traditional
it seeksnew
and
organisation of
affirmed.
fragile
but
It
the
the
and
remains
nation,
coercive identity of
alliances. resists
disrupts
It
born
time and
temporary,
of a webbed variety of connections.
'ex-centric
terms
communicative
of its
transforms space when viewed in
(2000:
diasporic
'changing
hybridised
Gilroy
the
this
identity
same'
calls
circuitry'.
127-9). It is continuously modulated without being relfied. Despite this, culture is
lines,
"conceived
not as something intrinsically
along ethnically absolute
often
ing, unstable and dynamic, but as a fixed property of social groups
fluld, chan91
1
h,,
field
in which theNrencounter one another and -c out
rather than as a relational
24).
1993b:
(Gilroy
historical
relationships"
social,
.
.
pn
Gatens
Moira
also seeks to avoid any understanding of essentialism as a 017
historical
different
thrOLIgh
s-ociosedimented
and
than
constructed
rathcr
48
DIFFERENCE
AND DIVERSITY
contexts (1996: 11). She shows how cultures and identities emerge through
Genevieve
Lloyd
contestation in a political and historical context. Her N:
ý,ork with
emphasises the dangers of romantically wanting to be the 'Other's Other' and
forces the admission that one is often
complicit in relations of subjugation and
domination
for
(1999:
51).
take
something
to
which
one
needs
responsibility
-
Radical pohtics has remained rooted in liberalism and cannot
articulate a politics
and ethics of difference. By fostering collective imaginings that transform social
practices and images, minds and bodies, resistance becomes the collective name
freedom.
Critiques of essentialism and universality are important, but so is the
of
possibility
of
constructing
and inventing
being
other modes of
and other
understandings of subjectivity. With Deleuze, Guattari and Spinoza, these authors
understand that we must make use of fictions and abstractions, "but only so far
as is necessary to get to a plane where we go from real being to real being and
advance through the construction of concepts" (Deleuze and Guattari, 1991a:
207).
This entangled relation of essentialismand power is unravelled b\- bell hooks. It is
facile, she believes, to propose an essenceof 'woman', for example, on the bas's
factors
"race"
such as
and
of common putative characteristics, ignoring other
directly
Not
take
part
and
class.
all women are oppressed or exploited; many
domination
She
in
is opposed
and exploitative practices.
indirectly
structures of
to discourses such as Gilligan's (1982) 'ethics of care', or essentialistoppositions
biologistic
that
presuppose a
understanding of woman as
of male/female
black
/dominated
forth,
/nature
that
many
women
emphasising
and so
passiVe
Whiteness
terrorising
is
and
often
as
extremely
violent.
women
white
view
Gilroy
(1993a:
73)
the
the
that
ideals
the
of
terror,
notes
in
way
in
comphc1t
I ýInhghtenmentreason are enthralled to terror.
bell hooks argues that \Vhite Capitalist Patriarchy is hegemoluic. Rather than
to
term
the
most
important
is
that
thinks
supremacy
white
racism, she
had
Fanon
been
F'rantz
has
because
This
showed
internahsed.
it
is
understand.
hierarchies.
the complicit nature of people of colour who uphold racial
49
DIFFERENCE
Assimýlation encourages a
AND DIVERSITY
blackness
negation of
and absorption of white values.
History, memory, colour and experience
denied.
hooks
For
then
the critique
are
of essentiahsm must be sustained, focusing on, for example, the "multiple
experiences of black identity that are the hved conditions which make diverse
I
cultural productions possible" (hooks 1991: 29).
While my work focuses on a philosophical
ethico-pohtical level that is more
n-ucro than macro, Tully and Gatens and Lloyd (as well as, of course, all peoples
for
the recognition of their practices and values)
appeahng
create the conclitions
for macrological and institutional change, even by
virtue of tl)lnkin its possibility.
,g
It is interesting that Tully persists with the constitutional tradition,
re-activating
law,
he
common
as
seeks to reconcile principles of belonging and freedom. I
suggest that there are other ways of composing social relations that also seek to
avoid a 'rootless cosmopolitanism' and a 'purified nationahsm.' Earlier we saw
how Nhchel Serres furnished us with a philosophical series of
concepts that
difference,
becoming.
By encouraging us to
to
sought
grasp
relationality and
understand processesof individuation and singularisation, Deleuze and Guattarl's
machinic philosophy shifts our attention from those categories understood as
already constituted - individuals and groups - in order to grasp relationality in
terms of pre-inchvidual and transindividual dimensions that they call singular and
transversal.
But does their espousal of difference-in-its elf lead it to imprisonment in the
movements of an anonymous capitalism that revels in shifting and temporary
fragments
become
diverse
Does
the
tapestries of
of subjectivity?
subject
a
cspiritual automaton' in a reading of realiq, as creative continuumý
50
EMBRACING
11.i.
DIFFERENCE
potentia versus Potestas
My epilogue is: be aware of the strategy that governs
what you do.
Paul Shepheard,TheCultivated11"ilderness.
(1997: 231).
Power has tended to be used by political theorists to describe
kind
a certain
of
action on others involving an element of ControJ34.It is also often described in
zero sum terms and "conceived as something which is intimately connected -,-lth
,
domination
authority,
or exploitation" (Gatens, 1996: 63). This is akin to the
discussedin my introduction. Deleuze and Guattari take issue
concept of Potestas
with the classic alternative of repression or ideology, arguing that power concerns
processes of normalisation and modulation bearing on language, gestures,
perception, desires, movements, and so on, proceeding bý- way of
microassemblages (1980: 458). Power does not just constrain, but also produces
different modes of acting and thinking. Operations of Power (Potestas)
separate
forces (Pui'ssanceslpotenfiae)
from what they can do.
In a breathtaking display of neologistic acrobatics, Deleuze and Guattari (1980)
delineate, in their Betomiq plateau, the distinction between the plane of
former
The
hidden
the
through
plane
immanence.
of
organisation and
operates
a
dimension.
just as
that
the
principle, so
plane only exists as a supplementary
Spinoza refused to define substance as anything other than a tausaimmanensor
Guattari
Deleuze
and
are resolute when they maintain that any teleology,
twtsaslli,
from
this ontological conception of
plan or principle creates an abstraction
beyond
The
it
to
transcendent
it.
plane of
power
a
process, subjecting
forms
from
but
development
the
it gives rise
inferred
is not given
organisation or
immanence
Conversely,
but
hidden
It
the
plane of
to. is
makes e%-erything
visible.
hidden
transcendence,
or overt.
neither implies nor involves
For a careful analysis of the concept of power in Deleuze's work, see Patton (2000: 4967). Also see Iris Marion Young for a critique of a distributionist or substantialist paradigm
her
(1990:
to
the
the
of
ure
question
justice
efforts
reconfi.,
of
context
of power especially in
51
EMBRACING
DIPFFRENCE
Our first definition of Power as a hierarchical operation enablesus to distinguish
relatively easily the plane of immanence (aspotentia)and the plane of Organisation
(as Potestas).Still, it might seem that an overtly hierarchical operation of Power
that curtails a populace is a far cry from these undulating modulations of
capitalism; however, the two operations are connected in at least one respect.
Power/force understood aspotentiadescribes an immanent mode of existence in
body
defined
which a
is
in terms of its capacity to affect and to be affected. The
Potestas
(Power) can be found wherever thought and existence are
operations of
from
their powers of acting.
cut off
Nonetheless) this second understanding of Power as the immanent modulation
be
first
this
of a system cannot
conflated with
operation. It corresponds to what
deterritorialisation.
Rather than cultivating their potentials, it
we will call a relative
bodies
from
The
them
permeates
and minds entirely, shaping
connections
within.
be
fostered
limited
that
can
and relations
are
as they are normalised, and it is in
It prevents bodies and minds from doing
this way that it can be called Potestas.
from
becoming
Once
forces
and
all they can.
more
are separated
what they can
do, albeit through a different operation. A most pressing question in the context
figuring
Esm
thus
involves
out in what sense the axiomatics of
of global capl,?
don-nnance
be
Potestas.
Does
the
terms
of the
of
capitalism can
understood in
hence
capitalist mode of valorisation close off other modes of valorisation and
the capacity to cultivate potentials? Or is philosophy enthralled to capitalism?
Answering these questions requires an investigation of the operations of Power
By
both
State
the
through
and capitalism.
understanding the predomiinant modes
both
that
of organisation and thought of societies, we engender problematics
for
forms
other modes of
of organisation and open a space
critique these
existence.
But on the new plane, it is possible that the problem now concerns the one who
believes in the world, and not even in the existence of the world but in its
birth
intensities,
to
to
new
give
once
again
so
as
and
possibilities of movements
to
animals and rocks.
closer
existence,
of
modes
(1991a:74-5).
G,ill cs Deleuze and F6hx Guattari, 11"hati'sPhilosopý)),?
52
FNIBRACING
DIFFERENCE
Drawing on Bovillus, Hardt and Negri claim that an enriched humanity could be
called "Imilohomo, humanity squared" (2000: 72). This is echoed in Spinoza's
heretical cry Dells sh)e Xatitra
to
a"vaýan
impassioned
chase
exhortation
fear
superstition and
as the organising principles of society, and to question not
only the existence of an anthropomorphic
God but to dispel a faith in any other
form of transcendence. For Spinoza, the sage's meditation is a meditation on life
death.
His ontology/ethics
and not on
follows the movements and becomings of
nature. Indeed the entire philosophical movement of the Ethh's shies away from
finalism
develop
to
mechanism and
the singular potentials of
a processual
ontology.
The tragic upshot of the flowering of art, science and humanity during the
Renaissance was, according to Hardt and Negri, a collapse into war and a
relativisation of values as a new transcendent order imposed itself i\Iodernity
henceforth operated through command and authority. A conflict between the
forces
of modernity and a transcendent order that tempers
creative ii-nmanent
Amin,
Citing
Samir
"
these
they claim that at this
and curbs
ambitions ensued.
born
belief
Eurocentrism
Europeans
that
the
that
moment a
cultivated
could
was
fostering
Rather
their
the
than
impose
civilisation across
commonality,
world.
decision
dominate
the
to
singularity and community,
and expropriate other
became
defining
European
traits
the
modernity.
populations
some of
cruel
of
Born of crisis, modernitý, continued to be rocked by crises.
"Subjective assemblages [...] pose a vision of democracy as in an absolutely
horizontal social plane on which social bodies are set loose to destroy the
discover
forms
their own ends, invent their
and
strictures of predetermined social
1994:
288).
Negn,
(Hardt
and
mx-ii constitution"
35 Deleuze and Guattari develop their concept of the apparatus of capture with the aid of
Sarnir Arnin (Deleuze and Guattari, 1980: 436-7). See Sarnir Amin (1976).
53'
EMBRACING
II. H.
the disciplinary
DIFFERENCE
apparatus
In the context of the modern nation-state, capacitiesto innovate, create and resist
were strictly curtailed by the operation of a 'sovereignty machine'. Rather than
cultivating the creative prowesses of the multitude, it orders and regulates these
bodies into an aggregateor mass.In fact, Hardt and Negri go so far as to say that
eventually the sovereign stateprodittessociety." Correspondingly, Etienne Bahbar
claims that a necessarilycomplicitous triad of race, nation and culture that existed
at that time (and continues to exist) meant that society was produced as an
imagined community on the basis of a fictive ethnicity." The production and
ordering of the people gradually became a more and more important role for the
State. With the shift from a transcendent ordering function, a transcendent
function
command
emerged, according to Foucault. This social formation is
'society
discipline.
the
called
of
Expanding on these insights, Patton (2000) notes some primary features of the
State-machine. It tends to create milieux of interiority in order to rule more
effectively. Gridding or striating social space, its operations mimic that of a
divisions
distinctions.
It
Moreover
metrical or numerical multiphcityý creates
and
kinds
flows
it operates as an apparatus of capture, capturing all
of
such as money,
from
flows
Extraction
the
people, commodities.
rich
of the socius is the modus
States.
operandiof all
When James Tully criticised various forms of constitutional theory, he did so by
displayed
their
thcýimposed on a population which
indicating the uniformity
diversity.
in
Interestingly
Patton
to
similar
cope with
writes
utter incapacity
fashion that, "jtjhe
operation of capture always involves two things: the
constitution of a general spaceof comparison and the establishment of a centre
36Sce Michael Hardt (1995).
37See
1983)).
Anderson
Benedict
(
also
54
F-MBRACING
DIFFERENCE
of appropriation" (1994: 162). This comparative method is also integral to the
workings of capitalism which functions on the basis of quantiýring differential
fluxes.
The society of sovereignty encapsulatedin the era of Absolutist Monarchy must
be distinguished from the sovereignty-machine of the modern nation-state,
according to Hardt and Negri. "The realisation of modern sovereignty is the
birth of blopower" (Hardt and Negri, 2000: 69). The answer to the question
'How does power function?' hes in an examination of the forces of the social
field. The development of Foucault's idea of a disciplinary society challenged
theoretical approachesthat emphasisedrepression and ideology.
The notion of blopower is an important one. Fanon demonstrates the operation
blopolitics
of
biopower
and
in raciological and colonial practices. Although
different to the colonial machine, NEchel FoucaUlt'S38explication of the workings
of
he
disciplinary
what
called a
'illuminating'.
society may prove
Foucault
invented the concept of the apparatus (dispositi4 to show how customs, habits and
productive practices were not only regulated but produced (Hardt and Negri,
2000: 23). This is comprised of "a set of techniques for the exercise of power
bodies"
1994:
(Patton,
160).
39
De
Landa
over
explains Foucault's analysis of
by
focusing
power
on three main elements "systematic spatial partitioning,
ceaseless inspection, and permanent registration"
(1997: 159). Individuals were
thus assigned to categories and marked in terms of deviation from a norm.
Societies began to be mapped systematically. However, this story does not just
formahsation
the
concern
of
but
processes and policies
also the informal
different
hosts
(160).
through
that
institutional
practices
spread contagiously
A society of discipline names a particular exercise of Power that cuts people off,
38My commentary on Foucault's work is derived primarily from Deleuze's and Hardt and
Negri's observations. This is because it is their understanding of the relation of capitalism.
State and the social field that is at the centre of my analysis.
q
behaNiours
bodies
the
to
in
the
attempt
and
make
regulate
it
concerns
-,
case of sexualitý
docile.
55
EMBRACI', ýG DIFFERENCF
once more, from their capacities to act. The disciplinary diagram both traverses
and is an effect of the social field. Power is not substantial, it is not a property to
be possessedbut is exercised; it is a strategy. And it always throws
up counterstrategiesof resistance.Deleuze notes that this kind of societý-is characterisedby
operations of allocation, classification, composition, normahsation (1986:
AS
-98).
a technology it produces a particular kind of reahtyýIt concerns a particular vvaýbodies,
brief,
"In
homogeneous
but
of acting on
on a multiplicity.
power is not
be
defined
by
the particular points through which it passes" (25).
can
only
Correlating to our concept of Potestas,
Foucault notes that "[d]isciphne increases
the forces of the body (in economic terms of utility) and diminishes these same
forces (in political terms of obedience)" (1975: 138). Instead of existing solely
through spectaculardisplays of violence and domination, power began to operate
body
the
through processesof normahsation. According to De Landa, from
on
the eighteenth century European nation-states began to digest their minorities
(162). Hechter (1975) calls this 4internal colonialism. Government Acts that
transformed the status of English into an official language can be seen as one
instance of this process of normalisation, or to twist the concept signmificantlýT
,a
beconling-major of a language.
Different institutions are, in Foucault's example, traversed by a disciplinary
diagram (what Deleuze and Guattarl call an abstract machine). This is in itself
for
discipline
these
unqualified yet it connects
imposing
varying mechanisms
and
boundaries
inclusion
setting up
of
and exclusion such as schools, asylums and
differences
between
There
these two concepts,
prisons.
are nonetheless
desire.
their
to
power
and
understanding of
specificall), in relation
Deleuze (and Guattari) felt ill at easewith a description of microsystems in terms
desire.
Rather
the
to
talk
than a
they
about
assembling
of
prefer
of power,
"[s])-stems
of
negatwe resistance,
be
thus
power -\vould
components of
But
assen-iblages.
assemblages would
detertitorialisation"
J)eleuze, 1994). PoNN-crwould be one component or
also comprise points
(ýoilites) of
56
EMBRACIXG
DIFFERENCE
dimension amongst many others in a collective assemblage.Still, Patton suggests
that Foucault's concept of apparatus is akin in many respects to Deleuze and
Guattari's notion of the assemblage(1994: 158). Their description of desire is,
however, close to the concept of potentiathat xNill be developed throughout this
thesis.
Deleuze and Guattari's theory of assemblagescan be read, according to Patton, as
a theory of power, but only if power is treated in this verNI specific sense as
potentia.Patton tells us that this is where Deleuze and Guattan remove themselves
from the remit of Foucault (1994: 159).
With an approach that neither resembles structuralism (becauseit does not refer
to a common structure or a series of analogies that would underlie these
domain
for
(the
statements), nor positions one
instance) in a
economic
detern-uningrelation with regard to all other domains as Marxists do, Deleuze and
Guattari expand upon their machinic conception of society.They invoke the idea
but
that
is not qualified,
rather indicates a new way of
of an abstract machine
kbstract
machines extract; theN,traverse
ordering or regulating a population.
different levels and give or do not give these levels an existence (Guattari 1992a:
35). Unlike structuralism which remains rooted in an identity induced by its static
An
hook
different
registers.
abstract machine can
relations, abstract machines
up
delimit the maximum possibilities of innovation of a group and the maximum of
deterritorialisation. Systemsof power are understood, in this context, as a diffuse
heterogeneousmultiplicity of microsystems at play in the social field-411
GraduaHy the State became the immanent reahsation of the ax1omaticsof capital.
It functions by over-coding of the surplus fluxes of money and labour rather
than regimenting and centrahsing a cluster of groups through over-coding their
becomes
Rather
ever more constitutive of
than normahsing, power
codes.
different modes of subjectification.
40 In a seminar, philosopher Nick Land once asked 'what abstract machine selected the
hurnan"' In terms of our anti-hurnan humanism such humilitý is %\ell placed to position us
better in qualifý ing anthropocentric assumptions.
5T
E'MBRACING
DIFFERENCE
11-iii. the end of ideology
There is no universal capitalism, there is no capitalism in itself; capitalism is at
the crossroads of all kinds of formations, it is neocapitalism by nature. It
invents its eastern face and western face, and reshapes them both - all for the
worst.
Gflles Deleuze and F6HxGuattarl, A Thousand
Plateaus.(1980:
220).
Like an eavesdropper who catches one phrase, Gayatri Spivak launches a rather
basis
between
Deleuze
Foucault
the
vitriolic attack on
and
on
of a conversation
them. This attack is instructive because it asks some necessaryquestions about
their understanding of capitalism on the global scale. Instead she asks whether
the subaltern can indeed speak and knowtheir conditions as Deleuze and Foucault
would seem to imply..
Spivak criticises the ways in which Deleuze and Guattari try to re-think questions
favour
believes
distMss
She
the critical concept of ideology in
they
of subjectivity.
Speak?
'
Subaltern
'Can
desire.
libidinal
Her
the
theory
was
paper entitled
of
of a
271).
(1988:
Interest'
'Power,
Desire,
initially called
A published conversation between Deleuze and Foucault called 'Intellectuals and
Power' (1972) constitutes her main battering ram. As I indicated in my
"Western
that,
intellectual production is, in many ways,
introduction she argues
It
(271).
Western
is this side of
international econon-ucinterests"
complicit With
I
Derrida)
her
(rather
that
than
the argument
own analysis and affihation with
focus
to
on.
want
Spivak contends that the West's critical discourse on the subject preserves,
beneath the surface of subject-effects, the West's pre-eminence as subject of
knowledge. Therefore what initially appears as a critique of the sovereign subject
In
'Subject'.
birth
fact,
the
context of conversation
a
the
she
calls
of
what
is, in
these activist philosophers do not cover their ideolo ical tracks as well as they
from
Firstly,
draws
do.
She
their
m-() main points
conversation.
might othenNise
58
EIMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
the "networks of power/de sire/interest are so heterogeneous that their reduction
to a coherent narrative is counterproductive [...]" (272); instead an ongoing
critique is necessary.Secondly, "intellectuals must attempt to disclose and know
the discourse of society's Other" (272). Deleuze and Foucault ignore the question
of ideology and their own implication in intellectual production.
She criticises their homogenisation of categories such as Maoists and -\x-orkers
feels
kowtoN-,
Deleuze
they
the
that
specify
intellectuals,
while
names of
and
-s to
the notion of the workers' struggle. By referring to the workers' struggle in such a
broad manner, Spivak claims that Deleuze ignores the mechanisms of global
capitalism and the core-periphery relationship, articulating the workers' struggle
desire.
leftover
desire
She
terms
that
in
of
is a machine producing a
states
desiring subject (273), wilfully ignoring the Spinozistic impetus for the concept of
desire that Deleuze and Guattari develop. They try to understand processesof
develop
desire,
rather than situating
emergence and
a pre-personal conception of
themselves on one side or other of a subject/object divide. Desire is not a
determining interest.
SIpivak accusesthem of failing to consider the relationship of desire, power and
her
view, an incapacity to articulate a theory
subjectivity, the result of wl-i-ichis, in
focuses
Given
the
the above relationship constituted one of
primary
of interests.
Admittedly,
Deleuze
to
make.
of ,'Infi-0edipus,this appears a strange conjecture
Guattari's
conclusion is a provocative one: they claim that there is no
and
ideology.
What she understands to be a romanticisation of the oppressed irritates Spivak
kno\',
- their
tremendously, and the suggestion that the subaltern (ý(wspeak and
form
but
ludicrous
her
of neoas an insichous
not only as
conditions strikes
The
the
toolbox
in
that
theory
is
read
not
is
a
idea
a
provocative
conservatism.
but
becomes
Guattari
that
phrase,
Nx-rotc
which
with
n-dlitancy
spirit of
labour
for
to
tools
so
as
manual
of
about
grubbing
intellectual
emblematic of an
Spi
In
ivak
ites
snippets,
%
-ri
x
telling
ot
juxtaposition
a
authentic.
more
appear
59
EMBR--ýCl-',ýG DIFFERENCE
(allegedly citing Deleuze) "Because"the person who speaks and
acts...is ahk-aysa
multiplicity", no "theorizing intellectual [or] party or [...] union" can represciit
...
"those who act and struggle" "(275). This distortion
is important, not onIN-
because it indicates a deliberate act of sabotage
on the part of Spivak, but
because it deals with the questions of the micropohtics
of grassroots
organisations that concerned Deleuze and (especially)Guattan. I want to discuss
the Spivak cut-up and the original text in a moment; however, let us first
contextuahse this debate through Deleuze's preface to Guattarl's book
(1972).
et transversalitý
The intermingling and interferences of a militant and a psychoanalyst in one
person is pretty unusual; such a rarity was Guattan. Instead of concerning
himself with debates about the unity of the self, Guattari announced 'we are an
grolpst, ule.ý, referring both to the group and the individual. Subjugatedgroups are
by
hierarchical
form
epiton'nsed a
and pyramidical
of organisation which preý-cnts
certain statements and whose identity is founded on the exclusion of others. It
operates through stereotypes and is both cut off
subjectivity.
Subject-groups,
conversely,
make
from the real and from
transversal
connections
hierarchise
ical and
to
totalise
them. They are praxiolo 91
confounding attempts
and
create their own agendas in a pragmatic way operating horizontally rather than
Such
by
feminist
the
modes of organising were publicised
vertically.
movement
key
democratic
and are seen as a
move for many grassroots and single-issue
To
Spivak
to
the
the
groups.
respond
point
is
subaltern can speak
not
whether
know
fate,
but
how
forms
domination
their
the
that preclude effective
and
can
of
be
This
is an ethical challenge that
organisations of group-subjects
challenged.
Spivak does not rise to.
A theorising intellectual, for us, is no longer a subject, a representing or
longer
Those
are
no
who act and struggle
representative consciousness.
by
a group or a union that appropriates their right to stand
either
represented,
as their conscience. Who speaks and acts? It is always a multiplicity, even
"groupuscules".
All
the
and
acts.
of
us
are
who
speaks
person
within
Gilles Deleuze, Intellectuals and Po,,,,-cr'. (1972: 206).
The causal connections that Spivak attributes to Deleuze have vanished. In their
60
EMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
place is an ethical call to reconsider modes of social organisation and actiVis-m.In
Repetifim,
I
Dcleuze
the
my reading of Dý)ýrent-e
question of why
and
will address
'conflates' the two sensesof representation (rorstellenand darstelleti)by exan-uining
his critique of a philosophy of representation. It is a deliberate ploy on his part.
Spivak arguesthat running these two concepts together "especially in order to Say
that beyond both is where oppressed subjects speak, act, and knowjýr Mepiselbes,
leads to an essentialist utopian politics" (276). Throughout this thesis I will argue
that is precisely by lifting the veil of false consciousnessthat we can think about
domains.
forms
different
that
traverse
of collective subjectivity and practices
new
This obviously involves a change in both material and incorporeal Universes.
Surely acting under the aegis of an intellectual's 'superior' (though impractical)
knowledge mirrors
accounts of
being
Western
to
send
aid money
used
technology experts to Africa in order to teach communities living in the middle
desert
how
be
Sahara
to
the
carpenters.
of
If, as Spivak seemsto suggest,Deleuze's (and Foucault's) conception of 'women'
were a monolithic one, portraying women as oppressed 'with an unfractured
"same
for
themselves
against a monolithic
subjectivity that allows them to speak
1
(278),
would agree that their ideas were impoverished and ineffectual.
system"
However it is the spetiji(io of differences and power formations that theý-strive to
for
hold-all
ready-made solution
articulate, as well as the idea that there is no
but
(279)
desire
Power
evaluative
are not totalising
and
political struggles.
She
do
maintains
essentialism.
that
restore
subjective
clandestinely
not
concepts
that by positioning themselves as transparent in this relaý-,intellectuals abnegate
declares
Furthermore,
that thcy solidify
she
their responsibility to the oppressed.
kind
Other
Europe
Other
of
in
a
the
of
as
of
conception
a
and niý-sti(y
from
Deleuze's
far
This
enthusiasm
a
crýme
as
strikes
imperialism.
intellectual
Other
developed
he
has
he
the
as
a
he
of
concept
thinks
a
that
says
when
Guattan
Deleuze
Indeed,
World).
Third
(not
of
some
centre
and
a
possible world
European
direct
ethnocentrism.
critique of
their core concepts in
Although Spivak, as an important post-colonial and non-Western theorist, could
61
ENIBRACI"ýG
DIFFERENCE
have an important role in pointing out the bhndspots of the \Ncstern tradition,
difficult
find
her
fashion.
It
to
is
in
she goes about this in a negative
account anv
Sp1Vak
terms
ethico-political value in
of an impact on social practices.
states
"[t]he subaltern cannot speak. There is no virtue in global laundry lists with
cwoman) as a pious item. Representation has not Xvithered away. The female
has
disowli
task
intellectual
intellectual as
a circumscribed
which she must not
flourish"
Guattari
(308).
Deleuze
'what
prevents the subaltern
and
ask
with a
from speaking and how can this be changed?' If this is what SpiVak caUs a
dangerous utoplanism then so be it.
ll. iv.
creeping capitalism and aspects of assemblages
Lewis Mumford's term 'megamachine' becomes a vital concept in Deleuze and
Guattari's conceptual apparatus. Although their machinism is often read as a
Social
this
machines produce subjectivitV
is what it is not.
metaphor,
6ategon'6-aIjI
health,
through institutions such as education and
as well as through the massCollective
different
form
These
the
constellations called
media.
social machines
Equipments. (Guattari, 1992c: 104). Similarly technology and information invest
human subjectivity "not only within its memory and intelligence, but within its
4).
(1992a:
sensibihty, affects and unconscious mechanisms"
Deleuze and Guattari (in conjunction with Foucault and others) introduced this
kinds
different
discuss
Equipment'
'Collective
of
social
to
in
order
of
concept
formations. These Collective Equipments bear a special relationship to capitalism,
the
in
the
anti-production
of
element
since they are non-productive, constituting
Guattari's
Deleuze
This
of
conception
to
and
make
important
is
aspect
socius.
Although
it
also
traditional
identities,
shatter
can
tenable.
capitalism
capitalism
'docile'
the
of
service
in
is
placed
to
production
ensure
subjects
to
needs produce
capitalism
and
not
revolution.
It
only
ever operates as a relative
deterritorialisation.
It
Guattar,
bNý
Delcuze
frequcntly
and
Deterritoriahsation is a word
uscd
destruction
traditions,
territories,
social
old
the
of
concerns, in this context,
62
EMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
identities, values and practices through the expansive movements of capitalism,
literally 'leaving a territory'. However this process is always tempered by a
draws
that
corresponding reterritorialisation
up identities and traditions ane-\vin
the most artificial of manners.
Decoded flows that the State is unable to contain are keý-to the axiomatics of
The
capitalism.
encounter of the abstract essenceof wealth combined with the
labour
decoded
flows,
i. e. capitalism.
abstract essenceof
createsall axiomatic of
This is one of generalised equivalence and constitutes a deterritorialisation that
the State cannot compete with. Concerned solely with a set of formal relations,
"the axiomatic deals directlywith purely functional elements and relations whose
domains
highly
varied
nature is not specified, and which are realized in
domains
finds
The
[
]
the
in
it moves through so
immediately. ...
immanentaxiomatk
The
454).
Guattarl,
1980:
(Deleuze
termed
and
many models,
modelsof realiýalion
distinguish
but
here
'axiomatic'
to
term
is introduced
is not used
as a metaphor
from
the movements of capitalism
operations of coding and over-coding.
Axiomatics considers relations and elements in a purely functional manner, not as
qualified elements.
There is an isomorphy between States,social formations and capitalism, because
homogenisation
Rather
than a convergence toward a
capitalism is an axiomatic.
States
formations
heterogeneous
to
cease
coexist.
can
the
social
of
world market,
become
but
the
H'=anent
the
an
overcoding
transcendent
paradigms
of
exist as
flows.
"It
decoded
for
to
thus
proper
is
an axiomatic of
models of realisation
State deterritorialization to moderate the superior deterritonialization of capital
Because
(455).
latter
with compensatory reterritorializations"
and to provide the
limits
laws,
the
that
think
only
not
e
should
N-,,
irnmanent
its
own
capitalism obeys
displaces
Capitalism
limits
its
and
confronts
the
the
of
universe.
it confronts are
by
limits
appropriate.
as
axioms
subtracting
and
adding
own
because
it
Guattarl argues that the State is a part of the capitahst axiornatics
become
fluxes
Othcnvisc
threshold
and
in
a
certa
pass
alwavs reterritonahses.
63
E".\IBRACING
DIFFERENCE
revolutionary. This axiomatics will take up aný, archaism and re-invent it.
Reterritorialisation is a neo-territoriahsation, it is not just the resurrection of old
archaisms (Deleuze, 15/2/72).
managing the diverse; modulations of control
In an interview with Deleuze, Negri explores his suggestion that wc exan-uinein
detail three kinds of power; "sovereign power, disciplinary power, and the control
of
"communication"
that's on the way to becoming hegemonic"
Deleuze, 1990b: 174). This ultimate proposition
(Negri 'in
backbone
for
his
the
serves as
book with Nfichael Hardt, Empire. To suggest that sovereignty has a new form,
the form of Empire, is a contentious proposition. It is not within the scope of
this thesis to assessthe empirical validity of such an assertion; however, I want to
investigate some of the claims they make. According to Hardt and Negri, Empire
does not resemble imperialism. Although the United States has a privileged role,
the movements
of
Empire
deterritorialising
are
decentralising;
and
unlike
imperialism, the accumulation of populations and territories is not a motivational
force
for
its
expansionism.
Precipitated
by
the
resistance struggles of
decololUsation, this new form of sovereignty brings with it a New World Order.
It designates a shift in sovereignty from
the nation-state to supranational
For
Hardt
'logic
henceforth
rule'.
of
operate under a single
organisations which
between
Empire
fundamental
Negri,
thus
the
and the creative
is
opposition
and
force of the multitude.
Instead of picking a path through the tricky claims about Empire that they are
diagnosis
I
the
their
and
capitalism
of
global
to
on
concentrate
making, want
the
on
rotates
mode
of
valorisation
whose
subjectivltý
T
capitalist
production of
"Who
become
has
Capitalism
the
truly
is
controlling
global.
axis of profit.
lesser
The
to
extclit,
a
stock market, multinationals, and
capitalist chaos todayý
"
(Guattari,
decerebrated
For
the most part
organizations!
the powers of the state!
1992d: 265).
disciplinary
Hardt
Negri
that
Foucault,
Deletize, Guattari,
all contend
and
64
E'.\IBRACING
DIFFERENCE
beginning
time
the
around
societies reached a point of crisis some
of the
twentieth century. The sites of confinement that týPified societies of discipline,
like the family and the prison, are now breaking down. What they are being
replaced with is perhaps a more terriýving and all-consuming mode of
longer
hylomorphic
fashion,
but
organisation that no
moulds people in a
infiltrates them through and through, taking life as its object. This is called
modulation. The concept of modulation is taken from SiMondon's work which
further
4.
In
tl-iis context it refers to an operation of
in
we will examine
chapter
diffuse
that
power
is entirely
pervading the interiority of the system. The arrlT%-al
of
bring
television
interactive
convenience and specialised
will not only
but
habits
develop
prograrfirrung,
it will
a profile of our viewing and purchasing
discrete
household
be
to
profile of each
enabling a
created, and a corresponding
be
living
to
the
room.
unique marketing campaign
waged in
In disciplinary societies, the social space was striated; it was segmented and
Its
factory
is
The
regimented.
a prime example of mechanisms of enclosure.
been
In
have
to
this new society of
pulp.
a
smoothed
now crumbled and
walls
factory
has
logic
the
the
spread investing the entirety of
of
striation and
control
One
level
fissureS.
41
but
the
of
the
micro
of
on
a
regulations
operate
space,
social
disciplinary
institutions, the prison, is increasingly a privatised and
ultimate
corporatised affair providing an abundant source of cheap, indeed practically
The
is
labour
growth
whose work paraded as an exercisein rehabilitation.
unpaid,
has
S.
U.
two
to
million
surely not a solely peripheral
prisons over
of occupancy in
been
has
African-American
(The
as
man
young
relation to this phenomenon.
disproportionately representedin prisons as on death-row)
I
heterogeneous
is
and
Evidently the organisation of work throughout the globe extremely
does
This
other
mean
not
the
of
capitalism.
operations
in
a
shift
arn indicating one aspect of
labour
Slave
been
have
still
are
forms
child
and
supplanted.
of exploitation
capitalisms and
has
frighteninglý prevalent. In addition the enormous power of transnational corporations
the
ýNorld.
throughout
of
disciplined
much
en-vironments
ill-paid
and
created even more
labour
the
to
so-called
exclusive
not
is
of
Nonetheless the ghettoisation and marginalisation
the
'dernocratic'
when
especially
nations,
Third World but rumbles under the seams of all
by
their
marginal
though
maintaining,
exploited,
presence of these non-citizens is Hunored,
for
huge
these
economies.
ii-nmitrants
illegal
re\enue
a
providing
and precarious status as
05
EMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
Social relationships and management have changed tremendously with the
introduction of new forms of technology. The worker has become a cyborg in a
before.
Organising
disciplining
labour is no
than
more pervasive manner
and
longer a main focus of capitalism. Labour is becoming self-organising.
Rather than simply regulating life from without, power invests life from \-Ithin.
,
For Hardt and Negri this alteration of the workings of capitalism names a
transformation in its relation to labour. Previously labour wasjbrmaýlysubsumed
As
258).
Alhez
(1994:
Eric
under capital, now it is realjl subsumed
explains, rather
than a capitalism of production there is a capitalism of circulation and
longer
Such
there
the same relation to an
is no
communication.
a change means
For
enclosed workspace or product.
example, work is increasingly carried out in
the home. The practice of domination is now that of "a purely immanent social
3
by
(Nvith
the
control
universal marketing in continuous variation and modulation
M's ruling the supposed New International Order: 1\1oney,Media and Military)"
(1997: 86).
Marx's influence on Deleuze and Guattari's theory of capitalism is a sustained
his
reference to capitalism as an immanent systemthat constantlý-comes up
affaff;
"because
limits,
them
to
more
once
come against
only
against and overcomes its
its fundamental limit is Capital itself" (Deleuze 1990b: 171) guides their own
by
"produces
This
a surplus
is, they argue, a system that
theory of capitalism.
labour,
flows
decoded
money,
of
means of the axiomatic conjugation of
This
7).
2000:
(Patton
axiomatic
information"
increasingly,
and
commodities
force
For
the
of
example,
to
axiom.
another
include
manages
systern always
beginning
the
t-\x-cntieth
labour
the
of
threatened
at
that
capitahsm
organised
become
has
States)
UfUted
(as
trade
brutaNy
a
the
or
in
century was either crushed
sustaining
of
the
process
managerial
todaN-,
of
that
part
is,
union movement
productivity.
F,ugene Holland (1999) explains
(and
that the social organ,saton of capitalism
does
from
distinguishing
production)
feature
social
of
modes
other
it
this is the
66
EMBRAO'NG
not
DIFFERENCE
operate through coding or over-coding; in other words quahtative
distinctions. Capitalism \,mrks through comparisons of quantitative fluxes, such
labour,
Axiomatic
as
goods and money.
organisation is meaningless; it mereINflows
have
been
Capitalist
that
conjoins
quantified.
subjectivity is produced on a
laminated,
Guattari
grand scale.
calls it a
mass-mediatisedand reduced sub'ectivin
loses
(1992b:
51).
its
singularity
which
The real subsumption of society means that the State becomes immanent to the
Ansell
draws
Keith
Pearson
capitalist process.
our attention to the generalised
from
"'striated'
that
machinic enslavement
occurs when capitalism moves
capital
(effected by modern state apparatuses) [to] 'smooth' capital (effected by the
lamenting
219).
'take-oN,
Rather
(1999:
than
a
er'
multinationals and globalization)"
for
Ansell
Pearson
this
the
implications of
a
explores some of
of the machines,
machinic subjectivity, remarking that within
the movements of
capitalist
He
(220).
production machinic subjectivity is itself rhizomatic and unpredictable
Correctly
'post-human'
noting that this
ethics.
uses these insights to elucidate a
does not involve a disappearanceof the human, he explores the possibilities of
does
Deleuze's
Ansell
Pearson
human.
Importantly,
rhizomatics
the
argues that
'creative
but
history
to
them
evolution',
a
opens
and politics,
not negate
"
these
questions.
reconfiguring
MassUM1 says that the capitalist relation "[.. ] consists of four dense points This
132).
(1992:
[
]"
real subsumption
commodity/ consumer, worker/ capitalist ...
limits
both
expanding
and
its
against
pushing
constantly
in,,-oh-es capitalism
"This
geographically.
[is] a neo-colonialist
movement imposing the capitalist
But
(1-32).
[
]"
the
the
of
world ...
nations
all
on
relation of unequal exchange
becomes
does
space
private
of
there,
colonisation
internal
stop
not
colon1sation
but
fair
constitutes
game
not onl)ý
the intensive expansion of
capitalism.
formation
It
s
on
forth
trans
incorporeal
Capitalism does not burst
effects
e.%-iiil)ilo.
both
he
thinking
41 Ansell Pearson (1999) weds etholo, \ and ethics as
a way of
explains
-,
Sirnondon's
of'the
conceptions
His
human.
with
before and bevond the
account resonates
this
of
the
nature
helping
concrete
to
understand
us
transindkidual
and
pre-indkidual
human.
becornings
the
of
the
non-hurnan
that
examines
enterprise
67
EMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
bodies factoring them into a relationship
But its
of generahsed eqwl%-alence.
functioning is not as an absolute
cause. It has a parasitical relation to the ()ther
operative in the social field and works on these pre-existing
arrangements.Th-is relation is what Massurni calls a 'quasi-cause'.
institutions
I expressed a concern in the last chapter that
postmodernism may be just a form
of neo-conservatism. This concern is also articulated by "Massumiand Guattari
different
on
occasions.Postmodernity occurs, Nlassumiicontends, once the soclus
has reached a saturation point with capitalism (133). The
problem is that human
has
become
identity
now
effectively commodified. Subcodes or subtexts of
subcultures are targeted by media and marketing companies. The battles for
recognition by diverse groups are configured into categories or uniformised as
subjects.
Under capitalism, the "denizen of the neoconservative transnation-state" (134)
can cut and paste identities and social codes as quickly as he or she can purchase
the accessories.Images float through the ether plucked out by the ready and
Although
waiting consumer.
there is something liberating about such a
transformation in modes of thinking, bell hooks points out that a critical and
political edge is annihilated at the very time when resistance to increasing
The
commodification and colonisation of affects is most important.
surfaces
forth
be
by
know
boundaries
to
ranged
operated on
capitalism
of endo- or
no
But
this
liberatory.
What
is
innocuous,
or
exo-skeleton.
can, will.
not
Bateson once said that there was an ecology of bad ideas just as there was an
The
by
Guattari
drawn
This
in
upon
provocative image was
ecology of weeds.
T17ree
Etvloaies(1989b) when he expressed the necessitý-for an ecosophý-to deal
differences
Although
may
with the pollutions of psý-che, socius and nature.
for
difficult
becomes
this to occur in
increasingly
proliferate under capitalism, it
bar
economic values.
relation to ariv mode of valonsation
If, as NlassurfU believes, subjecti-6ty has become isomorphic to capital, its cutting
68
EMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
edges or mutational capacities are co-opted. Like body-snatchers or
rephcants,
subliminal messaging and modification prevent not the discovery
'who
()f
"ve
really are' but the proliferation of modes of valorisation outside the axiomatics
of capitalism. The deterritorialisations and post-human morphings of the body
are simply recuperated into the capitalist framework. An all-pervas'Ve cYnic'sm
accompanies this real subsumption of existenceby capitalism.
Lukics' (1922) contemplations on the relfication
of second nature seem relevant
in this context. The glaciiation of the capitahst
has
1
process
created a glaze that
blinds people to the possibility of things being
otherwise. His reading of Nature
also presents a social Nature that appears immutable and ahistorical. Time and
space are suspended, and a cyclical movement provides the prospect of the
inevitability of more of the same.All this in spite of the ctire situation that much
humanity
finds itself in. Bodies are sý,stematically excluded from
of
a politics of
experimentation. Affects are for sale. The pre-personal is a fashion item. The
has
been forgotten.
collective
A line can be drawn around a piece of territory, and all the things inside the
line described and remembered. What happens when the territory is so big it
covers the world?
Paul Shepheard, The Cultivaled 11"ilderness.
(1997: 27).
Like Deleuze and Guattan, Hardt and Negri understand capitalism to be antifoundational and anti-essentialist."Circulation, mobility, diversitv, and nuxture are
its very conditions of possibility" (2000: 64) and this proliferation of difference is
heart
The
has
declined
the
the
importance of
at
of capitalism.
nation-state
as it
has increasingly become complicit in fulfilling the demands of the global market29).
1989b:
(Guattari,
trial
complexes
place and militar y-indus
Marketing seeks out Unique Selling Points in order to create a vast array of
differences amongst the consumer market so that it might tar(,ct them all the
better. The new mode of management is 'diversity manageinciit'. Capitalism then
for
an etemal
appears as a creative continuum caught up in an intert'rUnable quest
09
E.MBRACING
DIFFERENCE
production of the new It is in this context that a celebration of difference must
be tempered. Difference, hvbriditv, heterogeneity are not good in and of
themselves. Rhizomatic
connections are emblematic of
the new 'flat'
deal
that
to
organisations
are multiplying, seeking
more efficiently with change:
'To go with the flow all the more'.
Perhaps you could even say that contemporary culture is so universalized that
backyards
in
in
tourists
are
all
countries
our own
we
our own
- moving about
homes,
by
our own
even, aspirated
prejudice and sentiment - but even so,
tourists! Who has any sympathy for them? They don't go looking for
looking
have
they
to
their preconceptions confirmed. They go
experience,
go
because
leaves
in.
Explorers and
that's
the
that
state
prejudice
you
unprepared,
know
be
flexible.
this
to
adventurers
and go prepared
Paul Shepheard, The Cultirated It"ilderness.(1997: 64).
Although in disciplinary societies life was taken as an object, power-relations shift
diffuse.
become
Power
to
is effected chrectlýeven more
in societies of control
life.
daily
Working
brains
bodies
throughout
in a call centre makes the
and
onto
brain-database coupling a key ingredient for
transmission of information.
a successful and smooth
The movements of the body are observed,
frightening
It
the
of
is
an
assembly-line
regularity.
monitored and compared with
home,
Close
circuit television cameras track the movement of the worker
soul.
býý
house
by
the
is greeted
into
entrance
are
noted,
route
en
smart-card
purchases
her
direct
the
large
to
of
to
nuances
appeal
tailor-made
mail
custornised
pile
of
a
becomes
The
documented
CN-cr
subjectivity
tastes.
of
production
personal
well
and affective.
more Mtense
Deleuze worries about the multiplication of chch6s in mass-mediatisedsocien-.
These effect sensori-motor responses that operate in a manner similar to
deal
They
in stereotypes and
'Spinoza's conception of the passive imagination.
abstractions rather
Tas
Guattari
once said
than grasping the abstract and singular.
dismay
fashion]
this
[No
changiig
des
at
in
dc vagues-,juste
just
aN-c,,,
vogues'
,-,,
face of social organisation.
7(l
EMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
In this mass-mediatisedera where the globe is underlaid with cables,overlaid with
by
i
the crackling of messages win ging
satellite communication and waylaid
through the air with Blue Chip technologies and mobile communications to,,vers,
the notion of a pre-existent territory loses some of its pull. All territories are
by
"From
this
produced artificially
capitalist machine.
all this results the
bjper-sqgre
(Guattarl,
gation and generafiýed
-ation"
paradoxical cocktail of
tommutilt
,
1985b: 124). The lack of response and mobilisation to factors such as
banalisation
degradation,
poverty,
of the media, and ongoing
environmental
from
Guattari.
We
an ecological crisis, a pollution
are suffering
conflicts astounds
kind
How
of
can we re-activate another
of our minds, collectivities and nature.
because
'processual'
Guattan
it
calls
subjectivity in this context, a subjectivity
does
What
its
it
own existence through a process of singularisation?
produces
differently?
What
learn
to
the
will the nature of a new political
take to
see world
be?
praxis
Hardt and Negri argue that although institutions are everywhere in crisis this only
difference
divested
been
has
inside
of
of
any
terrain
the
that
entire social
means
immaterial
by
This
of
nature
the
qualitative,
affective,
is
mirrored
and outside.
labour that impacts upon both mental and corporeal reah-ns.
ll. vi.
hybriditY and difference;
a new world order?
been
lost
the
belief
in
world, it's
the world, we've quite
What we most lack is a
however
in
believe
the world you precipitate events,
taken from us. If you
however
inconspicuous, that elude control, you engender new space-times,
Our
to
resist
It's
ability
pietas.
call
you
what
their
surface or volume.
small
level
be
the
has
every
it,
our
of
to
at
to
assessed
control, or our submission
both
We
people.
a
and
creativity
need
move.
176).
(1990b:
Becoming'.
'Control
and
Gilles Deleuze in inter-,,lc\-,-,%vithAntonio Negri,
71
EMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
The struggle for subjectivity presents itself, therefore, as the right to difference,
variation and metamorphosis.
Gilles Deleuze, Foucault(1986: 106).
Your nationality
is an idea your ancestors had, invested and reinvested for
generations until it seems huge and real. Do you have roots? Are you a tree or
human?
Can you carry your nation with you when you go?
a
Paul Shepheard,TheCultivated11"ilderness.
(1997: 87).
Let us examine some of the implications of this idea that capitalism now feeds
off, manages,and cultivates differences in the context of our previous chapter.
This focused on the oppressive manner in which differences had been contained
and nullified, or conversely exaggeratedto the point of contradiction. Different
theorists professed a desire to positivise difference and divcrsity and we explored
some of their strategies for doing so. We saw how these thinkers grappled with
the aftermath of colonial regimes.
In Empire, Hardt and Negri also discuss the question of colonialism. Theý-agree
Gilroy
"the
has
from
that
the beginning had an intimatc
with
crisis of modernity
relation to racial subordination and colonlzation" (2000: 114) and suggest that
European identity was constructed on the negative foundation of its Other, not
but
The
psychologically.
only economically
glamorisation and exoticisation of
Otherness can find its sordid roots in this territory. Fanon explained \-ery clearly
the dialectical nature of this infernal colonial machine that created racial
difference. It createsa Manichaelstic universe. It goes so far as to dehumanisethe
colorlised.
Although "[r]eahty always presents proliferating multiplicities" (Hardt and Negri,
2000: 128), colonialism organises and produces a dialectical relation of reahty.In
function
dravvs
to
relation
mic
in
a
negative
the
it
categories
Lip
other words,
Thc
colonial ciicounter is not an encounter of mo segments of a
another.
dichotomous Nvorld- the Fluropean and the Other. These are categoriesproduced
(I'his
is one of the rcasons
through the colonial machine and are not pre-existent.
beyond
t1i'mi
Gilroy
thinking
rather
raciahscd
to
move
need
claims we
why
E-MBRACING
DIFFERENCE
essentialising and positivising the category of "race". ) The segregatedsubject of
the European coloniser identifies her/himself as essentiallybetter than the others
from whom s/he is segregated.This fixed senseof identity precludes any notion
subjeCtiNqtý,.
diasporic
of
and nomadic
43
Hardt and Negri state that racisms have intensified and, far from waning, are on
the increase. Instead of proposing a difference in kind between "races", "races"
distinguished
by
difference
degree
(from a norm). Racism then appearsas
are
in
the result of mechanisms of differential inclusion. It is in reaction to this that
have
to
emerged.
various claims essentialistidentities
Still, they claim that despite enormous suffering and bloodshed, the increase In
communication and intensification of movements of that era of colonialism
lingering
them
the
traces of a utoplanism that would carry
carried within
humanity to a higher power. They still see the birth of a globalised humanity,
localism,
as a
rather than one stuck in exclusionary crevices of particularism and
birth to be nourished. Ambiguity can be found in thinkers like Las Casas,who
did
Toussaint
(as
(116)
believed
"humankind
that
is oneand equal'
controversially
L'Ouverture
failed
However
Marx).
to conceive of a
thinkers
these
and
humankind that is one andmany.
Gilroy and hooks both warned us of the con-imodification of difference in global
becomes
Negri's
Hardt
It
especially
that
critique
this
and
junction
is
at
capitalism.
have
Postmodernism
they
quite
announce,
postcolonialism,
and
interesting.
domination
forms
backwards
looking
By
of
at
old
the
enemy.
wrong
got
simply
from
Power
different
failed
have
and a shift
organisation of
to notice a
they
csocietiesof discipline' to 'societies of control'.
how
Po%x-cr
Negn
Hardt
mutated
It is this shift of paradigm that concerns
and
hybrid
hierarchies
"differential
the
and
of
become
the
through
to
a rule
(138)
ivities
so that the
fragmentary sub*ecti 11 that these theorists celebrate
43,See Deleuze and Guattari (I 971a: 10-3-5).
E]MBRACING
DIFFERENCE
forms
domination)
ies
(to
"unwittingly
strate91 of resistance
of
old
the
reinforce
diversity
ies
"
(138).
PositiVising
new strate91 of rule!
and revealing the racism and
1
dorrunation
sexism inherent in supposedly neutral systems of
were N-1taltools of
fragmentation
Similarly
the
critique.
of identity challenged the hierarchical nature
in
the imposition
entailed
both
These
of a sovereignty of
subject and state.
first
Hardt
Negri
the
tradition of modernity, that
critiques centre on what
and
call
free
hybridities
They
"[t]he
Enlightenment.
the
the
play
of
say
affirmation of
and
however,
differences
boundaries,
liberatory
is
onlý, in a context \-,-here
of
across
divisions,
binary
hierarchy
power poses
exclusively through essential identities,
and stable oppositions"
(142). A pick n' mix attitude toward identity buys right
liberation
The
the
into
strategies of
new capitalism.
that are proposed are
face
in
the
impotent
of this new order of rule.
The New Racism that we discussedin chapter 1 then becomes paradigmatic of
'societies
I
Negri
Hardt
of
this shift to what
call imperial society and call
and
distinctions.
difference
The
coagulates into cultural
mutability of
control'.
Segregation and separation are maintained, though the hierarchies dissipate.
Racism then becomes a matter of differential inclusion. It is 'interestingto note
does,
42-3)
(2000:
Gilroy
do
the
Negri
Hardt
investigate
as
that
not,
and
formulate
biotechnology
theory
their
of
they
as
genetics
and
in
innovations
have
that
the
He
emerged
technologies
self
of
the
to
new
points
racism.
imperial
Foucauldian
he
doing
In
enriches a
so
through various new methods of imaging.
Foucault
body,
inscribing
never
the
something
and
conception of reading
displaycd
has
Gilroy
As
"race".
modernity
out,
points
the
of
context
exan-unedin
trying
knit
when
especially
superstition,
together scienceand
an uncanny ability to
be
Yet
53).
(2000:
"race"
differentiation
also
it
may
that
is
to justify the active
longer
the
refrains
complex
of
rendition
differential
adequate
an
racism is no
that
basis
distinguish
the
of
on
groups
in population genetics that oncc again
biological difference.
74
EMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
ll. vii. the end of history, the demise of becomings:
claustrophobic
capital
Capital smashes all other modes of valorisation. [ ] There is an ethical
choice
...
in favour of the richness of the possible, an ethics and
politics of the virtual that
decorporealises and deterritorialises contingency, linear
causality and the
pressure of circumstances and significations which besiege us. It is a choice for
processuality, irreversibility and resingularisation.
F6hx Guattarl, Chaosmosis.
(1992a: 29).
There's no democratic state that's not compromised to the very core by its part
in generating human misery. What's so shameful is that we've no sure way of
maintaining becomings, or still more of arousing them, even within ourselves.
Gilles Deleuze in interview with Antonio Negri, 'Control and Beconling'. (I 990b: 173).
Hardt and Negri's analysisdraws heavfly upon Deleuze and Guattari's work. They
for
for
them
their materialism,
praise
undertaking an ontology of production and
but criticise them for being "able to conceive positively only the tendencies
toward continuous movement and absolute flows, and thus in their thought, too,
the creative elements and radical ontology of the social remain insubstantial and
impotent" (2000: 28). This philosophy of production remains as a consequence
by
horizon
"as
the
marked
a chaotic indetern-unate
superficial and ephemeral
have
Guattari
(28).
Deleuze
a sophisticatedunderstanding
and
ungraspable event"
brush
Negri
Hardt
past in their eagernessto contend that
and
of capitalism that
difficult
latters'
discussion
Age
The
Empire.
have
concepts
of
of
entered the
we
In
such as the virtual, singulanties and e-,-cnt is weak. an eagernessto remain strict
boats
burned
havc
Negri
Hardt
their
in advance of sailing.
may
and
materialists,
B\- refusing to take seriously the pre-individual nature of concepts like singularlt\-,
In
They
becomings.
historN-,
the
too
actual.
rooted in
are
they sidc with
not with
living
iance
to
their
their
alle91
in
anaIN-sis;
thcy
anthropocentric
remain
addition
labour means thcý- cannot comprehend Deleuze and Guattari's unnatural and
labour;
h,,
This
it
the
to
importance
of
-Ing
is
question
not
rhizomorphic concepts.
different
waý, transvcrsally.
is rather to approach it in a
75
EMBRACI\G
DIFFERENCE
Traditional oppositional class divisions have collapsed. The labour
market is
traversed by all sorts of divisions and the tertiary sector has become ever more
dominant. The fragility and insecurity that permeates the mass
of society is
especially pronounced in the caseof groups like the unemployed, the satis-p7pier,
ý,
contract
or
temporary
workers, enslaved workers and the chronically
marginalised. Guattari agrees that we need a n-unimurn social guarantee (1985b:
128), but he goes further. Rather than solely focusing on living labour he
develops the concept of the machine. Machines produce heterogeneousum-,
-crses
of references,resisting the homogenesis of capitalist subjectwit\'.
For Guattari it is precisely through this idea of a constructed, productive and
desire
that is pre-personal and machinic that we can create a 'way out'.
artificial
He says "Desire appears to me as a processq1' siqulan.sah.on, as a point of
proliferation and creation of the possible in the heart of a constituted system.
These processes can pass through the stages of marginality, of becon-ungsthat
disengage
"becoMings-Minor"
(1985b:
128).
the
are
nucleus of singularity"
which
This event surges,imperceptible, an atmospheric mutation, changing the field of
discussed
Life.
Earlier
I
the prnnacy given to the external
possibility, subjectivity,
does
has
Deleuze's
that
the
not
relation
a reality of its own
relation in
work;
depend on pre-existing terms. It engenders terms. This is the process that
Guattari articulates.
By describing the mechanisms of societies of control, Hardt and Negri inspire
both vigilance and wariness when confronted with the plea to simply affirm
difference. The temptation to automatically attribute a revolutionary status to
by
heterogeneity
that
the
thwarted
the
awareness
is
rhizome
or
as
concepts such
This
how
universal transmutation or
this is precisely
societies of control operate.
fan-fflN-,
that
brings
werc
army
and
school,
as
together
such
arenas,
modulation
directed
Capitalism
toward
communication
is
increasingly
separated.
previously
"The
the
integrate
industries
communications
technologies.
and lnt-()rmation
fabric,
blopolitical
them
putting
merely
not
the
imaginary and the sý,mbohc within
functioning"
but
them
its
into
N-erýintegrating
actually
power
the
of
sei-N-ice
at
76
EMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
(2000: 15). It invests He from Nvithin. But a constant reminder
failure of this system is that "capitalism still keeps three
of the ed-lical
quarters of humanity in
extreme poverty, too poor to have debts and too numerous to be confined:
control will have to deal not only with vanishing frontiers, but with mushrooming
shantytowns and ghettos" (Deleuze, 1990b: 181). There is a myth of Me market
that is universal amongst neo-hberal theorists. In fact there are many markets
in
sustained
concordance through power formations. Other
modes of
valorisation are dominated by ffie economic mode of valorisation and production
for the sakeof production.
Hardt and Negri are inconclusive once they feel compelled to suggest how new
modes of subjectification can be generated in the era of global capitalism. By
depriving themselves of an Outside, they flounder in hope that Empire's crises
will proffer more spacesof resistance,more vacuoles in a suffocating infusion of
capitalism into the entirety of the social space.
This disappearance of an Outside, the possible of the possible, makes it
difficult
how
Hardt and Negri's sporadic examplescan offer any
to
extremely
see
Empire,
dialectic
"The
to
resistance
or global integrated capitalism.
modern
of
has
been
by
degrees
intensities,
inside and outside
play
replaced
a
of
and
of
hybridity and artificiality" (2000: 187-8). However, the radicality of a philosophy
but
is
the
notion of an immanent movement
of immanence not just centred on
fuel
Gathering
the
of intensive
concerns the immanence qJ' immanence.
discontent will not blast through the remit of capitalism in the manner they
has
After
the unnatural capacity to always include
all, if capitalism
suggest.
And
draws
it
this is
within it the point where it is challengedmost.
another axiom,
folds
It
their
philosophy and capitalism
account.
what worries me the most about
blurred
becoming
deterritorialisation,
the
two
onto one another as movements of
Spinoza's
What
the
thq call
concept
mysticism of
and \-lrtuaU)-indistinguishable.
from
differentiates
factor
fact
bealitudo
that
phflosophý.
the vcrýcapitalism
is in
of
Capitalism is a relative deterritorialisation, while philosophy is an absolute
deterritoriahsation.
t
EMBRACING
DIFFEREMT
There is an implicit eN-olutionismand ethnocentrism in Hardt
and Negri's account
partially because thq
see the progress through historý- as one of increasing
improvements in the lot of humankind (even if these are not immediately
evident), and partially because a residual Marxist teleology gives them an
faith
that the contradictions of the system will resolve themseh-es
unwarranted
eventually all for the best. Unlike Deleuze and Guattari they do not have a
conception of metastability that, contrary to the notion of a realifablepossible,
develops the conception of a field of potentiality engendering a disparity in
a
system, opening up other possibilities that may be actualised. There was no
inevitability to the path of history that led us to our present situation, and nor is a
better future guaranteed.It must be constructed.
Although I agree that diversity and difference are superficially celebrated býcapitalism, this is no cause to abandon a positivisation of difference. I want to
reconfigure the question in order to consider not Just human difference and
diversity but a philosophical conception of difference that will enable us to think
the pre-individual and transindividual; in other words, the non-human becomings
develop
human.
Whilst
the
they
to
a conception of the cyborg or
of
attempt
human/machine coupling, Hardt and Negri do not sufficiently explore this aspect
important
humanism.
Finally
I
'anti-human
to
their
address one more
want
of
from
This
feet
Guattarl.
laid
be
Deleuze
the
comes
and
at
of
criticism that can
Alain Badiou.
7
EMBRACING
DIFFERENCE
11-viii. the changing whole of the face of capitalism
As converter and capturer, the State does not just relativize movement, it
reimparts absolute movement. It does not just go from the smooth to the
striated, it reconstitutes smooth space; it reimparts smooth in the wake of the
striated. It is true that this new nomadism accompanies a worldwide war
machine whose organization exceeds the State apparatuses and passes into
energy, military-industrial,
and multinational complexes. We say this as a
reminder that smooth space and the form of exteriority do not have an
irresistible revolutionary calling but change meaning drastically depending on
the interactions they are a part of and the concrete conditions of their exercise
or establishment [ ...]
Gilles Deleuze and F6hx Guattari, A ThousandPlateaus.(1980: 387).
When Bachou criticises Deleuze's 'Bergsonian' philosophy his underlying concern
is, I believe, his suspicion of a complicitous relationship between capitalism and
philosophy. Deleuze and Guattari are aware of the risks of this ethics of
difference,
'smooth
(or
the
that
experimentation and show in
above quote
space'
heterogeneity
for
that matter) cannot be automatically valorised.
rhizomes, and
One has to examine the specific conditions of the functioning of different
hooks
bell
1
The
In
allegation of complicity is a serious one. chapter
assemblages.
difference.
Given
Deleuze
Gilroy
Paul
the
commodification of
warned us of
and
he
functionalist
his
touts
a
understanding of
philosophy is practical maintains
by
his
'
'does
own ideas not only captured
it work? - are
philosophy asking always
but
do
they consolidate its potent reigný
the movements of capitalism,
Deleuze and Badiou both try to think the event. The event, as we know, is coIt
Deleuze's
marks a
work.
tern-unous with a space of transformation in
from,
yet paradoxically subsisting
qualitative change in a system escaping
from
from
derives
Badiou's
Event
history.
the
than
theory,
rather
set
alongside,
differential calculus Deleuze is so fond of Like Das Diiia,it is the Unnameable or
be
It
Undecidable.
made coherent in retrospect and it marks a
can only
the
laugh'
'A
The
French
44
is
definite rupture in a sý-stem
eN-ent.
is
an
revolution
.
banality
Deleuze's
despite
the
Yet,
of
conception
the
of
apparent
certainly not.
44See the thoughful article entitled 'Stellar Void or Cosmic Animal' bN Raý Brassier on the
Badiou Delcuze relation and the Badioudian concept of the e\ ent as rupture79
E,'MBRACING
DIFFERENCE
event, this concept can, as we will see, be put to radical work.
Badiou describes Deleuze as a philosopher of the
Onevirtual; a thinker of the
All. The B ergson-inspired concept of virtual multiplicity
different
recurs in
guises
throughout Deleuze's and Guattari's work. In Cinema1: TbejAlovement-lmq
83)
(19
e
,g
Deleuze develops a concept of the Whole as Relation, as the Open. The \N,'hole
does not attempt to unify fragments, it does not totalise, "if the
Nvholeis not
giveable it is becauseit is the Open, and becauseits nature is to change constantly,
or to give rise to something new, in short, to endure" (1983: 9). The almost
kaleidoscopic ever-changing continuum of Deleuze's philosophy appears,at first
glance, to resemble the movements of capitalism. The open system of capitalism
seems to replace the relatively closed system of the State where unity was
imposed. But a closer examination reveals that all is not as it seems.
In the logic of sets an element is either included or it is not. A logic of virtual
delineation
fuzzy.
A virtual multiplicm, as an c\-cnt or
multiplicities makes such
I
haecceity then bears a peculiar relationship to the actual; as incorporeal it is
eternal and singular, yet irreversible.
Badiou seemsto wonder whether Deleuze's concept of the event leavesus bereft
like
No
the
system.
event can enter
a void slicing
of any possibility of rupturing
through social reality tn=*'cking a Luclo Fontana painting, providing an absolute
Anish
beginning
Deleuze's
event resembles rather
all at once.
end and absolute
Kapoor's extraordinary blue void sculpture entrapping the eye, confounding
Deleuze
In
this
way,
works with the concept of virtual
space and time, seducing.
for
figure
from
Bergson,
key
to try to
out the conditions
inheritance
multiplicity, a
distortion
however,
Badiou,
this
is a
the production of the new
would argue that
One-AH.
Deleuze,
the
philosopher of
of
Brassier's reading of the Deleuze/Badiou encounter arrivcs at a damning
Deleuze's
He
that
pHosophising
su&gests
conclusion.
disgwses a pohtical
2()-);
Capital"
(2000:
"transcendent
an
of
the
sox-creignty
global
with
covenant
80
E-MBRACIXG
DIFFEREXCE
allegation I made with regard to Hardt and '-,,,egn. He asks whether an ethics of
amorjýfi, mimicking the self-affirmation of the One, can preclude resistanceto the
processes of deterritorialisation of global integrated capitahsmý Moreover, ho-\-\,
can a 'relative' deterritoriahsation of Capital be distinguished from the 'absolute'
deterritorialisation of philosophyý "Does Capital merely mime the lo 91
ic of
1
nomadic distribution or does nomadic distribution in fact mime the logic of
Capital?" (Brassier, 2000: 208-9). The ascesisof the purified automaton may in
fact be participating in th-isgeneralisedmachinic enslavement.An apologia for the
status quo appears embedded in this reading of Deleuze. Equivocal plurality
be
to
appears
sacrificed on the altar of univocitNý
In A ThousandPlateaus,Deleuze and Guattari describe a multiplicity as rhizomatic
flat.
defined
by
deterritorialisation
line
flight.
But
It
and
is
or a
of
what marks the
difference between multiplicity and capitalism? Is not capitalism the multiplic'Mý
,
differences,
spreading its tentacles and creating
par excellence, cross-feeding
do
Guattari
Deleuze
Why
the
throughout
continue to
and
globe?
connections
ferocity
given it is the very exerciseof the operations
resist capitalism with such
fall
Guattari's
Deleuze
Does
deterritorialisation
that they applaud?
and
work
of
fighting
the wrong enemy?
the
trap
into
of
Although
Hardt
Negri
and
form
the
that
new
argue
of
domination,
do
'societies
they
not
of control', operates in a smooth space,
corresponding to
by
Deleuze
different
and
readings of smooth space suggested
explore the
An-nin
Samir
draw
Guattari
Deleuze
Negri,
Hardt
in
Guattari. Like
upon
and
and
'ecumenical
develop
itself
spreading
organisation'
their
an
idea
of
to
order
does
This
formations.
diverse
not
ecumenical organisation
through a
set of social
but
the
homogenise,
the
of
takes
consistenc\totahse,
it
on
or
progressively
diverse. However, this movement also spawnsits own marginal groups, what the)45
'Nvar
machineS'.
call
The objection
A
homogetusation
of
that international capitalism tends toward a
I-ýA concept affiliated to the idea of the nomos that I will discuss later.
81
E'MBRACING
DIFFERENCE
social formations is responded to by Deleuze and Guattan in the following
manner: insofar as capitalism constitutes an axiomatic (in terms of production for
the market) States and all other social formations tend to become "I*SOvioiph1*(
in
their capacity as models of realization
(1980: 436). However, isomorphy is
not the same as homogeneity. Capitalism always surpassesthe State in terms of its
sheer power to tolerate (and encourage)a process of deterritorialisation. States"in
capitalism, are not cancelled out but change form and take on a new meaning:
models of realization for a world-wide axiomatic that exceeds them" (454). The
State moderates the deterritorialisation of capital.
Contemporary features of power direct our attention to the micro-operations that
modulate and normalise language, desire, movement, and so on. The birth of
'societies of control' does not alleviate but aggravates the intensity of these
operations of subjection and enslavement. However, becausecapitalism operates
basis
does
kind
the
the
on
of an axiomatics, it
not occupy
of smooth space that
Hardt and Negri argue it does. An axiomatics is a way of ordering and stemming
lines of flight and mastering the flows of the soclus; this is why Deleuze and
Guattari call capitalism a 'relative deterritorialisation'.
"Capitalism confronts its own limits and simultaneouslydisplacesthem" (Deleuze
by
The
1980:
463).
Guattarl,
exertion of pressure consumerand progressive
and
least
led
(at
has
to the
nominal) inclusion of an ethical/environmental
movements
However
the pressuresof pollution, water scarcity and
axiom in recent years.
over-population may prove irrecuperablein the next century.
Axioms operate by containing and centralising the living flows of the soclus,
however these flows also escape to the periphery and present irresolvable
fought
be
battles
This
the
for
at
two
one
must
is
the
why
axiomatic.
problems
level of the axioms as different groups look for recognition and representation,
to
transform
this
thesis)
(the
seeks
in
which
most
that
us
concerns
one
and one
do
develop
that
pre-existent
rest
on
not
existence
of
modes
ncN-,
qualitatively
and
lead
to
The
the
conclude
reader
the
not
should
on
second
emphasis
identities.
E-'\IBR. -kCl-",,,
'G DII, 1ýFRENCE
that struggles for recognition of identities are peripheral or passý.As Deleuze and
Guattari would say, these are concerned Nvithhiston-, but the latter are concerned
with becomings. However, we are only ever presented with mixtures. It is not a
matter of choosing one at the expenseof the other.
"Our age is becoming the age of minorities" (Deleuze and Guattarl, 1980: 469).
A minority is not numerically less than a majority, but reveals a disparity or gap
with a norm. One can envisage a situation where the numerical majority of a
population could be marginalised and disenfranchised (as occurred during the
South African era of apartheid) and hence be a minority. Minorities have a special
relationship With the notion
of
becoming, because minorities promote
compositions that elude the grasp of both capitalist economy and State. The),
be
to
refuse
put in their place. Deleuze and Guattari reiterate that a struggle on
the level of the axioms is important for women, regional economies or oppressed
but
few
to
minorities,
name
a
examples. However, when minorities express
demands that cannot be met on the level of the axioms then the disparity with a
becomes
It
taut
tense.
majoritarian standard
more
and
creates a metastability; a
situation
of
disequilibrium.
In chapter 5, we will
learn how a becoming-
hVing
flows
bound
Nhnorities
that
are
n-linoritarian is
up with a ('reatedpossible.
escape the axiomatic of capital.
The conditions for a worldwide movement are to be found in the minorities
fuzzy
These
they
multiplicities,
are
minorities are non-denumerable;
everywhere.
It
the
majoritarian standards. is not sufficient to add axioms,
always escaping
although tactically this is important in terms of women's rights, rights of asylum
The
in
not
just
consists
the
challenge
so
on.
and
unemployed
rights
of
seekers,
disparlt\-,
but
this
occurs
and
gap,
a
a
in
opening
up
the
system,
majority
opposing
(471).
formulate
their
problems
own
when people articulate and
Deleuze and Guattarl contend that it is this disparity, this tension, that is
'nunontarian
by
that
new
engender
the
capital
of
axiornatics
created
paradoxically
denumerable
"dorrunant
destroying
by
It
the
the
of
eqwhbnum
is
aggregates'.
83
E'MBRACING
DIFFERENCE
sets" (472) that a mass becomes revolutionam
This power of the non-
denumerable is specific to the minority. In this way the minority, regardless of
how many members it has, is always a multiplicity. The system creates its own
outside' by multiplying the lines of flight which create transversal links bem-een
singular problems. This is the Undecidable that forms part of every system of
axiomatics. In What is Philosophj?Deleuze and Guattari emphasise,in a way they
had not done before, the relation between resistance and becoming (1991a: 10910). Here creation is understood as resistance.
They argue that the notion of minority is very complex with all sorts of
resonancessuch as political, musical and literary. A majority holds the standard of
measure and assumespower and domination. Majority appearstwice: once in the
from
Deleuze
the
the
constant, and once in
it
extracts
variable
constant.
which
Guattari
Nobody,
it
and
view as an abstract standard, always
while rMnonty is the
becoming of everybody, "everyone's potential becoming to the extent that one
deviates from the model" (1980: 105). Specifying these distinctions further they
describe the majoritarian standard as a constant and homogeneous system (aswe
becomingTully's
work) and minorities are subsystems, whereas a
saw in
So
beconuing"
(106).
is
"potential,
although
creative and created,
mi*notitan'an a
be
definable,
"they
be
have
must also
identities and
objectively
minorities may
becoming
thought of as seeds,crystals of
whose value is to trigger uncontrollable
Because
(106).
deterritorializations
the
mean or majonty"
of
movements and
logic
develop
of
a
minorities encourage new transversal connections, they also
Domination.
Power
the
and
realm of
multiplicities, of potenlia,that challenges
but
different
the gathering of
A logic of multiplicities concerns
multiplicities,
heterogeneous components into an assemblageoften involves a specific type of
be
This
cannot
multiplicitIT
multiplicim
the
or
virtual
intensive
multiphcmý;
The
initial impetus
divided or add another element without changing in nature.
Although
from
Bergson.
beheN-e,
I
in
for such a philosophical construct comes,
Bergson
If-'ill
1ýree
Tilll(,
with
concerned
speaking,
is,
strictly
and
the context of
'nk
th'
thi
ill"
to
about
instructive
is
it
still
this
concept,
psychology -,N-henmapping
84
EMBRACING
DIFFEREENCE
fuzzy multiplicity as he does. Emotions
be
divided,
heated
cannot
a
anger cannot
be halved into a moderate
annoyance. This is ,x-hat he calls a quahtative
multiplicity. It is chfferential, consistent and irreducible. In terms of
deterritorialisation, this marks
a qualitative transformation of a given
situation/ assemblage. On the other hand, one can cut up a square of cardboard,
compare parts and put it back together without changing the nature of that
multiplicity. With sheer simplicity Guattari provides the comparison of a heap of
stones (a numerical or quantitative multiplicity) and a dry stone wall (that as it is
organised both selects and discriminates, excludes and includes) wl-lich he would
qualify as a heterogeneous multiplicity hooking up With A
components (farn-Aand,ramblers, domestic animals,weeds ).
sorts of other
Deleuze and Guattari's philosophy can be synopsised as a logic of multiplicities.
The concepts of numerical and virtual multiplicities are scattered throughout
all
the corners of their works. In A ThousatidPlateausthey distinguish between
smooth and striated space. The gridding and division of space effected by the
State is counterposed to the nomad war machine such as that of the Mongol
hordes which does not divide spacebut distributes itself in space,cropping up as
if
from
Operations
nowhere.
of
standardisation and umforn-usation are
by
becoMings-nunor.
A
don-unant
language
beset
unravelled
or official
is alwaý-s
by subterranean dialects, patois and literary innovations. This distinction between
the continuous variation of a virtual multiplicity and the relative standardisation
of the numerical multiplicity is then instructive ethico-politically.
Their concept of the assemblagerelates to that of a virtual multiplicity since it
difference,
held
heterogeneous
together
their
in
not as a
components
concerns
The
but
their
their
through
symbioses.
abstract relations;
set of elements,
different
modes of association and alliance is an ethico-political
possibilities of
This
other understanding of power as
question, constituting an etho-ontology.
for
potentiacompounds our capacities
existing and thinking in a relational manner.
85
EMBRACING
ll. ix.
mechanism
DIFFERENCE
or machinism?
The implications of Deleuze's machinic philosophy
are serious. For Badiou, they
mean we can, at no time, be the source of what -,N-cthink or what we do, but
everything always comes from afar, from the infinite and inhuman reservoir of
the One (1997: 9-13). The Deleuzean automaton is, according to Badiou,
traversed by the power of this inorganic life and the most pure choice is
henceforth the most automatic one, the one where we are stripped of our
individuality and humanity when faced with this Outside. We are chosen. We do
fate,
not choose our
as in philosophies of representation (11).
This idea of the purified automaton is found, according to Bachou,in Deleuze's
his
(1985a),
second cinema book on the TheTime-Ima
this reading is
in
ge
and
vie-\x-,
,
much closer to Deleuze's true perspective than the desiring machines of 1968. To
think is thus no longer a personal capacity. (And ethics appears to constitute
nothing other than radical passivity.) If we read the chapter entitled 'Thought and
Cnema' carefully we discover that this idea of the spiritual automaton (inspired
initially by Spinoza) is primarily concerned with the contention that thinking is a
have
begun
Heidegger,
'we
Paraphrasing
to think'.
not yet
shock.
This automaton is presented by Badiou as a sIMUlacrum without any relation to
'outside'
from
Although
the
external world, a more profound
cut off
others.
The
128).
1997:
(Badiou,
principle animating the automaton is nothing
animates it
forced
We
force,
think.
to
the
this
are
always
than
outside.
of
element
other
Yet contrary to Badiou's understanding of the spiritual automaton, tl-lis notion
does not mean we are necessarily passive. It constructs a conception of the
hurnan that is open to its non-human becomings. The human is thus reconceived
from
reality, and
as relational and parv iialitrae,rather than abstracted
dominatorial. This is an ethics as experimentation, that invents the potentials and
Deleuze
fires
fuel
humans.
Foisting
the
becon-nngsof
repeatsthe
critics,
on the
()f
his
latest
his
from
kind
to
earliest
of
a
that
constitutes
ethics
einiorfiiii
an
notion
86
F-MBRACING
DIFFERENCE
works.
In the 'Twenty- first series of the Event', Deleuze
contemplates the -,toic concept
of the event in detail, arguing that this is a "question of becoming a citizen of the
(1969:
148). Ethics means nothing other than "not to be un,,vorthy ot
world"
happens
to us" (149). If we blame someone or something else for our
what
misfortunes and sufferings, we slip into ressentiment.
Instead we need to xvill the
event in order to release its eternal truth. We then affirm something in that which
We
occurs.
must counter-actualise or counter-effectuate the event, making it our
46
own.
In his final book with Guattari, Deleuze reiterates "There is no other ethic than
the amorfi7fi of philosophy" (1991a: 159). Again ethics is equated vvith beconuing
equal to the event, and againJoe Bousquet is quoted, "my wound existed before
born
I
to embody it" (159). Extracting the virtual from a state of affairs
me; was
is to counter- effectuate the event by isolating its concept.
lines
deny
these
to
the
superficial
reading
of
seem
would
possibility
of
N-cry
.\
An
etl-iics.
unguarded cruelty appears to persist in Deleuze's words, as though
be
however
to
though
must
subrratted
suffering
and affirmed,
not challenged,
Taking
Spinoza
through
such a reading is simplistic.
our journey
and through
Simondon and Deleuze, we find that this ethics does not entail a radical passivity,
but rather an openness toward the future and a practice of constructivism. This
love of fate is not an acceptanceof a predetermined natural and moral order, but
is concerned with cultivating the capacity to work with the materials and
be,
distasteful
they
in order to create other modes of
may
as
circumstances,
existence.
I agreethat if we abstract the above lines from the overall pro)ect embarked upon
bv Delcuzc (including his Nvorkwith Guattari) it may ,vell appear that all Nvecan
46 For some thinkers the logical conclusion of this is that the conditions of thought are
hopes
be
byPersonal
the
effecti%elý
put
can
concerns, needs and
purified and sober.
Ieton
Ea,,,,
by
Badiou
is
least
(at
the
this
amongst others).
and
suggestion
ayside
87
E2\IBRACING
DIFFERENCE
do is accept our fate as pregiven and predestined. Our only hope would be to
make contact with the impersonal Life (and impossible Death) that constitutes
being.
But such a reading would be in bad faith. ,Jmor.lýiti entails affirming
our
something in that which happens to us, not affirming cverything that happens to
It
us.
also involves creating the conditions for the production of the ne-\N-;a
Repetition.
repetition of the different, as Deleuze arguesin Dý#ýren('e
and
"To believe, not in a different world, but in a link between man and the world, in
love or life, to believe in this as in the impossible, the unthinkable, which none
the less cannot but be thought: 'something possible, otherwise I will suffocate...
(1985a: 170). The modern fact is, for Deleuze, that we no longer believe in this
"it
looks
like
bad
film"
Serres
(171).
Like
the
to
is
world;
world which
says,
us
a
this link with the world has been broken and we need a faith to attach (reliaare)us
to the world once more.
The distinction between absolute and relative deterritorialisation then becomes a
difference
between
It
'hnuit'
the
involves
crucial one.
a conceptual
and the
'threshold'. "Mhe
limit
designates the penultimate marking a necessary
rebeginning, and the threshold the ultimate marking an inevitable change"
(Deleuze and Guattari, 1980: 438). Absolute deterritorialisation expresses a
different
ftom
(509).
Relative
that
is qlialitalhely
relative movement
movement
deterritoralisation is a movement that is alwaysblocked or curtailed. Deleuze and
Guattari repeat that absolute deterritorialisation brings about the creation of a
99),
'utopia'
510,1991a:
(1980:
to
the
of the
suggesting it is close
new earth
Frankfurt School, and Adorno's 'negative dialectic' (1991a: 99).
Since capitahsm operates through an immanent axiomatic movement of
dcterritorialisation, and since Deleuze's subject of ethics is a spiritual automaton
happens
it,
in
to
the onIN ption might appear
that
ýg111everything
affirming
1-0
by
be
adopting a stance of
to surrender to this inevitable movement either
to
Yet,
jubilant
tempered
a
is
always
capitahsm
immersion.
or
enfightened cynicism
for
fosters
Marx's
(as
the potential
theorý) inadvertently
in
proccss, and it
88
FMM--ýCIXG
DIFFERENCE
resistance because it needs to create minimal spacesof liberty and creativit-\' to
prevent it from becorrung entropic. The difficulty facing us is to harness the
forces of deterritorialisation of capitalism in fields such as science, technology
and the media in order to develop different forms of struggle against the
repressions and material bondage that accompany capitalism. This involves a
revaluation of values. These resistancesmust be constructed - they will not spring
forth e-x-liiklo. The qualitative transformation that accompanies passing a
threshold is thus distinguished from the relative displacement of the limits of
capitalism.
Spinoza wrote during a burgeoning era of capitalism in Holland, but he could not
be expected to foresee the mutations of finance capitalism and the prospect of
his
liberation
Does
integrated
world
capitalism.
ethics of
inadvertently collude in
this movement of relative deterritorialisation or does it indeed prON-idethe
for
the production of novelty and the unforeseeable?This question
conditions
Or
the
this
thesis:
the
informs
rest of
can philosophy escape
clutches of capital?
does it meander in a creative continuum reinforcing and affirming rather than
rupturing the movements of capitalism?
89
SPINOZA:
IIIJ.
THE GOD-INTOXICATEDMAN
ethics and immanence
It may be that believing in this world, in this life, becomes our most difficult
task, or the task of a mode of existence still to be discovered on our plane of
immanence today. This is the empiricist conversion [ ]
...
D eleuze and Guattarl, If"hat is Philosoply?(1991a: 75).
It may come as some surprise to find the word 'transcendence' used in an
accusatory manner in the next few pages, whilst immanence is presented as
having
be
Why
this
the case?Nietzsche said,
intrinsic
verging on
an
value.
should
"Moral judgement has this in common with religious judgement that it believes in
realities which do not exist" (1889: §1,55). Deleuze and Guattan likewise say that
believe
be
forms
to
this
to
the
need
in
we
of
world, urging us
aware of
transcendence (often of theological origin) that shape our lives and thoughts.
They go on to make an ontological claim concerning this idea of immanence,
based
know.
The
'pure
than
rather
ontology'
a critical claim
upon what we can
that they delineate can also be called an ethics (Deleuze, 2/12/80).
This ethics is described as a way of evaluating (and not judging) immanentmodes
'increase
that
terms
of effectuating compositions of relations
of existence in
in
hand,
hence
*oy).
MorahtN-,
(and
the
is presented
on
other
powers of activity
terms of an absolutism that pays no attention to the singular essencesof the
humans it compels to obedience.47Spinoza's systemis not basedupon a model of
dualism.
With
finds
an anti-Cartesian
a resonancein mind/body
obedience which
flourish Spinoza assertsthat the mind does not subjugate the body. The mind is
but the idea of the body. The opposition between ethics and Nlorahtý-explicitly
few
the
chapters.
next
and implicitly informs
Obeying requires one to imagine a body more powerful than oneself Obedience
47Pierre Bourdieu asks *who has an interest in the universaIT (1990: 3 1). By explaining the
longer
fields,
in
different
forms
the
the
universal no
of
universal
genesis or emergence of
dedicated
Nietzsche's
to
formal
recritical
philosophy
was
olýjective.
and
appears neutral,
Genealogv
1foralitY
On
(1887).
for
See,
thc
qf
example,
eNraluating all values.
.
90
SPINOZA: THE GOD-I-NTOXICATED
-MAN
thus rests upon impotence.411The sovereign state is a machine to produce
obedience. Drawing on Antonio Negri (1981), 1 Nvant to continue to use a
working distinction between potentia and Potestaj49
to illustrate the difference
between tl-iis conception of an absolute in-imanent movement and that
of an order
that is superposed. The assemblagesthat we are a part of can diminish our
capacities for acting or enhance them. This idea is key to Spinoza's EMit's.
The hylomorphic operation transmits a sense that matter is not active, not
self-
organising with emergent properties, and to this extent it fits in well with our
distinction between Potestasand potenfia.The former case refers to the
way in
which a power (ýotenfia)can be separatedfrom its capacitý-to act. Spinoza differs
hugely from Hobbes in this regard since he does not seethe political arrangement
as one of command and obedience but one, rather, of facilitation of natural
rights.50Differences between beings are then quantitative in terms of power, and
qualitative in terms of modes of existence.
Yet, as Lloyd and Gatens remind us, we also need to create better collective
forms
do
that
imaginings of
of social organisation
not stifle the potentl.aor power
We
Tully's
1.
this
of people.
saw an example of
in
work in chapter
natural right and power
Rather than idealising humans, Spinoza develops a relational conception of
humans as they are betýomin
from
building
hi
He
is
g.
a political realist
s philosophy
,
these flawed materials. But if, as Spinoza suggests,we do not even know what a
body can do, how can we possibly invent (not fulfil in an Aristotelian manner)
48See Etienne Balibar (1985).
491 find it a useful and strategic distinction in this context, although I disagree with Negri's
idea
Potestas
links
the
that
of
NvIthan organisational role of the attributes, a role
argument
fie contends is dispensed of NvhenSpinoza begins writing the second half of the Ethics. For a
Pierre
Macherey
The
ý(n,
Negri's
(1982-3).
see
ageAnomaly
good critique of
50Given the critiques of theories of rights initiated by Henry Shue who calls for a correlatiý,e
duty or responsibility. and my own criticisms of the Rawlsian theory of rights, it is
important to stress that Spinoza's theory of right is expressly framed in terms of power as
for
describe
I
this
the
our ideas about relationallt, %throughout
of
ramifications
potentia. Nvill
this chapter.
91
SPINOZA- THE GOD-INTOXICATED
MAN
modes of existence that increase our powers of acting, of affecting and being
affected? With Spinoza, ethics regains an Aristotelian, Stoic and Epicurean
resonance emphasising practices and modes of h\-ing. The principles of the good
life cannot, however, be demarcatedin ad\-ance.
Spinoza has read Hobbes,
Hobbesian
proposition
he
and
constructs
his idea of natural right from
the
that things are not defined by their essence or obligations,
but instead by their power. Hobbes
says that this means we have the right to do
all that we are able to in this dog-eat-dog world (homo homi*nibous est). These rights
are curtailed
brutish
because life under such conditions
The
and short.
purpose
would
be solitary, poor, nastN',
of the social contract
is to temper our \-lolent
propensities.
Unlike Lee Rice, I contend that Spinoza does not fit the category of possessive
individualist and nor is he a precursor of libertarianism, the harbinger of a radical
individualism (1990: 274).51 As Nietzsche rightly points out, Spinoza is nonegoistic; moreover he does not believe someone could want something for
herself Without wanting it for others.
For Spinoza, a social contract does not entail curbing natural rights but fostering
them. The tint that Spinoza places upon the idea of power as t-onatiis
paints a very
different picture to that of Hobbes. It is entirely stripped of the will to donuinate,
or a paranolacal compulsion to conserve power. It is an expression of openness.
In Spinoza's view, man is a god for man (hominemhomini'Deumesse)(IN'. pr. 35.
homine
(homo
),
(IN".
to
than
man
man
sch. and nothing is more useful
nihil
iltifiils)
he
by
desires
Amazingly,
18.
).
that
if
is
pr.
claims
one governed
reason, one
sch.
for another what one desiresfor oneself However, he warns correspondingly that
harmful
If
to
than
they are subject to passions,
man.
man
nothing is more
humans neither agree with themselves nor with one another. Hatred erupts in
iI In a thoughtful discussion on this matter. Gatens and Lloyd (1999: 20-22) also challenue
Antonio
Negri
Etienne
Balibar
Spinoza.
Theý
individualist
turn
to
to
and
reading of
an
dynamic
account of the relation of indi\ idual and collective whereb\ unit\
more
articulate a
126).
(
than
thought
opposed
viewpoints
rather
as
reciprocal
of
are
and multiplicity
92
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
MAN
particular when they are isolated.
According to Deleuze (3/5/77), the relationship between Ontology and political
for
key
Spinoza,
Spinoza's
Moreover,
Machiavelli
to
philosophy was
work.
unlike
Hobbes,
and
ethics and politics were not altogether separated. (Politics is onlý
he
because
needed,
says,
people are not Wise.) Deleuze argues that philosopl-ýies
One
be
from
hierarchy
One
the
tend
to
that
the
of
imposing
moves
emanative,
a
to Being and then to beings. A pure ontology, on the other hand, repudiates
hierarchy. It is not difficult to perceive a political motivation here. This world of
degrees
beings
have
immanence is one in which all
of power.
an intrinsic value, as
The way Spinoza's naturalist philosophy develops this concept of power (in terms
different
potentia)
introduces a very
of
way of understanding the individual and the
how
I
this operates in the context of
process of individuation.
WiH show
Spinoza's Ethks later in this chapter.
III. iii. rights, duties and powers
A free man thinks of death least of all things, and his wisdom is a meditation of
life and not of death.
Homo liber de nulld re minus,qu,ým de motietqgilat, eý-ýiiis sapentianon modis,sei viltie
medilatioest.
Baruch Spinoza, Elbics.(IV pr. 67).
different
begin
I
At this juncture,
to weave together a number of
will
Badiou,
I
to
First
sketch
the
to
want
of
criticisms
in
response
of
all,
problematics.
being
idea
faithful
Deleuze
and'\vIi)the
to
of
univocal
that
is
the
reasons
some of
this is important.
hierarchical
Deleuze is warý- of any attempts to introduce a
His
degraded
leave
Beings
shadow.
this
mere
a
world
that
would
order of
difference.
described
distmictive
terms
of
in
one,
is
a
univocity
understanding of
has
before
difference
difference
It
His concept of difference is the
q/'difference,
bccn subordinated to comparative categories such as resemblance and identity.
SP1\0ZA:
THE GOD - INTO-',, - ICATED
ý
-NIA-N,
Difference is affirmation, and as the difference q1-difference it is relational-,
Deleuze calls it an intensive quantity. In the next two chapters I will explicate
these concepts in greater detail, and show how they link with Spinoza's
philosophy of power (poletitia)which is also described in terms of intensive
quantities.
Deleuze says, "With univocity, however, it is not the differences which are and
be:
being
difference"
Difference
the
that
must
it is
is
in
it is said of
which
sense
(1968a: 39). When Spinoza's substance is read as sirnply self-identical and
blinkered
dynamic
I
to
immobile, we are
its
and creative nature. want to argue,
through Deleuze's writings and seminars and the work of Pierre Macherq, that
Spinoza's philosophy is one that can account for processesof individuation and
by
Through
Simondon,
Deleuze
this
project,
singularisation.
will radicalise
developing a conception of immanence that rests upon the idea of metastability, a
Spinoza's
disequilibrium.
In
this
immanent cause and the
system of
way
Naturata
Natura
(Natured
Naturans
Nature)
Natura
(Naturing
and
relationship of
Nature)
linked
be
29)
to the idea of a transcendental
revitalised and
pr.
will
empiricism.
But what has all this to do with ethics? By developing an alternative account of
from
bad.
distin
ishing
good
gul
the individual, we also map another way of
Centuries after Spinoza's death, Nietzsche would proclaim excitedly in a postcard
have
I
"I
Overbeck,
friend
Franz
his
a
to
am utterly amazed, utterly enchanted.
five
but
[...
]
knew
Spinoza
hardly
I
the
main
in
pir, 71r,
precursor!
a
and
what
m-,
loneliest
thinker
doctrine
I
his
this
and
most
unusual
myself;
recognise
points of
freedom
denies
he
the
the
will,
of
these
matters:
M
to
precisely
me
is closest
1,
189
20
July
(Letter
of
teleology, the moral world order, the unegoistic, and evil"
ftec
Spinoza's
105).
terms
1989b:
of
Yovel,
in
ethics
of
conception
quoted in
Fran-uing
difficult
an
ethics
(libera
idea.
important
and
is
a
liet,essitas)
necessM,
ftankly
to
many,
nonsensical
seem
could
or
evil
good
of
\x,itliout an\, conception
butt
Nietzsche's
Spinoza
of
but not to Nietzsche. Nonetheless,
still remains the
God
'shado,
keeping
him
transcendent
the
a
Nietzsche
of
\ý-s'
of
accuses
poleirlics.
94
ýPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
MAN
ahve.52
Unlike Kant and Hegel, Spinoza does not feel
compel-ledto make his philosophý
human centred and anti-naturahstic (Yovel, 1989b: 7). It
for
this reason that his
is
ethics remains anomalous. Indeed -Virimiyahu Yovel arguesthat anior_ptiis a term
invented by Nietzsche in "a polemical transformation of Spinoza's a)vor dei
I.ntellectualis[...]" (104). Ethical liberation is contemplated in terms of power and
activity. 53 Power is identical to essence. It is always in action and it alwaý-s
corresponds to an ability to be affected (potere).
The Ethit's is a heretical and provocative text, one I
want to explore over the
course of this chapter in the context of our investigation into ethics and
subjectivity. However Spinoza's necessitarianismhas led many to believe that this
love of fate, or love of necessity,entails nothing other than submitting passively
to whatever befalls us. As we read Spinoza we will learn that it is an ethics of joy.
Conscious of the incessantly changing nature of reality, it seeks to help us to
cultivate joy and minimise sadness (which is correlative with passivity). His
account of sadness,together with a Hobbesian understanding of the human in
terms of power (potenfia),is repeated throughout Marx's theory of alienation as an
account of secularredemption (Yovel 1989b: 97).54
When Deleuze and Guattari controversially said that human rights were just
I
52- Against Spinoza's eminently rational, law-governed nature-God Nietzsche thus
opposes
flux
in
logical
a world
everlasting
never
self-identical,
never
at
rest, never attaining
equilibrium (by which it would be captured and defined) or a fixed final state, a world
being
becoming
but
between
both" (Yovel,
nor pure
always wavering
which is neither pure
1989b: 123). This static reading of Spinoza fails to examine the dynamism of concepts such
Natul-a Natin-ans, conatus and potentia. I will respond to this kind of reading in 111yown
interpretations.
Spinoza
Macherey's
Deleuze's
through
especially
and
presentation of
53Andr6 Tosel thinks that recently far more credence has been set by the idea that Spinoza is
liberation.
of
processes
concerned with
he
is
Spinoza
Marx's
,
Fhe
than
thought
admits. Borges wrote
-5-1 impact of
more pervasive
on
be
imaginary,
b"
he
book
QuiXote
Don
to
that
an
reproduced
considers
a storN about a real
be
ho
Borges
He
Menard,
Pierre
to
considers
real.
says the texts are
\\,
imaginary author.
identical but Menard's is infinitely richer (Deleuze. 1968a: xxii). In a similar fashion. Marx
itical
bý
log
I
Karl
Heinrich
Marx.
Freatise'
Theo
'Spinoza's
1co-Po
entitled a manuscript
Berlin 1841. This was. as Yo\-el (I 989b: 78) emphasises, a perfect act of plagiarism since
Marx had sirnph, copied frorn that text and rearranged it. adding no thoughts of his own.
95
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED'NIAN
another axiom added to the market, they echoed a sentiment that Spinoza
expresses when he tells us that formal democracy is a constitutional illusion if
powerless people possessrights they cannot exercise.The right of the farmer in
Malawi to demand a fair price for his/her products
constitutes nothing other than
baying into the wind if international finance markets
for
the
set
prices
cash crops
and supermarkets can head off to a cheaper supplier.
By articulating this discourse in terms of power, and immanent
rather than ideal
modes of existence, not only can a critical stancebe taken on such questions, but
a constructivist one premised upon the singularity of casescan be adopted. I do
draw
not want to introduce a debate about rights and duties, but simply N,,
to
-ant
attention to the way that (rightly or wrongly) Deleuze and Guattan place a
premium on real, situated modes of existenceand the capacity for action, thought
and expression correlative with these instances, rather than speaking about the
abstract (and often flawed) ideals of human rights.
Spinoza does not provide
an account of ideology; ideology is necessarily
comparative, measuring something that exists against something that does not
55
just
exist.
like Bergson, Spinoza has little
time for a retrospective
(and
fisempowering)
illusion
future.
He
the
toward
turned
the
possible.
of
is
(:
As a diagnostician, Spinoza indicates the ways that we can engagein a cntical and
be
New
modes of existence must
clinical evaluation of our modes of existence.
hke
Guattari's
Deleuze
and
plane of immanence
constructed and invented, and
do
Tbrough
their
their combined theories of
the),
creation.
not pre-exist
becomings.
Such
humans
their
is
are opened up to
non-human
affectivity,
Spinoza's ethics: immanent, situated, embodied, and capable of affirn-ung
It
liberation
dissensus.
His
is
a constructivist one. is no
ethics of
chsparitý-and
Guattari
Deleuze
that
call a plane of immanence alternatWelya plane
and
accident
of consistency or composition.
i:l See Arnelia Oskenber, Rorty (1990).
-,
96
SPINOZA:
THE GOD- INTOXICATED
But before examining this kind
'MAN
discuss
of ethics in further detail, I N-ý-ant
to
some
of the themes I have introduced by returning to an important critic of Deleuze
-
Alain Badiou. The issues I will address
prIn-larfly concern the notion of unIvoc1tY
so they refer equally to Spinoza. Through this debate, I seek to indicate some of
the ways in which Deleuze reconciles his status as philosopher of difference and
thinker of univocity. We have already come across the idea that a degreeof power
is an intensive quantitý-; this is something we will look at in detail in the next few
chapters. However I also want to demonstrate that these abstract concepts, such
as univocity, must be explained concretely.
IlLiv. 'bolshevik'
versus 'fascist':
the Badiou/Deleuze
encounter
In short we end up with Deleuze as the joyous thinker of the world's confusion.
Alain Badiou, Deleuýe:the Clamour qf Beitiu(1997: 9).
Alain Badiou did not enamour himself to readersof Deleuze when he circulated a
little pamphlet entitled 'Onze notes sur le petit deleuzien', a leaflet that accused
'deleuzians' of evangelism, discipledom and a profound misunderstanding of the
Master.
51
He presents himself as the only person thus far to treat
their
words of
Deleuze's work in a philosophical rather than evangelicalmanner.
In contrast with many commentators, Badiou asserts that, like Spinoza, Deleuze is
an
ascetiC57
thinker of the One-AH. The questions of ontology and ethics are
56 See Futui- 4nt&ieur (no. 43,1998, Ed. Syllepse) for the "deleuzians' - (Jos6 Gil
and
Arnaud Villani) defence of Deleuze in the wake of the publication of Badiou's Delelize: The
Clamout- of Being Badiou will respond to this article at a number of intervals including in
his 'Onze notes sur le petit deleuzien' and 'Un, multiple, multiplicit6s' in 1fultitildes (no. 1
.
Mars 2000).
57 This strikes me as peculiar given the importance of Nietzsche for Deleuze. Deleuze
ideal
does
life
The
the
the
"What
of
ascetic
man
want?
one who repudiates
is also
rernarks,
the one Nvhowants a diminished life, the conservation of his type and moreover its power
forces
1962:
96).
These
(
the
triumph
triumph,
contagion
of
and
reactive
sentiments are
and
have
ideal
but
had
Philosopky.
He
!
Vicl:
"We
throughout
adds,
no other
7.
yche und
expressed
the ascetic ideal. We have opposed knowledge to life in order to judge life, in order to make
is
('15).
Similarly
Spinoza
blameworthy,
or
erroneous"
responsible
understood
it something
and affiri-nation, not an ascetic philosopher.
as a philosopher of
97
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATEDNL-ýN
inextricably linked in this contention. Rather than a philosopher of difference,
Deleuze is presented as a Platonist of the
for
thinker
virtual; a
\-,-hom the actual is
a mere effect, by implication denigrated and peripheral to the overall movement
of the virtual. Can this philosopher of proliferating
differences and singularities
be reconciled with the advocacy of a philosophy of One-All that Badiou argues is
key to the Deleuzian enterpriseý
Badiou begin
is his short text on Deleuze in polemical vein. A degreeof intimacy is
I
established as he describes the personal and political antagonisms, and even a
he
felt
between
himself
times,
peculiar closeness
at
and Deleuze. Despite this, no
founded;
Spinoza,
their
real commonality was
even
point of convergence,
constitutes a bone of contention. Badiou muses over his utter lack of
comprehension of the Deleuzian creation. Stringing together anecdotes, Badiou
(stating his maoist and bolshevik credentials) accusesDeleuze of fascism and of
One-All
These
(1997:
2).
Life
the
the
philosoph ýTof
glorifying
and
accusations
for
be
dismissed
bitter
direct
They
protagonist.
must not
as those of a
us,
dangers
to
the
instance,
of an effusive, quasi-spiritualistic notion of primordial
Nature.
The points scattered through the first pages of the introduction are not
follows
they
that
the
provide a
philosophical
critique
much
as
unimportant. -\s
Deleuze's
but
incisive, commentary on the ethico-pohtical implications of
veiled,
from
distin
ishes
Badiou
Although
the political event
philosophical
9W
philosophy.
I
ýfter
he
the
the
two
intimates.
that
separated
as
as
are
clear
it
is
not
eternity,
.
from
Badiou's
least
Fold
The
Deleuze's
there is a rapprochement, at
publication of
lines
Deleuze's
This
the
philosopliy
of
is a paradoxical entente along
perspective.
for
between
letters
A
divergence.
them
a 'while;
passes
of
series
of series and
firmINDeleuze
due
however
closes the
to a sequence of unforeseeable events,
discourse.
Bachou's
The philosophy of the multiple that informs
ontology is written vis-A-vis
(arumal)
bet-ween
he
distinction
The
the
paradi,gm
ý of
Deletize.
vital
seesit,
is, as
98
SPINOZA: THE GOD- I\TOXIC-NTED
MAN
MLIltipliCIties that one discovers in the trajectory from Bergson, and a theory of
sets.Though both are concerned with the question of ontology, virtual Totalin- or
chaosmosis are anathema to Badiou. These words lav bare the fundamental
proposition of the ontology of the One-All inforrmng Deleuze's philosophy.
Deleuze is a metaphysician of a renovated Onc and it is precisely his fidehtý- to
this particular understanding of univocity that Badiou grapples with, and
challenges.
Far from being an egalitarian, Badiou claims that Deleuze is a profoundl)
aristocratic thinker. Thought only exists in a hierarchalised space where the
individual is seized by its pre-individual determination (11-12). Although Being is
neutral and equal, one must always find out whether a thing can go to the limit of
its power and things are consequently considered from the point of view of their
power, again according to a hierarchy (32-3). The only anarchy Deleuze wants is a
(anarchie
crowned anarchy
(wlronýe).
All that matters, on Badiou's reading, is that a fundamental asceticismis imposed
factors
the
intellectual,
social and sentimental
associatedwith the
whereby all of
favour
'states
'lived'
things'
the
of this power
adualio of
of
and
are renounced in
to exceed one's limit, in favour of bifbn*s.Badiou adjudges this to be a philosophý,
dissipation
death,
I
that
am, of my actuality, into a purified automaton.
of all
of
a
This assessmentseems bolstered by Deleuze's fondness for Maunice Blanchot's
death.
writings on
it is perhaps the proliferation of dualisms, combined with the inevitable
Badiou
that
term
when
most irks
over another,
qualitative privileging of one
for
Constantly
Deleuze's
terms
two
one
are introduced, onlyJ
philosophy.
reading
difference
For
foundational
be
is privileged above
instance,
and superior.
to
made
2000:
(Badiou
identity, affirmation over negation, movement over immobility
lived
(states
Real
Similarly,
197).
of affairs and
the virtual is
while the actual
It
to
tl-ý,,
propensitýattribute an
is
a
simulacrum.
an
effect,
is
merely
experience)
antetiority
to
the virtual,
lo ically, chronolo icallN
Y and most especially
191
191
SPINOZA: THE GOD
NTOXICATEDNIAN
-I
ically, that leads him to call Deleuze a 'Platonist of the virtual'.
ontolo 91
Badiou therefore asks why Being needs two names if it is said in one and the
same sense of all beings. These names are said of the unity of the power of
production and the actualisation of the multiplicity of divergent simulacra. Such a
move, according to Badiou, re-introduces transcendence into this system.
Moreover, it demonstrates Deleuze's Bergsonism as he compulsively multiplies
dualisms at every turn. (Deleuze will respond that it is what happens between the
two that matters.) The virtual is the principal name of Being in Bachou'sN-lew.
Ray Brassier (2000) elaborates these ideas further. He claims that, for Deleuze,
Being is an inclusive disjunction that constitutes a unilateral asý-Mmetrý,.Being i's
Being
becomes
It
the
said of virtual and actual, so
is
naming of
equivocal.
therefore transcendent. The inclusive disjunction is an excess over virtual and
actual, marking a political covenant with the global sovereignty of capitalism.
According to Brassier, Badiou effectively asks whether the nomadic distribution
logic
the
mimes
of capital creating an indiscernibility of capital and philosophy.
Resistance to the sovereignty of capital requires a rupture, not an ontology
Badiou
Consequently,
than
rather
process,
premised upon a creative continuum.
An
The
Vold.
the
the
is
emphasis on
system
excess of
stresses subtraction.
be
throughout
this
offset
chapter must
production, constructivism and process
bolstering
this
is another instance of philosophy
against the question of whether
be
This
implicitly addressedthrough
the movements of capitalism.
allegation will
the dyad of Potestas
and potenfia.
Ba(:hou has a further ethico-political point to raise. The impersonal One re\-cals
Deleuze's Stoicism by invoking what Badiou calls a purified automaton in the
The
to
that
treads
near
occurs
of
all
of
necessity
affirmation
place of the subject.
for
to
ia
and
novelty
sacrifice
moreover
the
appears,
and
quo,
status
an apolo91
2000:
(Brassier,
plurality on the altar of univocity
-206-9).
SPINOZA: THE GOD-INTOXICATED'MAN
,
According to Badiou, Deleuze proposes a rene,
One.
While
the
the
ývedconcept of
confusion of the world resists taming by a stable classification or a direction of
history, the multiplicity of the world is nonetheless subject to a qualitative
subsumption by the One. Badiou argues that this manoeuvre is consistent with
Deleuze's overall project whereby a static opposition is resolved as one term
effects a qualitative takeover. To consolidate his contention that Deleuze is in fact
i DýlPrenceand
a thinker of the One, he draws our attention to statements in
.
Repetitionand The Lgic of Sense
Deleuze
where
appeals to an idea of one clamour
Being
for
beings.
His
has
freeing
Deleuze
of
that
all
conclusion is
no interest in
the multiple but is concerned with folding it back onto this renewed concept of
the One.
There is no doubt that univocity is an important concept for Deleuze, but we
must examine the way he reworks this concept, especially in relation to Spinoza
described
Univocity
potentia
the
is
and
in terms of the
as a iv'se-%-istendi.
concept of
differences of differences in Dý§ýrence
Repetition
and is invoked in order to rally
and
against philosophies of emanationism and eminence with the express aim of
constructing a philosophy of radical immanentism.
Badiou knows that univocal Being is neither numerically one nor even unified. He
beings
is
One
(Puissante)
that
the
its
are multiple and
tells us that the power
of
divergent produced by a disjunctive synthesis. In the sameway, substanceis, for
Spinoza, immediately expressedby an infinity of attributes, although there is no
Being.
Individuating
division
of
ontological
differences are intensities or
inflexions of power and are mobile and singular.
This 'virtual totality' has different names such as inorganic Life and the One-All
Being
Badiou.
is thought as po,,ver (ýIII'Slfam-e)
(,Spinozist substance), according to
I
between
distinction
Naturing
Nature
Although
Life.
there
is no ontological
or as
distribution
binarv
Nature,
its
Natured
either
accentuates
there
\N-hich
is
a
and
As
discm
(1997:
this
r
'inatter'
xe
will
actuahsation
its
or
immediate
-')-)
Macherey,
relates to whether a particular or a global view
to
distinction, according
SPINOZA: THE GOD-INTOXICATED-MAN
of things is taken. Deleuze explains this notion further in his seminars,which we
will turn to later in this chapter
The difference of beings is thus only formal; their ontological identity is Being.
Conversely, Badiou argues that what is required is a thought of the actuality of
Being in terms of its 'pure dispersion-multiple'; an immanence excluding the all.
Countering a logic of multiplicities, this logit,of the multiple dominates Badiou's
philosophical enterprise. This is becausea logic of multiplicities is anachronistic
and pre-Cantor (Badiou, 2000: 199). By drawing upon set theory Badiou proposes
determination
a univocal
of the multiple
(199).
one
-Without-
In a (pre-emptive) backlash, Deleuze and Guattan themselves accuse Badiou of
transcendence. They contend that his conception of the emptý- set or the vold
floats
that
implies
philosophý'
in an empty transcendence,as the unconditioned
concept (1991a: 152). In their view, this is why at least two multiplicities are
because
happens
bet)Peeen
back
These
the
two.
to
multiplicity is what
needed
are
back (and not hierarchically superposed)as in the relation of statesof affairs and
events.
Firmly convinced of the value of the multiple of set theory, in contradistinction
to Deleuze's logic of multiplicities, Badiou does not investigate thoroughly
enough the concept of the plane of immanence and the idea of the inclusl\, e
disjunction. In my view, Deleuze's work with Guattari is set to one side in what,
for Badiou, is an uncustomarily weakly argued fashion. For Deleuze, univocal
Being is the differences of differences communicating through their differences,
disparate.
These
distributive,
It
is
One-All
is open and
not unifying.
and the
decision
Guattari.
Badiou's
to
the
themes recur in \-arious guises in
-\vork with
different
Deleuze's
to
trajectory
very
multiplicitous oeuvre on a
ignore this sets
Guattari
be
the
the one it would
xas included.
work with
on if
I'hcre are some points of agreement, however. Badiou understands that a
contemporarN, metaphysics
w
must
be a theon,
of
mul tiiphciItiies and grasp
I ()
-',
SPINOZA: THE GOD-INTOXICATEDNIAN
.
singularitics. Of
necessity this initiates a critique of insidious forms of
transcendence \,,-hether they be overtly reh91
ious or cloistered. In addition, the
1
lingering traces of religion mean that univocal Being must be posited (2()()():196).
He concurs with Deleuze that every true thought is a thought of singularity, but
for
Deleuze, actual multiplicities are purely formal modalities. It is
that,
argues
this necessity to appeal analogically to the intuition of the virtual that reintroduces transcendence.
In sum, for Badiou, Deleuze ends up with a virtual, 'horizontal' transcendence(as
'vertical'
to
transcendenceof the One) that misrecognisesthe intrinsic
opposed
a
resources of the multiple by presupposing a chaotic power of the One, and býmaking analogies of the modes of actualisation rather than grasping them in their
Deleuze
singularity.
is a natural mystic (2000: 211).
It would be facile to deny that Deleuze makes the statementsthat Badiou quotes,
or to claim they were anomalies,at odds with his overall philosophy of difference.
Instead we need to understand in what way Deleuze is a thinker of the One-All
indeed
him
In
to
take
trajectory.
motivates
and
what
such a
contradistinction to a
'democracy of desire' (1997: 10) Badiou believes Deleuze's machini'sm leads to an
because
abnegation of choice and of will
of the emphasis placed upon the
A
One.
Our
Alliez
Life,
Fric
the
impersonal concept of
of
points
challenge, as
"ontological
to
to
try
the
the
is
out,
grasp
complexity of
proposition of the thesis
Being
(Alhez,
2000:
the
pragmatic affirmation of multiplicities"
and
of univocal
192).
It is therefore acutely important to understand both the nature of the ontology of
becon-ung that Deleuze is proposing, and how it relates to his philosophy of
difference. We need to figure out why Deleuze takes issue NX-1th
an image of
does
ifficit
that
thought
pre-philosophical presuppositions.
not reflect upon its
GIN-cli the discomfort
felt by different philosophers with notions of an
fact
Nature,
Spinoz.,,
Naturing
Life
the
Nvemust ask whether in
or
i's
impersonal
becoming
force
and
abnegatesany responsibility to
allegiance to a phi-losophy of
103
SPINOZA: THE GOD-INTOXICATED
NIAN
actuality and to ethics. Is it as though the individual is dissolved into the
inchvisible substancein v.-hich all inchviduality lacks reahty?
This kind of ob)ection is also effectively made by Tern- Eagleton in a revie-W
(2000: 9) where he argues that philosophy is still enamoured with religious
fervour. He claims that the invocation of an impersonal, vitalistic Life traversing
the universe is found in concepts like 'difference' and 'desire'. A privileging of an
inhuman, impersonal force dissolves the reality of the actual human. A similar
kind of allegation is made by Antonio Negri in reference to Part V of Spinoza's
Etbics which, in Negri's view, slips into a d-iinly veiled mysticism through the
introduction of the third kind of knowledge amordei'which Spinoza calls beatitildo.
Moreover, for different reasons that we will discover shortly, Laruelle will call
Deleuze's (and Nietzsche's) philosophy an idealistit,one premised upon a
force.
particular conception of
Perhaps, on the other hand, we will be able to draw upon these attempts to think
process and movement to rethink the questions of difference and relationality,
and reconsider the question of ediics.
Him.
univocity,
eminence,
analogy
We need an ethic or a faith, which makes fools laugh: it is not a need to believe
in something else, but a need to believe in this world, of which fools are a part.
Gilles Deleuze, Cinema2: The Time-lmqe. (1985a: 173).
In a seminar on 'Scholasticism and Spinoza' (14/l/74)51, Deleuze situates the
difficult)- of the question of the nature of being and distinguishes bet-,-,-ccn
he
Equivocity,
saý-s,is a problem of utterances-,
cquivocity, analogy and univocity.
know
to
whether a table is said in the same senseas an animal, or a man
we need
Being59
God.
Equivocal
the
means that there are several
in
same sense of as
i'NAll quotations are taken from the seminar in discussion unless otherwise noted. These
found
hence
lack
the
are
only
online,
of page numbers.
and
serninars are not published
59In order to distinguish 'ýtrc' and '6tant' I \NIII retain a (Heidegger nuanced) distinction of
104
SPINOZA:
THE GOD INTOXICATED
-
'NIAN
senses of being and that these different senses of the word Being are without
common measure. Curiously, this could lead to heresv since some would prefer to
say that 'God is not, rather than say 'God is' in the same \vay that a chair is. At
least the former could be interpreted as meaning that God is superior to Being.
Deleuze and Guattari repeatedly declare an allegiance to a philosophy of
immanence. This is distinguished from the stepped universe ('unh,ers en est'alier)
that is emblematic of platonic, neo-platofflc and mediaeval traditions (Deleuze,
1985b: 79). This universe was suspended from the One which operated as a
transcendent principle, proceeding through "a series of emanations and
hierarchical conversions" (79).
"Plotinus reproached Plato for having seen participation ftorn its lesser side"
(Deleuze, 1968b: 170). "What is participated remains in itself [and does not enter
into what participates in it]; it is participated insofar as it produces, and produces
but
has no need to leave itself to give or produce" (170). If the
insofar as it gives,
One is above its products (and its gifts), this is emanation.
The effect produced does not remain in the cause,it exists by coming out from
the cause, and it is this movement from an (empty) cause that determines this as
an emanative movement. The One is superior, not only to its effect, but to what
beyond
It
Being
beyond
(172).
Beings
the
is
gives
effect.
and
substance
are
hierarchically
ranked
in terms of their distance from this first cause and have
more or less reality, more or less being."'
On the other hand, univocal Being means that "Beiti basonjl onesense
and is saidin
'g
I)
it
is
(Deleuze,
14/01/74).
Deleuze's
the
qfevetytbiq
and
same
sellse
ql-ivbl*(.
said"
oile
famous example of this is that God is said in the same senseas a tick. "There is
Being and being. This distinction should not be read as proposing any relation between these
ideas and those of Heidegger.
60Remarkably enough Spinoza's substance is often read in an emanationist fashion in which
the modes follow from the attributes which follow from substance; this partlNrcorresponds to
Hegel's reading. For another such reading see Paul Eisenberu ( 1990).
105
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
-MAN
longer
no
a remote cause: the rock, the lilv, the animal, and the human cquall)
I
sing the glory of God in a kind of crowned an-archy" (1985b: 79). Like Hardt and
Negri, Deleuze argues that these waves of immanence surged forth against
transcendencethroughout the Renaissanceera (79).
Immanence is then no longer 'irnmanence to' and participation can no longer be
thought of in terms of 'participation in'. Like an emanative cause, the immanent
does
leave
however,
its effects remain in the cause. There is no
cause
itself,
not
degradation. Pure m-imanencemeans that beings are not ranked hierarchically in
distance from their causebut immediately participate in Being.
Finally, the analogical conception of Being was mapped out by St Thomas
through Aristotelian philosophy. Being is said in severalsensesof that of wl-lich it
is said. However, in this case, these are governed by analogy. Deleuze remarks
that the categories, which are concepts denoting every possible object of
fashion.
Philosophies of representation work
experience, operate in an analogical
through analogical principles of mediation, something we will discover more
about in chapter 5.
But are these not just pedantic, obscurantist arguments emblematic of mediaeval
times, irrelevant to the present day? People were tortured and burned for saying
that Being is univocal. The fear of condemnation as a heretic and pantheist meant
that Duns Scotus only managed to think univocal Being and not to affirm it. The
from
dangerous
Being
the world.
transcendence
idea, expelling
is a
univocity of
Not only is God said in the same senseas a tick, but in a strange way the tick is
God. But in this casehow can there be differences of beings, if we no longer have
Aristotelian categories or differences of formý There are differences between
beings becausedifference is thought solelý-on the level of degreesof power, not
bý-form or genus or species.
Ahmed Alarni sLiqgests that although these kinds of debates appear f ar from
,q
80).
(1997:
huge
have
ethical and political implications
concrete concerns they
106
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATEDMAN
Citing Guattari's celebrated aphorism 'Before Being there is Politics', he claims
that by battling against an equivocal conception of Being, Deleuze, Duns Scotus
and Spinoza demonstrate that that notion implies "a political hierarchy and an
impen*ahpati
.um which operates through transcendenceand verticality as it appeals
to a celestial bureaucracy" (80). Univocal Being, however, implies a "polifical
forces
that
extensi'on advancesand progresses through the immanent extension of
life,
of
and through the creation of spacesof liberty immanent to singularities that
are real and effective" (80).
Interpreting this in ethico-political terms, Alarm argues that the Anstotelian
method proceeding through mediation mirrors the political mediation that
subjugates the powers of the masses. Conversely, "[t]he
univocity
being
is
of
direajl and immediately
different
the
said of
singularities of multiple and
essences,
that is of the effective and real forces of the masses" (80).
Unlike Badiou's selective reading of univocity", Being is affirmation and not
difference
becoming
It
In
is
and not identity,
and not resemblance.
neutrality.
turn, singularities are only neutral insofar as they are the potential of ever),
developing
By
(80).
this understanding of univocity we
possible individuation
has
the
that
to
idea
philosophy
made a political covenant
challenge
shall continue
Capital.
with global
HIM. a degree of power
There is nothing to life that has value, except the degree of power - assuming
that life itself is the will to power.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Will to Power. (1901: §55,37).
62
"So between a table, a little bov, a little gIr1, a locomotive, a cmv, a god, the
I
in
degree
the
the
same
realisation
and
power
of
one
of
of
is
one
solely
chfference
61Citing The Logic of Sciisc Badiou claims that Being is neutral (1997: 53). Alaml explains
how univocal Being is affirmation and becoming.
62Because these notes have been rearranged a number of times, I cite the date \N-henthe first
her
his
b\
Nietzsche's
is
edition
of
in
collectke works.
sister
volurne published
107
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
NIAN
being" (Deleuze, 14/1/74). Beings are understood in terms of assemblages the
ways theýýare capable of affecting and being affected. For d-iis reason, Deleuze
will argue that a draft horse is closer to an ox than to a race horse, becauseit can
enter into similar assemblages. This is Spinoza's great innovation; he sees
everything in terms of differences of degrees of power and to each degree of
power there corresponds a capacity of being affected. Spinoza invents a new
taxonomy, closer to that of ethologists than traditional classifications. Hence the
ethical challenge:of what affects are you capableý
Degrees of power are called intensities and unlike the Aristotelian idea of
potential, they are not separated from activity and are necessarily fulfilled. "[t]be
affea i's the mannerin wbi(h a de:,
oreeofpower is necessari#
attualisedas ajuntfion oy'tbe
14/1/74).
Spinoza's
(Deleuze,
the
the
tbiý
assembla
gesinto wbkb
individualor
eillerý'
:g
,
depend
Our
world is a world of continuous variation.
affects
on the affections
that we have, and if we are sad, this is becauseour power of acting is dimiMshed.
An example of this might be the factory worker forced to work extremely long
hours in poor conditions. When multinational companies become virtual
branding,
line
their
enterprises concentrating on
and sub-contract
manufacturing
to other firms who themselves sub-contract, workers (especially young women)
find themselves drawn into an exceedingly brutal capitalist subjectivity that does
CI./
live,
to
them
and works them to the point of exhaustion.
enough
not pay
Something that systematically curtails our power of acting we will continue, for
Potestas.
Guattan
to
also critiques the infantihsation and
call
present purposes,
different
insight into the workings of
mass-mediatisation of society, giving us a
Poteslas.
He argues that television is hypnotic inducing passivity in the viewer, and
more importantly, the cultivation of a capitalist subjectivity means that other
modes of valonsation are erased.
"The powers-that-be are fundamentally institutions built to affect you with
sadlic"',
[thev] only keep hold on us by affecting us, which is to sav bv
fulfilling
being
affected 'with sad affects, and undoubtedly
our p(),\vcr of
Power
In
doing
(14/01/74).
to
t"
this cxl,-,
order
exercisc
thousands of ways of
108
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTO-NICATI'D
MAN
these powers-that-be must inspire sad passions, and take away the capacity for
acting.
This is Spinoza's ethical and political problem. In the last chapter we came across
the idea of Collective Equipments which, according to Deleuze and Guattarl,
were effectively machines for producing affects. In order to have Power over us,
they need to diminish our capacities of acting (and this includes thinking, since
thinking is, for Spinoza, an activity). Deleuze (15/2/77) argues that once there is
an apparatus of power, there is an abstract machine and vice versa.
In his little book on Spinoza, Deleuze writes that Spinoza, the atheist, devalued
favour
(1981a:
25).
describes
His
tripartite
sad passions in
the man
of )oy
scheme
saddenedby the human condition (the priest), the man who exploits sad passions
to establish power (the tyrant) and the man with sad passions (the slave).
Denouncing transcendent values he assessesthat through the imposition of an
forced
the
the
thing
to submit
external norm,
is annihilated as it is
singularity of
to a comparative model that rids it of its difference.
Sp inoza resembles Nietzsche greatly in his analysis of this situation since he says
that there are two scourges; hatred and remorse. This sentiment echoes the
bad
Nietzschean idea of ressentiment
Deleuze
Powers
that
the
and
calls
tvnstzentv.
like
distinguishes
'powers-that-be',
Negri
the
and
stunt our powers of activity
between Power (Pouvoir)and power (puissance).
No doubt inspired by Hobbes, Spinoza defines the individual in terms of power
(potentia),but unlike Hobbes his idea of power is one of constitutive openness
dominate
does
It
to
others to preserve its
not seek
rather than self-regulation.
being, but is concerned with inventing new modes of association and existence.
In chapter 5, we Nvill see how the Image of Thought operates to diminish our
degree
This
to
our essenceas a
of poN-,
runs counter
-cr
capacities of thinking.
(polewi(i)not insofar as it is any less perfect given the affections it has, but because
109
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
MAN
it operates near its minimal threshold of activity. Someone striving to feed herself
evcry day will find it near impossible to cultivate other aspects of being. Simone
Weil's year working in a factory is a tale of ho,,-,- long hours and exhaustion
prevent the ability to think or to be. Her conclusion, like Deleuze's, is that
sadnessmakes no one intelligent. We will now turn to Deleuze's and 'Macherey's
readings of Spinoza's philosophy to further our understanding of some of these
ideas concerning univocal being.
Ill. vii. Benedictus,
Maledictus
Spinoza
The Jew's translucent hands
Shape the crystals in the twilight
And the dying evening is all fear and chill
(In the evenings, evenings are the same).
His hands and the hyacinth's space
Paling at the purview of the ghetto
Are almost inexistent for the quiet man
Dreaming a clear labyrinth
Fame does not perturb him, that reflection
Of dreams in another kind of dream,
Nor the girls'fearful love.
Free of metaphor, free of myth
He shapes a rigid crystal: the infinite
Map of the One that is All Its stars.
Jorge Luis Borges, translated by YIrimiyahu Yovel (1989b).
Ontology- Ethics: a profound coupling that resounds with the radical nature of
Spinoza's philosophy of immanence. Spinoza's unspoken pledge to purge the
him
him
hated
feared.
Calling
the
transcendence
ridiculed,
saw
and
world of
far
has
Deleuze
that
in thinking
contends
no one
gone so
prince of philosophers,
have
hardly
begun
to
immanence, no one remains as misunderstood, and we
his
bewildering
In
Deleuze
tells us a story
philosophý-a seminar
comprehend
finally
he
E.
Mics
Goethe
Goethe.
the
read and re-read
exclaimed that
until
about
him.
It
the
time
is this paradoxicaflý-constitutive opennessof
each
wliole escaped
Spinoza's philosophy that Will be our concern as Nveseek to understand how
Spinoza can propose an ethics without aný-conception of Good and FIvil.and v,-hy
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
MAN
SIpinoza's ethicsis inseparableftom his ontology.
111-viii.Spinoza's heresy
One of the primary objections to philosophies like that of Spinoza's is that they
dissolve individuahtý, into the Whole: a kind of night -\xhereall cows are black.
When Hegel remarked with a certain glee that "Spinoza died on the 21st of
February, 1677, in the forty-fourth year of his age. The cause of his death was
from
he
had
long
been
harmony
consumption,
this
which
a sufferer;
was in
with
his system of philosophy, according to which all particularitý- and individuality
in
pass away the one substance" (Hegel quoted in Negri, 1981: 141), he bolstered
the beliefs of many who saw Spinoza's system as immobile (das Starre), an
63
unmoved Un1ty.
From Hegel's perspective, Spinoza constituted an important moment in thinking
the immanent totality of the Absolute but it was up to Hegel himself to make this
SubstanceSubject; to make it move. For Hegel, Spinoza's substancewas abstract
he
for
Orient,
the
this
and undifferenciated, echoing
and
could see no necessity
Being
Still,
to
plenitudinous affirmative
produce its effects.
according to poet
Heinrich Heine, "All our contemporary philosophers, perhaps without knowing
looking
in
Baruch
Spinoza
(quoted
through
the
that
polished"
it, are
eyeglasses
Yovel, 1989b: 52). Because Hegel takes Spinoza's conception of tvusa 1711
asa
defiMtion
beginning,
he
(understandably)
cannot
concerning an absolute
begin
initial
Why
to produce the
this
moment.
would substance
understand
64
dimension
Are
tacked
the attributes a supplementary
onto substance?
modes?
63Yirimiyahu Yovel says, in the context of a discussion of conatus as self-preservation and
Spinoza's relation to Nietzsche, that -Spinoza's insistence on self-preservation is in
[
]"
113).
1
(1989b:
his
take
and
permanence
of
self-identity
metaphysics
with
accordance
...
issue with both this conception of substanceand understanding of conatus.
6' The role of the attributes in Spinoza have been the subject of much heated debate and
disagreement. In his expressionist reading, Deleuze (1968b) (strangely given his overall
Israel)
Jacob
different
(like
likens
them
to
and
of the same
names
therne of expression)
MachereN
for
(1934)
Wolfson
emphasises
account.
subjectivist
a
strongi-,
ar-ues
referent.
that the use of percipere (rather than cmicipere: to conceive) means that we perceive the
intellect.
hand,
On
hence
the
the
theý
other
are no construction of
attributes passivek.
Gueroult (1968a) interprets Spinoza as sayinu each attribute is a substance. Finalb, Negri
SPINOZA: THE GOD-INTOXICATED
-NL-ýN
Indeed -hat would shake substancefrom such immediate ecstasyof Beingý
,,,
Not onlý- does Hegel think that Spinoza's philosophy is immobile, he thinks that
it has no relation to an Other. Consequently that \x-hich lays claim to absolute
he
devoid
Since
fact,
reality is entirely
of reality and is, in
entirely abstract.
understands substance to be self-identical, he believes it lacks the movement of
negation that could make it determinate. Hegel fl-tinks the relationship betkveen
substance, the attributes and the modes is a hierarchical and serial one.
Consequently, for him, the movement from the unitv of substance to diN-ersity
be
false
learn
But,
Spinoza's
could only
and abstract.
systemis a sN,
stem
as we wiU
far from equilibrium.
From the Marrano tradition, Sephardic Jews who had been initially forced to
Christianity
fled
Spain
Portugal
to
then
convert
and
escaping the tyrannous
and
purgings that began with Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, Spinoza was used to an
deployed
dissimulation
that
in order to communicate
atmosphere
ambiguity and
forbidden thoughts. Undoubtedly an atheist, Spinoza masks this heresy by using
the name God. " But Spinoza's God in no way resembles the God of the
find
Etbit's
faiths.
look
de
Deo,
1
If
a
part of the
at
we
monotheistic
we take a close
(1981) just obliterates them, saying they were a symptom of Spinoza's idealistic phase
before he became a full blown materialist. He justifies such a reading by telling us how the
Ethics was written over two periods, and the attributes are no longer mentioned once the
I
in
itself
is
has
This
thesis
topic
a
and minefield
a
commenced.
second period of writing
for
the present.
to
my
contact
with
want avoid prolonging
However, I want to briefly refer to Etienne Balibar's very interesting reading of the role of
the attributes in order to situate my own problematic. He maintains that the attribute makes
the 'passage' of substance to the modes intelligible, while still retaining the idea that
do
in
infinity
They
be
not appear as a mediation of
of ways.
comprehended an
substance can
67).
(1990:
is
immediately
but
that
the
given
as a unity of contraries
modes,
substance and
Spinoza states that there is an infinity of attributes of which we know two, Thought and
Extension. He also says that the attributes are the essenceof substance.A rather simple way
but
level
God,
begin,
be
the
the
to
example
this
with
of
at
speculative
not
would
of grasping
different
be
body
human
expressions or aspects of a
understood as
and mind can
whose
of a
Spinoza
two
than
negotiates
substances.
a composite or a union of
single individual, rather
idea
I
the
idealism
this
of
neither.
understand
the camps of
slotting
into
and materialism,
individual in terms of a qualitative multiplicity in which aný change results in a qualitative
transformation of the whole.
0ý' I will refer to God as 'he' becausethis is how the Latin has been translated. I realise that
God
ironic.
is
that
hand
the
of
this
images
of
anthropomorphic
criticism
the
given
one
on
follow. but it also serves to show Spinoza's capacities to mask and dissimulate.
I 12
SPIXOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED'IMAN
from
dynamic
far
complex and
cry
conception of substance,a substancethat is a
a container or even from the unmoved unity of Being.
Throughout
the Ethics, there is a sustained, though veiled, critique of
God
that rests on a vulgar conception of
anthropomorphic conceptions of
fickle
Potestas
free
(11.
3.
God
).
When
monarchy as
pr. sch.
and
is presented as a
law,
Spinoza
that
ruler
retorts that
can will anything into existence and obeys no
God cannot produce tl-iings in any other way or order to the way they have been
free
A
thing exists through the necessity of its own nature j. d.7). God
produced.
by
hence
he
determined
.,
to exist
is tausasui
is not constrained or
any external
final
himself
has
fixed
(ab
He
(ifl
Nature
thing
is rather in
alio).
no
goal and all
se).
figments
human
God
the
to act with an end
causesare
of
imagination, since were
he
lack
J.
)
in Niew, would necessarily
something app.
Elaborating on this insight, Macherey argues that we must make a distinction
between agere and operan*(1992: 72). God acts, exercising an infinite power
(potentia),but God is nothing other than the nature of things. He certainly does
have
the power to constrain, in the manner of an autocrat that operates
not
(operan)or works on a reality that is exterior to him. Such a model would involve
be
And
God
dimension
nothing other
such a
would
of reality.
a supplementary
human;
God
Man.
the
the
image of
made in
than a caricatured image of
SIpinoza)s conception of God rests on a conception of potentia,what he can do
be
66The
he
34)
to
essenceof
is able
affected.
pr.
and potestas,the infinity of ways
God is activc in that he develops his nature by producing effects in it. The logic
(cause
this
all
that
escapes
of
production
process
means
itselo
the
of
sill'
of
t-allsa
66Potestas frorn potere also rneans -to be able to' and Deleuze emphasises this capacity to
be affected that potestas communicates. As I have done throughout this thesis, I capitallse
does
Spinoza
does
(and
it,
Negri
to
an
illustrate
occasionally)
as
using
poicstas when
Spinoza,
be
diminishes
to
Poýver
affected.
that
and
affect
others' capacity
operation of
in
God's
he
this
that
he
this
power
says
understanding
when
way
though
uses potestas in
distinction.
Deleuze's
keep
does
the
this
it
to
of
is
likening
use
to
not
vulgar monarchy.
NNaý
English
,
Potestas
this
.r
the
coupling.
potentia
sense of
pair pia .ss(mcv p0111,01communicates
distinction
draw
I
the
to
of *power'
does not communicate this nuance so will continue
upon
(and sometimes 'force') and Po\\er.
SPINOZA:
THE GOD- INTOXICATED'MAN
determination.
God is absolutely infinite, absolute affirmation and
external
without negativity or lack (I. pr. 15. sch.), existing through the sole necessitý-of his
d.
his
J.
1),
nature. This nature implies (invoh)ere)
e-istence
essenceis
xi
moreover
existence. Ibis conception of essencemeans that it is neither a possible nor does
it pre-exist. It is an aduosa essentia(11. pr. 3. sch.) and God exists and acts
necessarily. Liberty and necessity are not opposed. Freedom consists of existing
by
and acting
virtue of one's own nature. Only God is ftee J. d.7 and pr. 17)
because,unlike the finite modes, he is not a constrained thing.
Spinoza flattens God onto the Real in the first pages of the Ethzi'f. God is
revealed as the immanent movement of the Real, a dynamic and tendencial
design.
Any
determination
teleology
movement without
or
injects the
external
possible, and hence a lack, or an overdetermination, into this absolute
This
immanence.
implies God is somehow lacking and limited; however, for this
to occur, there would have be an external cause J. pr. 11. proof 2.). God exists
because
be
To
He
is
infinitely
necessarily
infinite.
unable to exist is impotence,
be
to
and
able to exist is power (potentia).
In proposition 18 of De DeoSpinozadistinguishesbetweenthe Milmanentcause
Albiac
Gabriel
(6,
(,,allsai'mmanens)
tranfiens).
the
transitive
suggests
and
cause ausa
that this use of Spinoza'sadoption of this distinction stemmedfrom the Suirzian
According
Adrian
127).
(1997:
Heerebord
to
the
through
tradition,
manual of
Machereythis is a direct refutation of creationism,becauseit showshow God is
82).
(1992:
his
(PUISSan6-e)
that
the
manifests power
action
immediatelyat one with
There is one reality, not a hierarchicalgradationof realitiescomprisedof greater
(fibera
being.
lesser
Free
is opposedto acting in terms of
neteffitas)
necessitýand
free decreeor externalends."
formal
(a
(a
In other words, if Nx-c
cause)and a goal
imagine that there is a model
final cause), wc posit an cxternal reahty independent of diVine nature. Such a
67 See Spinoza's letters 57 and 58 to Tschirnhaus and Schuller respectlýel,,,, on free
necessity.
114
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTO-NICATEDNI-AN
hylomorphic conception of God's power would resemble that of kings and
queens that impose their power on the populace-" By attributing an arbitrary free
God,
to
the response of the people could only be obedience. This kind of
will
be
power would
irrational.
Pierre Macherey observes that it is because we are accustomed to reasoning from
the part to the whole (under the aegis of the imagination) that we find it difficult
to install ourselves in this totality that the modes depend upon. The nature of
Being is nothing other than the reality or nature of the things gathered to this
The
substantial principle.
relation of substance to the modes is donuinated by
productivity
God
does
(potenfia).
himself
to produce
power
and
not come out of
does
God
but
he
Naturing
Nature
to
and
act.
not want
acts.
is simultaneously
Natured Nature and these two are perfectly adequate. To separate them would
hierarchical
flouting
Spinoza's innovation of the immanent
introduce a
causality
cause.
Macherey explains how to comprehend the relation of NaturMg Nature and
Natured Nature. He saysin the former casewe look at things in terms of infim,
determine
latter
how
In
them
the
things
one
case, we examine
seizing
globally.
In
their
this way we can understand that this
reciprocally
in
particularity.
another
from
different
(1998:
164).
Nature
the
points of view
conceived
is one and
same
The only distinction between Naturing Nature and Natured Nature arises from
free
1992:
105).
We
knowledge
(Macherey,
lack
through an
are not
of
our
but
through the constitutive and positive capacity to act that is
impossible ideal
Senitllte
living,
De
his
In
exposition of the rules of practical
our effective power.
I llilll(wa, Spinoza explains that to be ignorant of the causesof things is sen-itude
The essence of humans is nothing other than their varied powcrs of
68 In rn% view it \vill be Badiou's inability to grasp the notion of the immanent cause that
leads him to allege that actual and multiple lives are flooded and submerged in the
for
immanent.
how
is
Life
flows
Life,
the
the
than
name
perceiving
rather
of
impersonal
from
its
I
is
inseparable
Nature
inventk
that
productions.
will
e movement of
processual and
return to this theme shortlý .
115
SPINOZA:
THE GODANTOXICATED
-NIAN
activity and capacities for association. Even impotence indicates an affirmatiN-e
affective movement that is a power of being.
Nonetheless, external forces can alienate this power from its capacity to act
This
a#ir1nath)ej1.
is the natural state of humans according to Spinoza, since theý
find themselves sub'ected to forces whose effects they passively undergo. To be
passive is a necessarypart of our finitude, but to be human means that one can
behave in such a way as to be the adequate cause of one's actions JV. pr-2.
By
detaching
the
prooý.
understanding
conditions of our servitude and not
from
liberation.
Nature,
the
to
ourselves
means our
we can understand
Marx tells us in his early Writings that an ethical problematic ariseswhen humans
are systematically curtailed and constrained from acting and thinking, when theý
foster
Gatens
cannot
and invent new potentials of existing.
and Lloyd argue that
better
imaginings
to
that can cultivate, rather than overinvent
we need
collective
determine, diversitýýand difference.
Consequently, the notion of the individual cannot be thought of in an ato=stic
fashion. It is the result of a combination of bodies JI. pr. 13. and pr. 14) As we
but
(Potestas)
does
Power
learn,
is
over others
not involve accumulating
ethics
will
concerned with
finding
composing relations,
out what agrees with
us,
constructing new modes of association and organisation that increase our
dynarmc
This
be
(potentia).
is a
and concrete
affected
capacities to affect and
but
'human
on the
nature'
process that is not premised upon abstractions such as
Spinoza's
This
bodies
the
ethics,
insight is
core of
and minds.
agreement of
detail
further
throughout this chapter.
something we will explore in
116
SPI-',MZA:
,
THE GOD-INTOXICATEDMA\
IlLix. the active essence
'[E]ssence' does not refer to a general idea of humanity, an abstract concept
under which all individuals are subsumed and their differences neutralised. On
the contrary it refers to the power that singularises each individual, conferring
him
upon
a unique destiny.
Etienne Bahbar, Spinoýawid Politics.(1985: 107)
Deleuze remarks (15/2/77) that he does not see that life is possible without
like
bodies
that
though
molar wholes,
is without individuated,
complex,
organisms. In no way can we postulate a world of abstract intensities (15/2/77).
An intensive quantity is never abstracted from the extensive quantity it correlates
to. "The question is to know if an intensity agrees with someone and he can
tolerate it. An intensity is bad, really bad, if it exceedsthe power of someone that
beautiful
An
the
things.
it,
if
is
intensity is always in
most
of
undergoes even it
relation With other intensities" (15/2/77).
An essenceis not an abstract view on a thing; indeed Spinoza tries strenuously to
1).
An
human
(or
(11.
essenceis the acting
ax.
essence nature)
avoid speaking of a
be
be
the
thing
thing,
that
the
or
conceived.
cannot
principle of
without which
Conversely, an essencecannot be conceived outside of the thing of which it is the
hierarchy
There
10.
).
JI.
is no
of essenceover existence, and an
pr.
sch.
essence
before
being
have
does
the status of
it is the essenceof an
a possible
not
essence
be
d.
is
2).
JI.
It
to
thing
subsumed
an affirmation, not something
actually existing
JI.
1).
ax.
under an abstract universal
Modes are not inherently passive. Once they exist they have a power of acting
(actual
This
be
their
attualis essentia
is their tonatus,
affected.
and a capacity to
Insofar
God's
(potentia)
to
as theýexist.
power
essence)and it is an expression of
by
beings
finite
hn-ýted
to
they
other modes and are
exist
are caused
and
are
They
hmi'ted,
part of a complex network of relations.
constrained and
necessarilNbut
(operan)
their
power of
reality
on
this
operating
of
existing
power
exploit
Nature.
God
Naturing
(iolwtlls)
the
as
poNx
-er of
means theý-participate in
acting
This idea draws close to what Guattari calls processual emergent subjectivin-, and
11-1
SPINOZA:
,
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
MAN
Sch6rer
what
names 'subjectivity without a subject'.
The idea of t-onatilsopens up ways of thinking about how things invest themselves
both mentally and corporeally, and to what extent theý7are acting at the minimum
or maximum level of their thresholds of intensM-, the former relating to a pole of
extreme passivity and the latter, a pole of extreme activin, (Macherey, 1995: 24,
and 111.pr. 6,7 and 8). All things are equal in that they are identically inhabited býthe same force to persevere in their being. This refers to the way that a thing is
always in action and in movement, rather than being propelled into movement by
something exterior to it (Macherey, 1995: 85) and "[flrom this perspective, 'nature
(natura)and 'power' (potentia)are one and the same thing" (87). God's power is a
power that is nature (potentiabot,estnatura) ýH- pr. 7) whose essenceit is to exist
and act.
If we recall the distinction between agereand operan*we can affirm that a particular
thing acts in a detern-unateway since it is limited by other things. It does not act
because
limited
is
but
because
'acts'
this
thing
in
it
positive
instead
in it, it
way
a
4operates'in a determinate way in coexistence and reciprocal linuitation with other
things (Macherey 1992: 87). Again this emphasisesthe necessityto grasp the two
from
points of view
which we can conceive of the thing, in order to grasp that
the operation is a part of the action of the thing, and not an autonomous
both
God'
Deo)
Theýý
Things
'in
God'
Deo)
'of
(I.
26).
(a
(Ili
pr.
procedure.
are
and
from
free,
depending
look
them
a
on whether we
at
are at once constrained and
global perspective or a particular, situated perspective.
Part IV of the F./bl't'sis entitled De SerfivituteHumand.It examines the idea of the
d-8).
Vittus
(especially
is closely tied, even
virtue in terms of ethical principles
Virtue
potentia.
the
is power, and vice versa.
idea of
interchangeable with
Macherey is tempted to call virtue the sense of the possible that projects each
individual toward existence, and coincides with its effort to realise its nature
(199,1b:45). Hc tells us that "virtue, which is the ethical principle par excellence,
from
far
a subn-ussionto a transcendent rule that establishes the connection
is
118
SPINOZA:
between absolute values that
THE GOD-INTOXICATEDMAN
would impose themselvesregardlessof the nature of
the individual toward which they orient their activities; it consists on the contrary
in doing all that one can to be and act in conformity with one's nature, and doing
this to the maximum, finding an immanent clý-narnicwhose orientations are
fundamentally positive and affirmative" (45). To desire to be autonomous
would
be contrary to one's nature and would be impotence. Given the affections we
have, we are as perfect as we can be JI. d.6). But if we lack nothing at any given
i
how
instant
can we speak of ethics?
11U. confrontation
and sacrilege; contesting
Morality
A man as he ought to be: that sounds to us as insipid as a "tree as it ought to
be".
Friedrich Nietzsche, Tbe 11"illto Power(1901: §332,181).
Let us finally consider how naive it is altogether to say: Man ought to be such
and such! Reality shows us an enchanting wealth of types, the abundance of a
lavish play and change of forms [ ].
...
Friedrich Nietzsche, TmilýTljtof Me Idols. (1889: §6,46).
Spinoza's ethics is an ethology. 19 It is concerned with modes of Being, whereas
'something'
Being.
Morality, according to
that
there
to
morality implies
is
superior
Deleuze, Judges Being (2/12/80)
This
to
it
idea
since appeals essencesand values.
be
has
been
that
to
that
is
realised.
realised,
of essence implies something
not yet
Morality is a systern of Judgement comparing beings with an abstract essence that
they are supposed to reahse. One does not behave ethically through a conception
because
desire
but
judged
duty
things
are
good
we
of
or universal principles,
them.
By opposing
'what
Deleuze
Nforahty,
that
ethics asks
argues
tmi we
ethics and
do?', while Nforahtv asks 'what sbouldwe do?' Ethics asks 'to what extent arc \vc
A
from
tý-pology of immanent modes of
our powers of actlngý'
separated
119
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
MAN
existence operating through principles of natural right is opposed to duty-based
morality that refers to transcendent values which demands adherence to them.
The moral Law is an imperative that makes nothing knm, and at
worst prevents
ý-n
knowledge (Deleuze, 1981a: 24). Any norm is an abstract and empty figure
which
presents itself as absolute JV.
By
).
taking a transcendent vie,\X-point,
ax.
is
(Deleuze,
1990a: 146). "Processes are becomings, and
movement
arrested
be
judged by some final result but by the way they proceed and their
to
aren)t
power to continue, as With animal becomings, or nonsubjective individuations
There are no universals, only singularities" (146).
The immoralist beyond good and evil, Spinoza does not disavow good and bad.
He adopts a perspectival approach. What is good is when the relations of one's
body are composed with the relations of another body in such a -,,a)- that our
,
power of acting increases.What is bad is when the bodý-'srelation is decomposed
since the relation of the other body combines with (but does not agreewith) our
essence.Ethics is a practice of organising encounters in such a waýTthat one's
for
being
"while
capacities
affecting and
affected are compounded,
preserving or
respecting the other's own relations and world [...]" (Deleuze, 1981a: 126). This is
dynamic
idea pren-usedupon the notion of the composition of power. However
a
Spinoza does not adopt an egoistic or individualistic stance, for reasons I have
has
figure
how
One
live
to
to
explained.
out
well With others.
In his seminars on Spinoza, Deleuze develops his idea of the individual. He does
by
kinds
knowledge
found
EtIV,
(imagination,
the
three
the
paralleling
in
so
of
's
love
God)
kinds
(affection-ideas,
the
three
intellectual
reason and
of
of ideas
with
notion-ideas and essence-ideas).
\N,'c are born into ignorance and operate through the mechanisms of the
defines
"as
Spinoza
Macherey
the
that
mind
a machine to
says
imagination.
248).
The
(1997a:
imagination is understood in terms
imagine and nothing else"
of the traces
body,
M other N-vordsthe v,-ay that
of images imprinted on a
69See Deleuze (1981 a) especialk chapter six "Spinoza and Us".
1 '-l()
THE
GOD-INTOXICATED'MAN
'SPINOZA:
body
a
is affected by another body. The imagination
conditions our relation with
the world and others. Hence the problem is how to adapt ourselves to reality in
such a waý, that we can maximise our powers of acting. How can vvc lessen the
pressure put on us by external causeswhich enslave us in situations and alienate
(212).
usý
Every individual is complex, made of an infinity of parts. These have different
relations of speeds and slownesses. By using the term 111ditidullm,Spinoza
demonstrates this complexity
since this is said of that which is indivisible
Nacherey, 1997a: 36-7). What Spinoza appears to be saying is that singular things
from
dynamic
bodies,
result
therefore, were they to be
a
assemblage of other
divided this could not occur without them changing in nature. The conclusion
Spinoza draws from this is that if the relations that constitute our body change in
such a way that our characteristic relation is destroyed, we die.
It is in the interest of humans to multiply the relations they have with their milieu
life,
of
maximising their powers, thresholds and capabilities. To be human is not
be isolated but to multiply relations. Deleuze elaborates a conception of an
intensive multiplicity that seeksto explore the thresholds of this 'ufflity in plurality'
by cultivating transversal relations with all kinds of things. These kinds of
operations are called 'becoMings' since they open spacesof transmutation while
retaining a consistency of their own.
The 'self as multiplicity is an emergent and complex self, constituted through
defmed
bodies
kinds
thresholds of
relations with all
of other
and ideas, with
from
just
"Urnty
as the
is precisely what is missing
multiplicity,
existence.
Transcendence
from
(1990a:
146).
("it's
raining")"
cvents
subject's what's n-ussing
'unity
the
in plurahty' is
is an operation that relies upon abstraction, so
understood in the same senseas the machinic assemblage,as a grasping together
of
heterogeneous components in such a way that they maintain their
The
individual is emergent, not primary.
independence.
121
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-I'-', ýTOXICATEDMAN
Affections are the effects of the image of a thing on me. This makes no claim
about the nature of the object. Increasing the affections of -\ý-hich"ý-eare capable
increasespower. Prejudging the limitations of affections decreasespower, in that
part of my power becomes inactive. .ýffections (afttio) are the dimension of
instantaneity.
Each affection envelops a passageor transition that is called an affect (q&dlls).
This is similar to Bergson's idea of duration. It refers to a passage that is
It
irreducible. is an idea of an affection of the body corresponding to an increase
decrease
or
in its power of acting. The relations which are composed or
decomposed relate to affects. We either become more or less active. If we are
this
from
passive
means we are cut off
our powers of acting.
Edwin Curley criticises Spinoza for a lack of normative content in his philosophy.
Like Blyenbergh he asks - how can we condemn a tyrannical government or an
distinguish
between
from
letters
How
The
evil actý
can we
exchanged
vice
virtue?
Blyenbergh and Spinoza touch upon these themes. Willem van Blyenbergh first
himself
Spinoza
1665.
He
to
in
as a
was a grain merchant who presents
wrote
him,
delighted
Spinoza
the
truth.
to
is of course
saying
correspond with
seeker of
"For I believe that such a loving friendship affords us a serenity surpassinganý,
letters
begin
boon
(Ep.
19:
132)
the
on
in the whole wide world"
and so
other
Evil (Ep. 18-24, Ep. 27). I only want to touch on a few points in these letters as
they relate to the themes in this chapter.
In the first letter, Spinoza takes issue with an anthropomorphic conception of
God. He explains that the Holy Scripture tries to present things to humans in a
Adam
However,
to
the
not to eat
command given
way that they can understand.
did
God
by
God
that the apple was poisonous.
not
the apple was a revelation
depl()ý-a moral prohibition but revealed the natural consequencesof eating the
for
bad
but
There
1'
19:
(Flp.
that
me.
in itself
only
which is
is no eN-11
)5).
apple
HaN-Ingreceived Blyenbergh's lengthý-, detailed and furious response Spinoza
he
but
little
haN-e
to
continues
write.
thc\,
in
common,
realises
I
-)-)
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
MAN
He admits that he does not understand the Holy Scripture and believes that God
communicates, not through the Holy Scripture, but through the natural
understanding given to us. He states that God's nature is not the same as the
nature of man (Ep. 21). Spinoza also chastisesBlyenbergh for not understanding
the nature of the dependence of things on God, saying "If you had apprehended
by pure intellect the meaning of dependence on God, you would certainly not
think that things, in so far as they depend on God, are dead, corporeal and
has
dared
(Who
basely
to
imperfect.
ever
speak so
of the supremely perfect
Being?)" (Ep.21: 156).
Spinoza confessesthat he is astonished at Blyenbergh's suggestionthat if God did
life
from
leaping
into a
not punish wrongdoing nothing could stop us all
of crime.
If it is only the fear of punishment that stops us from doing such things, we do
because
from
love
himself
does
He
these
it is
acts
not act
or virtue.
not commit
love
from
his
lead
him
the
and
particular nature, and would
astray
opposed to
knowledge of God (Ep.21: 156). Blyenbergh writes back, hurt at Spinoza's
be
directed
bringing
to
that
might also
reproofs
up a number of questions
Spinoza by critics today. They are summarisedby Spinoza as follows:
1. Is murder as pleasing to God as almsgiving?
2. Is stealing, in relation to God, as good as righteousness?
3. If there were a mind to whose particular nature the pursuit of pleasure
have
but
any
agreeable, could it
and villainy was not repugnant,
23:
(Ep.
do
good and avoid evil?
virtuous motive that must move it to
167)
In response to the first question, Spinoza points out that God is not a perfect
Neither
by
he
the righteous man nor
is not pleased one thing or another.
man so
displeasure.
Nonetheless
God
men are not equally
pleasure or
the t1ilef can cause
The
is
wliether
question
gives
alms.
and
one
murders
if
one
perfect
and
good
be
(though
they may
in their execution).
these actions are equally perfect
L,
-1)
SPINOZA.
THE GOD-INTO'X-ICATED
MAN
To elucidate this point, let us take the response to question I
presupposes a contradiction,
This question
Spinoza,
says
since you might as well ask him
"whether, if it accorded better with a man's nature that he should hang himself,
there would be any reason why he should not hang himself However, suppose it
possible that there could be such a nature. Then I saý-(whether I grant free will or
he
live
better
his
that
that
if
not)
anyone sees
the
than
can
on
gallows
at
own
table, he would be very foolish not to go and hang himself'
(Ep. 23: 168).
Likewise if a more perfect life and better essence could be attained through
be
foolish
villainy, a person would
not to take that route. In effect, such ideas go
Spinoza
has
human
the
against everything
the
written about
essence of
as tonattls,
as we will see.
God is the cause of cverything that has essence.However c6l, error and villainy
do not consist in anything that expressesessence.The difference between Nero's
Orestes's
devoid
'ungrateful,
Nero
that
matricide
is
and
was
of compassion and
because
his
Orestes
mother
obedience', while
committed an act of sacredrevenge
killed his father Agamemnon. Both acts were the same,both intentions were the
however
the association of the image of the action with the image of the
same,
thing was not the same.
Orestes associated his act not with the murder of his mother, Clytemnestra, but
direct
father.
There
his
composition of relations, and an
was a
murdered
with
laws
by
Obviously
decomposition
the
of sacred
abiding
of relations.
1.
ndirea
he
day
but
is saying is that no
in essence,what
revenge is not appropriate in our
36).
bad
Deleuze
1981a:
(Deleuze,
action considered in itself alone is good or
(13/1/81) sun-imarisesthis saying that every action must be considered ftom two
do,
bo&
bodý7,
can
what a
perspectives: the image of the act as a power of the
bears.
The
the
thing
relation of
upon -\N-hich act
and the image of the associated
between
these t,\N-o.
association is
What is bad is NN-lien
an act is associated ,vith the image of a thing whose relation
124
SPINOZA:
THE GOD- INTOXI CATED MAN
decomposed
bý the act. If I raise my arm and move
is
downwards
force
tli
this expressesthe power of my body. If I am hitting another person, I decompose
a relation and this is bad, if 1 am harrunering a protruding nafl, I compound a
relation and this is good. Good and bad is not a question of -\x-hatsuits me, but
what agreeswith me (Deleuze, 1981a: 35).
This correspondence is cut off by Spinoza, most likely becausehe feels it would
be dangerous to communicate with Blyenbergh any further, rather than due to an
inabihty to respond to Blyenbergh's questionS.70
111.
xi. the art of immersion
Composing relations is like swimming, says Deleuze (14/5/73). It is a kind of
savoirfiýire.If we think of it in terms of rhythms, this becomes more clear. If
body
I
to
that
is
swimming an art of composing relations, need ensure
my
enters
knocking
down
the
the
a relation with
me
wave, without
wave submerging me or
drowning
body
I
to
the
me. need
and
modify
movements of my
in accordance
This
the
the
rhythms
requires improvisation, experimentation and
of
with
wave.
knowledge
It
theoretical
is useless. is apbronesi's.
cunning and objective or
Similarly, common notions are not subject to the imagination since they deal with
38).
These
JI.
that
pr.
are not just an
objects
are non-existent in nature; relations
body.
The
the
the
common notions are adequate ideas.
affections of
effect of
They are not just opinions or the sensori-motor images that are cliches. They
have no universal claim but are good in function of the usageto which they are
put, concerning the relations of singular things.
Macherey (1997a: 360-1) explains that adequate knowledge involves a gradual
70 Blyenbergh's
long
booklet
Spinoza
to
an
extremely
on
ý\Ith
write a short
response was
title The knowlecige ol'God and his service affirmed against the outrages of athel .sts, in
has
God
demonstrat
that
created and rei-caled
ed with clear and natural reasons
which it is
be
in
that
thc
God
this
to
and
with
religion,
accordance
that
served
wishes
also
a religloi7,
Christian religion corresponds not onli, to the religion revealed bY God, but also to our
be
Spinoza
to
Clearl,
cautious.
correct
was
I'LUS017.
I.1117(IIL'
'r
SPINOZA: THE GOD
XICATED
-INTO
-.\IAN
transition, rather than a rupture, from the regime of the imagination. It is like a
fish in water since adequate knowledge of the infinite
God
and eternal essence of
exists as a condition making possible movements and modes of being. Imagining
C)
C)
is inadequate because it is a privation, cut off from reaht\-. We develop our
potentialities by incorporating more and more things, but this requires a specific
mental attitude which involves understanding our relation with other things. It is
interests
that we find better ways of living together (405-6)
in our
Having adequate ideas does not mean that the mind affirms a greater power of
control over the body. It is to comprehend more things and increase a power of
thinking, while also developing "a body capable of the greatestnumber of things"
(quicorpusad aptumplun"Mahabet)(V. pr. 39).
When I act, I do not decide everything in advance and set down a series of rules
in relation to which I gauge a situation. For instance, rather than condemning Le
Pen's supporters as reactionary, xenophobic and fascist, Guattari asks why are
large portions of the French population, especially workers, embracing this
do
lose
hope
If
ideology.
of
not engage in a pragmatic response we
all
we
'rhizomatising' that component. Guattarl calls this dissensus.
The individual is a singular essence,that is, a degree of power, and a characteristic
body)
differential
(of
the
relations of movement and rest constituting its
relation
for
being
We
both
to
to
this
are
a capacity
affected.
essenceand
corresponds
but
the
source of our affections,
we are passiveif we submit and
active if we are
former
happens
In
to
the
case our powers of acting are
react to whatever
us.
lowest
latter
What
the
pertains to an
ebb.
increased, and in
we operate at our
essenceis a state or an affection insofar as it expressesan absolute quantity of
39).
1981a:
(Deleuze,
reality
An essence is an intensive quantity. It is inseparable from a threshold. Spinoza
but
individuation,
This
callsit aparf potentiae. involves a quantitativeconceptionof
but
It
the
is a special
same as an extensive part,
this quantity is an intensity. is not
126
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATEDMAN
part./' In a letter to iMeyer(Ep.12: 105), Spinozadescribesa peculiar conception
of infinity. He draws two non-concentric circles, one within the other. The sum
of the inequalitiesof the spacebetweenthesecirclesexceedany number, likeNvise
the variation in the speedof matter moving in that area.This '\-,
be
-ould the case
regardlessof the sizeof the portion we took. It is infinite and limited.
There is a maximum and a minimum. There is a limit and a threshold. Similarlv, a
degree of power is the difference between this maximum and minimum. It is
therefore, Deleuze (20/01/81) tells us, a difference in itself As a degreeof power
has
latitude.
In
it
a
chapter 5,1 want to draw upon this idea of the unequal in
how
to
the disparate is a key moment in thinking difference-in-Its elf.
order
show
Deleuze makes a link here between the idea of intensiVe quantities and that of
differential calculus (ashe does in Differen(vandRepetitim).
Things are powers for Spinoza. They do not bavepower but they are power, and
force.
ýn intensive quantitý- replaces the idea of an
power is a quantity of
The
defines
An
longer
the
thing.
intensive
essence.
quantity
essence is no
described qualitatively (Man is a rational animal', 'NIan is a featherlessbiped') but
be
terms
the
to
is understood in
of
capacities
affect and
affected of singular
things.
John Rawls does not look at these capacities when he formulates his effectively
distributive model of justice. A formal definition of powers and rights can have
farmer,
formal
Like
Malawian
the
rights must
no effects since it remains abstract.
be backed up by an effective power to act, otherwise these concepts are simply hp
definition
We
this
this
of
concrete aspect of
service.
need to concentrate on
power.
We find a remarkable extension of this reading of Spinoza in //I ThousalidPlateaus.
Becomm
Becomuý
Inserted in the 1750: Becomnigo-bilense,
ýg
-An'IN/al,
'T-Imperceptible...
71 1 xvill explain this distinction between intensive quantit,,,,.and extensity and quality in
difference.
his
develops
how
Deleuze
b\
5.
of
philosophy
showing
chapter
I -)-,
SPINOZA: THE GOD- INTOXI CATED '\I-NN
plateau, Memories
of a Spinozist,
1. discusses the idea of longitude: the
differential relations of movement and rest, speedsand slownessesthat constitute
the characteristic relation of the individual. The simple bodies that constitute a
limit point are only distin gul'shed in terms of movement and rest, slowness and
I
speed. They have no form or function. These always come in greater or Icsser
infinities. In this way we can understand that every individual is an infinite
multiplicity.
Things are distinguished from one another in terms of these
differential relations of speed and slowness. They call this the Ion91
itude of the
individual. "It is a question not of organization but of composition
(Deleuze
Guattari,
1980:
255).
and
Memories of a Spinozist, H. informs us that to each relation of movement and
rest, speed and slowness grouped in an infinity, there corresponds a degree of
The
latitude
degree
the
power or potential.
is
of an individual
of power that
differential
It
these
to
correlates
relations. is an intensive part and concerns the
be
Guattari
Deleuze
to
the
capacity
individual.
affected of
and
give Von Uexkuu's
light
has
by
The
the
tick.
tick
three
so it
affects; it is attracted
example of
branch;
drops
to
the
it is sensitive
on a
manoeuvres onto a
smell of mammals and
find.
burrows
hairy
bit
Until
that
the
a
mammal
passes;it
into
most
of skin it can
fasts;
'pessimal'
When
this
threshold.
the
tick
is
its
a
mammal passes,
waits and
degree
dies;
by,
feasts
'optimal'
Its
threshold.
this
then
is its
it
mammal comes
and
limits.
limits
These
are not contours,
of power is a quantum that operates within
but the intensities or affects of which something is capable (257). Deleuze and
Guattari. say that you are an haecceity "You are longitude and latitude, a set of
between
unformed particles, a set of nonsubjectified
speeds and slownesses
(262).
affects"
Etienne Bahbar argues that the object of Spinozist ontoloPT is individuation, "or
Me ýi#ýrellivqfadi'Piý,ftom
But this difference, which is nothing but the
It
is immediately
movement of its own production, is also an originaty umty.
'practical"' (Bahbar, 1990: 58). The individual is conceived as both t,s,ý-elltvand
effect.
12
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-IN'FO'-", 'ICATEI)
MA', ý
The individual is thought synthetically in Spinoza. Consequentl\-, mechanistic
fall
accounts
to communicate his subtle account of processes of 1ndiv1duation.
Indeed my argument with Negri, that I alluded to in the last chapter, is that Negri
fails to think the processof individuation, settling for a description of the
interactions of actualised and individuated beings in terms of tendencial action
(Negri, 1981: 146). His 'real' concept of potentiaas a tension internal to being is
fleshed
not
out thoroughly (44).
111.
xii. decentering
the human
What we find here is still the hyperbolic naivete of man: positing himself as the
meaning and measure of the value of things.
Friedrich Nietzsche, TI)e lf"'ill to Pomer(190 1: §12B, 14).
Finalism is an illusion for Spinoza. Nature has no ends set beyond it, as though its
later
Centuries
Darwinism put paid to a
to
only purpose was
arrive at a goal.
human centred conception of Nature, but its legacy remains. The Appendix that
the first part of the Etbicsends with is a baffle-cry against such illusions.
Heretical, vibrant, scathing-,this Appendix is an extraordinary read, especially
Deleuze
the
passages.
claims that
cool, systematicpreceding
when compared with
but
Etbics;
first
the
there are three
moves through the moregeomeftito, the second is
Spinoza's
last
V
full
(the
is part
when
of whirlwinds and surprises
magical,
develops his idea of beafitudo).Spinoza's rousing attack on the anthropomorphic
heretical
humans
God
today.
the
even
appear
of
would
and
vanity
of
conception
Humanitýyis ripped from its pedestal and put in its place as a part of nature. Many
by
draws
he
today
environmentalists and
upon are used
of the arguments
humans
face
to
the
rights
of
the
of
claims
of
unabated
in
activists
progressivist
(as
dominate
nature
well as one another) with abandon.
exploit and
Mere are three illusions of consciousnessaccorchng to Deleuzeý-the illusion of
20).
Such
(1981a:
freedom
iflusion
finahtv, the
a
and the theological illusion
of
129
SPINOZA:
THE GOD INTO--',,-I CATED MAN
-
typical human prejudice is the attribution of final causes to things. Humans
assume that since they act in terms of an end, so too do all natural things- Spinoza
notes that they even think that God rules with a given end in mind, and imagine
that God made humans to honour him. His response to the claim that humans
have free will is well known
down
hill
believes
the
the
stone rolling
it
- and so
free
rolls of its
accord.
People are born ignorant of the causes of things, but theY all look for what is
useful to them. Since they are conscious of their \,ohtions and appetites, they
believe themselves free. However they ignore the causesdisposing them to such
They
appetites.
act in terms of utility and are simply obsessedwith attributing
final causes to things. All around there are plenty of things that are useful to
them; eyes to see, teeth to chew, plants and animals to eat..., so they think that
these things have been put there for them. Things are means to their ends.
-And
for
these
things
there
them? God. Responding in this manner ignores
who put
the embedded and situated relational reality that humans are a part of, as a part of
design
humanity).
Nature
(and
themselves,
nature
imposing instead a grand
on
Nature has no final end prescribed to it, becauseit lacks nothing.
Falling prey to fear and superstition, constructs of the imagination, people search
for meanings and signs of God's will in the world. Spinoza gives an example of
the person who is hit and killed by a stone falling off a roof. By instigating a
blow
did
'why?
'
(why
the
at
potentially infinitely regressive series of asking
wind
that moment? why did this person happen to be passing the house just thený)
This
fallacious
God's
that
this
is the
conclusion
was
will.
people arrive at the
be
demonstrates
how
Ium
ignorance and stupidity can
used
asý,
of ignorance, and
to argue for and maintain authority. By not understanding the li(itllre of things,
humans imagine things, and affirm nothing in things. Theý- behc\-e there is a
This
things.
the
just reflects a
nature of
created order without understanding
human disposition and preference for order.
Humans have madc themselves abstractions, bhnkered to the complex nature of
130
SPINOZA:
THE GOD- I\TOXICATED
NIAN
their bodies and minds and the ways they are affected. This practical attitude of
led
for,
has
seeking out what is useful to, and hence %,,
to an
-hat is good
us
instrumental attitude toward real-ity. This tendency to isolate things from their
context as though things were predisposed to play a role as ends for hurnans,
compounds a conception of final causesin which there is an objecti\-e reahty, or
teleology. Becausehumans are conscious of their actions, theýýbelieve themselves
free and set themselves above the laws of Nature. His immanent phi-losophy
chaflenges the invocation of any transcendent principles with the remarkable
phrase 'God, that is, Nature' (DeussiveNatura).
"Our understanding of responsibility is restrained by thinking individuals as
bordered territories, firmly separatedfrom others in such a way that the issue of
hes
where responsibility
is always in principle determinable. Spinoza's treatment
of
individuality
-
especially that
aspect of
it
which
Bahbar terms
'transindividuahty'- gives insight into the nexus between individual and collective
identity" (Gatens and Lloyd, 1999: 74). All acts are inscribed within a network of
pre-estabhshed relations (Macherey, 1992: 137). Responsibility, then, must be
thought in terms of our embedded relationships in a collective that may be
presently enjoying the comforts that derive from historically reprehensible acts.
Spinoza's ethics is an ethics of liberation that frees us relativelý-from the bondage
born
does
for
It
that
into. is a search
not rest
and ignorance we are
commonality
dynamical
fictions
It
and ossified essences. is a philosophy of
upon abstract
being
equilibrium that moves us toward greater powers of acting, thinking and
from
It
Nature.
is a philosophy that impels us to
without abstracting ourselves
To
believes
finitude
act is
eternity is not the same as immortality.
and
accept
do
His
danger,
but
lives
analytic is one
no other.
in
we can
perilous, putting our
Such
for
displaý,
the mechanisms
an
realising ethical transition.
that serN,
es to
learn
but
does
on trying to
what you are capable of,
not rest on abstraction,
ethics
lived
life
Rather
In-nits
It
than
it
the
affects,
overcoming
edge.
on
is
are.
your
wliat
is,a rationaht), of the affects.
131
SPINO/A:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
NL\N
"Spinoza always thinks of the individual sý-nthetically,as the result of a movement
of totalisation which began before it and continues beyond its own timit'S"
(Niacherey, 1992: 121). The individual is a part of nature. This is not to say that it
be
definition
decomposed,
Such
.
.
.
tanqiiam
cannot
that it exists
a
i.mpenI/M I./11mpeno.
be
definition.
finds
its
Instead,
would
an analytic
it
principle of existence in the
belongs
from
be
to
whole(s) which it
and
separatedin a relatl\-e
which it can only
manner. Nature is not made of parts isolable one from the other. The conception
body
be
but
bodies
limit
Rather
of a simple
is
must
an abstraction, it is a
point.
thought of in terms of their differential relations, their speeds and slownesses,
movements and rest.
Humans need to learn to see themselves as a part of nature (parsnaturae)subject,
like God, to the laws of Nature. The use of the term God is not just a practice of
for
but
difficult
Spinoza
the
process of reconcerns
subterfuge and camouflage
dynamical
By
Spinoza
thinking
as a
situating crucial philosophical problems.
philosopher of process we can perhaps avoid the temptation to prioritise one
term (substance) above the other (the modes) and understand that Naturing
Nature is a causality that invests the whole field of reality. Such a move does not
liberation
how
but
human
liberty,
is an
sImphTshows
close off the possibility of
finite,
complex and
ongoing activity that accepts and embraces our existence as
be
Spinoza's
this
beings.
It
called an antiphilosophy can
is in
way that
relational
human humanism.
By no longer seeing ourselves apart from nature, we can begin to understand
freedom. We no longer fetishise ourselves and other things. Necessity is an
by
does
freedom.
But
dimension
to
this
our nature
run
contran,
not
of
essential
force.
It
hniitatl'\T
the
that
is
not
individual
means
understanding
C
a
as
operating
but
embedded in a complex network of relations.
isolated,
III.Xiii.
transitions
feel
Spinoza
LthiCs,
last
and experience
In the astonishing
saysthat Nve
part of the
his
has
he
led
has
This
to
on
reneged
say
some
phrase
that we are eternal.
13 2
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTOXICATED
MAN
immanent philosophy accusing him of talking about the immortality
of the soul,
others see it as a lapse into mysticism. But what is this beatitudothat is the third
kind of knowledge (V. pr. 32. corr. ) that he says is a knowledge sub jpe6-ie
aetertlitalas
(\ T. pr-29)ý It is not an abstract thought of a never-ending duration, a long linear
time but something more similar to Bergson's concept of duration. It is a very
based
from
the
that
concrete experience,
in
present,
comes
a practice that strives
to see things globally.
The imagination
always grasps things as past and
but
this affirmation of necessity is a love of the present, an amor_pficontingent,
We are both finite and a part of nature. Spinoza is saying that we cannot
loving
understand without
and this moment is a synthesis of the rational and the
affective.
In my next chapters, I want to explore how Deleuze takes and transforms
Spinoza's philosophy of immanence. At times especiallyin the seminars,Deleuze
drops tasty morsels into his narrative that seem to align Spinoza with the
he
he
himself
(20/1/81)
difference
For
says
philosophy of
articulates.
example,
that a degree of power is always an intensive quantity, a difference of difference.
Unfortunately at this point the transcript indicates that the tape ends, so I do not
know how he might have expanded on this theme.
Although Spinoza's is undoubtedly a philosophy of force, power, becoming and
direction
further
be
developed
the
of a
in
transformation, these ideas can
SiMondon's
Through
concept of metastability, the
transcendental empiricism.
but
This
longer
through
intimated
idea
is
real.
possible
a
non-realised
is
no
virtual
however,
.a
the reality of a tense and
potenti
the idea that
is a power in act;
draw
day.
I
Spinoza's
difficult
have
been
to
conceive in
would
system
metastable
Spinoza
brings
he
Bahbar
bý,
Etienne
together
in which
upon a useful short piece
links
thinkers.
Simondon
these
of
to
potential
some
exan-une
and
Any system or individual, for Simondon, is more than identitv and more than
Image
Deleuze
the
of
I
calls
the
of
what
in
context
this
proposition
unity. situate
been
has
difference
here
thought in itself and
that
not
I-Iought. Deleuze argues
133
SPINOZA:
THE GOD-INTO-NICATED
MAX
endeavours to develop a series of concepts to do so. I argue that his concept ()f
chfference-in-itself as disparate enables us to retain a philosophy of immanence
developing
while
a more expansive account of processes of inchviduation and
singularisation through the notion of the pre-individual field or the problematic.
This propels the notion of continuous variation into an arena where divergence
be
can
affirmed.
Ill. xiv. the disparate and the possible toward the pre-individual
In my next chapter I want to follow up on some of the many ideas and concepts
that surround the 'image of thought' chapter in DOeremeand Repelifion,a theme I
Through
5.
to
these two chapters I shall explicate the
return
in chapter
will
difference
concepts of
disparate,
the
intensity,
individuation,
and pre-in-its elf,
individual singularity. Using these concepts I will show how the idea of nomos
becoming,
demonstrate,
to
the
relates
concept of
and will
utdising the work of
Etienne Bahbar, the role of the pre-individual and transindividual in Spinoza's
work.
There is a link between thought and individuation. Individuation does not
fields
fluid
determination
"It
through
intensive
of
of species. involves
proceed
a
factors which no more take the form of an I than of a Self [ ] It is inseparable
...
from a pure ground that it brings to the surface and trails with it" (1968a: 152).
This field coexists with the individual though the individual is unilaterally
distinguished from it 'like lightning across a dark sky'. What relation does the
Untimely have to the actual?Through the concept of a pre-individual field, I will
his
how
Deleuze
Laruelle's
is a philosophical idealist, showing
claim that
counter
I
Finally,
fidelity
betray
does
difference
to immanence.
will
a
not
concept of
further
ethico-political implications of this approach.
exan-une
134
SlMO\DO-N'S
IV.i.
CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGS
paradox
The same terms are used to describe ice deserts as sand deserts: there is no line
separating earth and sky; there is no intermediate distance, no perspective or
contour; visibility is limited; and yet there is an extraordinarily fine topology
that relies not on points or objects, but rather on haecceities, on sets of
(winds,
relations
undulations of snow or sand, the song of the sand or the
creaking of ice, the tactile qualities of both). It is a tactile space, or rather
"haptic", a sonorous much more than a visible space.
Gilles Deleuze and F6hx Guattari, A ThousandPlateaus.(1980: 382).
In an English collection of her work entitled Powerand Inrention: Sihlafiý:g S(,i'ence,
Isabelle Stengers examines the question of relevance, and the notion
of a
domain
11ya
In
the
problem, in
a piece originally written with
concrete
of science.
Prigogine, she explores 'The Reenchantment of the World'. They argue that while
for
It
this
to
is
understand it.
science is the art of manipulating nature, it also tries
reason that it occupied a territory
writings.
"Like
concerned with
between epistemeand tec'bnein Aristotle's
ýristotle's gods, the simple machines of dynamics are only
have
They
themselves.
nothing
have
learn;
they
to
rather
They
lose
from
the
to
simulate an ideal that
outside.
any contact with
everything
72
35).
(1979:
ývnamlt,
the
ýystem
will actualize"
1
"The foederafali are replaced by the foederanaturae,which, as Serres emphasizes,
designate both the "laws" of nature - local, singular, historical relations between
law
for
battle
A
(49).
"alliance",
perennial
things - and an
a contract with nature"
bv
that
turbulent
can embrace singulantv.
science
a
is
subverted
and masten,
be
Deleuze's
logic,
FIxtending this
called a
philosophy cannot
we can surrMsethat
kind
but
Kantian
of
a
term,
the
constitutes
the
of
sense
in
critical philosophy,
critical
he
"I
As
remake
make,
says,
the
problems.
posing
of
is
art
ontology which
and unmake
decentered
from
horizon,
an alwavs
my concepts along a moving
differenciates
them
displaced
from
and
repeats
which
peripherýan alwa)-s
centre,
72These simple machines are those like the cannonball in a \acuum and the ideal pendulum
135
SINIONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
(1968a: xxi). The subject is no longer
BECOMINGS
an active subject "endow-ed with projects,
intentions, and Nvill [ ]" (Pngogine and Stengers,1979: 56), but a Ian-al self.
...
In the next chapter, I will suggestthat Deleuze's
philosophy can be understood in
terms of a radicalisation of pbronesi's.
Michel Serres, according to Prigogine and
Stengers, also evoked the intelligence
of peasants and seafarers in order to
describe an intelligence premised upon respect for the
As humans, we incessantly modify the
world in which they live.
By
world.
cultivating a 'respect' for nature,
we also ceaseJudgiq other knowledges and practices, opting instead to interbreed
,
with them, creating novel communications and unnatural nuptials. This approach
epitonlises what Guattarl calls a 'meta-modehsation' or a 'schizo-modehsation',
which refuses the judgements of a 'definitive' model of thinking.
"This world that seems to have renounced the
security of stable, permanent
norms is clearly a dangerous and uncertain world" (58). This is the time for the
new alliances. Paradox, not doxology. Our relation with the world is not, and
be,
harmonious
cannot
a pacified and
one. It remains fraught with, and
dependent upon, dissonance and disparity. What would reason be
capable of if
"liberated from the disciplinary models that normalize it
(Stengers, 1989:
130)? For William James this IS pragmatism; philosophy pursuing its adventures
(1907: 101). Like NEchel Serres, James focuses on conjunctive relations,
like
'With' and 'through', to explain this radical empiricism which he
prepositions
describesas a 'mosaic philosophy'.
In Gilbert Simondon's work we find a processualphilosophy that takesissuewith
the propensity to abstract and isolate the individual. As a critique of a model of
being, premised upon the notion of the individual, it is superb; as an exposition
being
it
for
the
of another model of
as metastable, opens up
possibibty
us of
inchvidual
dimensions
(a
thanthe
term \vC \611
showing
moreof aný-individual
for
Drawing
the
to
continue
sake of convenience).
out the non-human
use only
beconUngsof the human is part of the process of reinventing the human. Tracing
a subjectiviq that is not the property of the individuated subject tli\varts a
136
SIMONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECO-MINGS
subJect-object opposition, grasping subjectivity as a process, or a hetero
's,that
geiiesi
,
transverses different domains. The ethico-pohtical implications of tl-ýs will be
made clear in the final chapter. We are no longer ourselves. Beconuingsare not
solely esoteric conceptual inventions, but help us to understand our non-human
and pre-human dimensions. It is the individual human that is an abstraction. For
this reason, Sirnondon continues with Spinoza's enterprise of understanding the
human as a part of nature.
IV.ii. thinking with the grain
Everything is obscure in the idea of creation if we think of things
which are
created and a thing which creates, as we habitually do.
Henri Bergson, CrealiveEvolution. (1911: 26 1).
Gilbert Simondon is a little known French philosopher of science.In fact,
much
him
has been sparked off through Deleuze's references to his
the
of
interest in
His
work.
writing on technology has been the cause of renewed debate and
discussion; however, it is his account of individuation I want to concentrate on.
Interestingly, SiMondon dedicated Lindividu et sa enýse
Iq
ique to th e
physit'o-b'
10
T
,g
memory of Maurice Nlerleau-Ponty. Toward the end of his life Nlerleau-Ponty
had begun to interrogate the idea of 'pre-objective being. Perhaps Simondon
here felt he had found a kindred spirit in his effort to move beyond both
phenomenology and positivism.
In the posthumously published The Visible and the Invisible (Follom)ed
by 11'orkiq
Notes),Merleau-Ponty saN,
s that we need to revise our ontology in order to talk
hidden
21).
(1964:
We
that
interrogate
about conditionings
escapeus or remain
learn
how
to
it opens us to that ,x-hich is not ourselves
our experience in order
being umvilling to
(159). Seeking to aN-oidinvoking transcendent principles, -\N-hile
level
'Flesh'
Nlerleau-Pontý`s
the
the
individuated empirical,
remain at
of
"N-as
waýbeing,,
\x-hilerefusing
of articulating a conception of an anonymous, pre-individual
to admit a pre-constituted \x-()rld. He calls it a "pregnancý- of possibles" (250).
137
SlINIONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
This common knot, beyond the point
BECOMINGS
of N-leN-,
- of the subject and the object, is the
modulation of being in the world.
For Nlerleau-Ponty too, the possible is not
a simple pre-formed reservoir
accompanied by a principle of choice. He argues that actualism must be
eliminated (since it is not true that everything is actual), proposing in its place a
being of be6'omzq
actual - that is, an actuality of the possible. As Henri Nfichaux
has lyrically observed, by breaking the
skin of things we learn how things become
things, and the world becomesworld.
Originally written as a doctoral thesis, Simondon's two books, LIndiridu
et sa
*A
pbýysico-b
venýse
i
zooTiqueand LIndh)iduafionp ýytbiqueet tolle(-five,
constitute
part of the
same project. They endeavour to grasp the process of individuation in its vety
becoming, rather than re-constituting it from
already individuated elements. In a
footnote to TheLoTh,qf Sense,
Deleuze expresseshis belief that LIndividu et Sagenese
has a special importance becauseit presents the "first thought-out
pbysit'o-bioloTique
theory of impersonal and pre-individual singularities" (1969: 344, n.3) providing a
new conception of the transcendentalfield.73
Simondon proposes an overall critique of the tools and models that we have
used
to approach concepts. In agreement with Bergson, he thinks the concepts we
have developed onlý7present us with snapshots of the world; we stumble before
Zeno's paradox, unsure of how to take another step. Individuals are not so many
potential immobilities.
Becoming is, for Simondon, infinitely
varied; the
dimension of being that opens up the possibilities of the world. Our banal and
static way of viewing the world is thrown into movement. Not onlý- is the
individual grasped as part of a wider reality, a part of nature, but its own reaht,\becomes partial, relative and brims Nxithpotentials. For these reasons,the process
73,This idea of the transcendental field is a
important
very
one, one ýýhich I cannot do justice
to within the confines of this thesis. I haNetried to show that although Deleuze develops a
philosophN he calls transcendental empiricism. this does not involve transcendence.A fuller
engagernent directed solelý toward this theme would also examine Kant and Kantian
detail.
in
great
philosophy
l, ')'8
SIMONDOVS
CRYSTALLINE
BECOMIN-GS
of individuation rather than the state of the individual is the focal point of our
enquiries.
Simondon asks two fundamental questions in relation to
individuation: why do
we assume that individuated being is the most interesting or e\-en the most
be
to
essentialreality
explained?Why do we also imagine that indi\-lduation has a
principle that is both prior to the process of individuation and which could
formation
the
explain
of the singular indi\-idual?
IV.iii. snapshots
But things and states are only views, taken by our mind, of becoming. There are
no things, there are only actions.
Henri Bergson, CreafireEvolution. (1911: 26 1).
Atomism and hylomorphism make the same mistake. Theý- think being in
accordance with the model of the one, and they presuppose the existenceof the
individual. According to Simondon, these have been the two primary ways of
approaching the reality of an individual being.,4Were we to pohticise these
points, we could suggest that liberal individualism effectively atormisessocietý-,
since it portrays it as a conglomeration of egoistic, possessiveindividuals that preexist the relations they enter into. Moreover, the pressures of a communitarian
bears
down
position
upon the singularities of a populace. The individual is made
to fit the group. SiMondon implores us to distinguish being as beiq' from being as
for
but
for
Individuation
philosophical,
I.11(lim'(111al.
also
ethico-political reasons as
his
thesis testifies, needs to be thought as a process. Like
the second volume of
Spinoza, he tries to navigate between the traditions of idealism and materialism,
but he also dc\-clops a unique conception of the individual that disrupts the
discourses of both communitarianism and liberal individualism. While not
II do not continue with the Heideggerian distinction of Being and being here because the
focuses
because
is
deliberate
I
Sirriondon
this
think
throughout
'ýtre'.
it
is a
move
uses
ord
ill
Being.
Fie
in
being
that
term
than
terms
argue
a
%ý
catch-all
rather
processes
of
singular
on
being.
frorn
pre-indi\
idual
Subject and obýjectcmerge
139
SIMONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGS
lose
he
the
the
to
the
wanting
singularity of
individual,
specificity or
also wants to
being,
develop
that
to
underscore
and
it is necessarilya relational
a conception of
he
becoming.
What
its essenceas
calls the pre-individual and the transindividual
Guattari
Deleuze
beconlings
to
that
the
relate
and
christen
which
non-human
of
the human.
Substantialist atomism provides us with a classic monism. It posits being as that
which consists in its unity, resisting that which it is not. Impermeable, impassive,
both
in
Resonances
itself and unengendered.
indifferent, it is
grounded
of this
discourse
the
of rights-based theory; the integrity of the
approach remain within
her
individual is often assumed and
relations With others are supplementat),
distributive
For
John
Rawls'
than
paradigm of justice
rather
example,
constitutive.
both presupposes and obscures these relations as it focuses on the individual
(I.M. Young, 1990: 20). For these kinds of reasons, Henry Shue (1980) criticises
this approach, appealing for a theory of rights and duties that acceptsand affirms
hand,
for
Hylomorphism,
the
the other.
paints a
other
on
responsibility to and
individual
dynamic
the
through
emerges as the
encounter
which
slightly more
has
TullýT
James
form
However,
shown us
and matter.
product of the meeting of
how the scored specificity of the individual, the venl different'e
of the individual,
be
planed and smoothed over with top-down theories that seek to assimilate
can
differences. In addition, the dogmatic image of thought that Deleuze identifies
has resonances with a hylomorphic operation, resting on a will to identity.
Differences are denied in both communitarianism and possessiveindividualism,
becauseof the resolute focus on the unity and identity of the individual, or of the
for
heterogeneity
Such
multiplicity.
and
real
space
no
provides
a
unity
group.
By complacently assurmng
not on1v
being
is
that the individuated, given, and constituted
be
but
to
that
the
needs
one
also
around,
the most interesting reahtý,
21),
trajectorý.
1964particular
(Simondon,
a
on
off
ourselves
set
we
explained
Hylomorphism and atomism both imagine that there is a pn'ntipleof individuation
anterior
found
be
reality
in
a
this
can
principle
and
itself,
to the individuation
140
Sl-'\10--\DO\'S
.
prior to
CRYSTALLI'-ý,: E BECOMINGS
-5
For
this reason, theNIbegin '\vith the
e process of individuation.
constituted individual, and try to detect from its presence the conditions of its
if
Yet
existence.
the constituted individual is given an ontological (and
explanatory) privilege, then the individual is torn and abstracted from the
processesof individuation and the system of reality that it is a part of We need to
develop a thought without image, a thought that can trace movements in their
becorMngs
singular
without assimilating them to an identitarian model. A thought
that can grasp difference.
Sffnondon says that if "Individuation
does not only produce the individual,
xe
would not seek to move so quickly through the stage of individuation to arrive at
the final reality that is the individual
]" (22). Instead, we would try "to know the
...
dii)iduation
ditidiiation
*
*
* dipidilaP (22). This
throiý
than
throughthe in
I.ndividual
gh in
in
rather
,
he
before
The
the
is
challenge
sets
implications of this approach are radical.
us.
It is no longer a question of imposing a form upon a matter but of elaborating
an increasingly rich and consistent material, the better to tap increasingly
intense forces. What makes a material increasingly rich is the same as what
holds heterogeneities together without their ceasing to be heterogeneous.
Gilles Deleuze and F6hx Guattarl,
--I
ThousandPlateaus.(1980: 329).
A technological approach to individuation envisagesthe sculptor chiselling stone,
The
the
activity of these artisans is viewed as the
carpenter carving wood.
or
Yet
form
this
the
the
materials.
passive matter of
upon
skilled imposition of a
Aný'
fabrication.
far
from
form
the reality of artisanal
cry
and matter is a
abstract
be
brimi-ningwith
prepared in
potentials and singularities; often it must
material is
If
advance. ý'()Llcut a piece of expensive wood against the grain it may split and
from
is
Guattari
Deleuze
that
royal science inseparable
argue
and
it.
ruln
ýýouwill
life
from
less
derives
than
hylomorph-ic
technology
and
that
it
this
model, saying
law
"It
369).
(1980:
the
from a society of governing and governed
is the idea of
important
is
individuated
the
realit,,
most
believe this presumption that
realitý
Deleuze
(like
HoNNever,
denigrates
Deleuze
the
that
actual.
Badiou's
contention
precipitates
iduation
indi\
(of
is
and singularisation).
Sirnondon) more concerned with processes
7ýI
141
SEMONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECO. 'MINGS
that assures the model's coherence, since laws are what submit matter to this
that form, and, conversely, reahze in matter a given property deduced from
or
the
form" (408).
Stmondon explains that the technological operation
involves an encounter of two
realities of heterogeneous domains) an encounter that institutes a mediation.
Matter is actively plastic, harbouring potentials,
and is not in the least passive.
Take the example of moulding clay. A whole
factors5
chain of
relations and
operations come into play in this process. These include the workplace, the
worker, and the microphysical chemical reactions that occur in the claý- at a
molecular level. (Deleuze and Guattaris term 'assemblage' communicates the
complex operations at play that far surpassa simple form-matter dichotomy.) The
Jýrm of the mould has no role but to Hn-dtand stabilise.
IV.iv. multiplicitous
beings
We are no longer ourselves. Each will know his own. We have been aided,
inspired, multiplied.
Gilles Deleuze and F6hx Guattari, A ThousandPlateaus.(1980: 3).
Traditional models of being have, according to SIMondon, rested upon the
conception of an ideal state of stable equilibrium. Becoming is thus presented as
the becoming of an already individuated being. Being is portrayed as substance.76
All its potentials extinguished, such a being lays exhausted at its lowest ebb,
further
transformations. For this reason, individuation has not been
incapable of
A
this
being
thought.
adequately
reliance upon
conception of
was understandable
has
been
since only relatively recently
a conception of metastable equilibrium
developed. The mcapacitý-to think of a system that could be more than unitý- and
be
both
itself and other than itself, prohibited
more than identitý-, that could
further.
The
from
being
Ancients,
the
taken
entire
intuitions such as those of
has
been,
Simondon's
Occidental
tradition of
in
philosophy
N-lew,a substantiahst
Un I ike Spinoza's substance which xNas, as Nvesaw. a dýnamIcal and actke being.
142
SIMONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGS
one since it has never seized the real individual in its genesis. It has accepted it
Deleuze's
(90).
gratefully as a given reality
conception of a o-eatedpossible that
precipitates a disparity or problematic develops some of the intuitions of a
transformational pragmatics. But -\-v-hat
ontology accompaniesthese intuitions-r
What if, however, being was no longer itself_ýWhat if being and becoming were
longer
but
dimensions
opposed,
of one system? Simondon's name for this
no
being.
This
being
thought
state of affairs is metastable
is a
of
as more than unitýboth
Since
Simondon
than
identity.
it is
and more
one and not-one,
calls it preindividual being. We no longer need to flail about in search of a pfintiple of
individuation, since the individuated term is neither presupposed nor privileged.
In this system, becoming is a dimension of being and it corresponds to the
býbeing
be
to
to
resolve itself
moving
out of phase with itself and
capacity of
through phases. Becoming is the dimension of being that constitutes "the mode
13),
(1989:
that
is rich in potentials"
of resolution of an initial incompatibility
being
framework
Individuation
than
through
is the
moves.
rather
a
which a
field
being.
Being
that is rich in potentials; these
is a
movement through phasesof
Being
dimensions.
is
heterogeneous
from
only as it
the
incompatibility of
result
bet,
omes.
We can only understand individuation if we grasp being as a supersaturated
be
being
Such
the
the
through
excluded
of
principle
accessed
cannot
a
system.
to
onlýthese
applýl
principles
since
identity,
the
of
principle
middle and
discover
Consequentl),
being
(13-14).
that
is
commonlýwhat
we
individuated
the
being
Midividual
it
is
than
abstraction;
impoverished
an
other
is
nothing
called
be
longer
No
to
from
a
world
the
stranger
a
individual
will
its
milieu.
separated
28).
(1964:
confronting it
be
to
knowii
a relative reality,
The individual
through individuation reveals itself
"The
two
senses,
ie
thus
in
relative
is
individual
system.
part of a \vider re191Mor
being
from
because
in which it
a state of
becauseit is not A being, and
it results
For
this
did not exist either as individual or as principle of in&-viduation"
143
,,
CRYSTALLI'-', ýE BECOMI'N'GS
I,-\IO\DON'S
does
'individual'
the
term
reason,
not adequately convey the complex relation of
'indi-,,-idual-milieu' that emerges.A milieu is associatedwith the individual through
the process of individuation. This term 'miheu' replaces the old sense ()f matter,
like
toward
that
is metastable
as it gestures
a matter
a supersaturated solution
Such
awaiting its crystalline germ.
a system is the synthetic grouping of differing
do
scalesof reality which
not communicate prior to individuation (1989: 66).
What is this pre-individual being? Is it simply a domain relative to the individual,
does
And
be
"a
to
it consist in its own reality?
or
why is individuation understood
harbouring
partial and relative resolution which manifests itself in a system
potentials and containing a certain incompatibility in relation to itself, an
by
forces
býthe impossibility of
tensions
incompatibility produced
or
as well as
kinds
dimensions"
(12)?
'\,
Vhat
between
terms
the
of
of its
extreme
any interaction
being,
be
to
and
adequate this concept of pre-individual
ethics and politics will
the additional concept of the transindividual? A new thought of relationality is
required.
IV.v.
revolutionary
states
Pre-1ndividual being is described by Simondon as homogeneous, concrete and
he
description
This
places on
is n-usleading given the emphasis
without phase.
disparateness (disparafion). Disparateness designates a tension or incompatibility
between two elements of a situation which results in the invention of a new
individuation.
distinction
Pre-individual being can be better understood through Deleuze's
differentiation
of
differenciation.
and
actuahsed though absolutely real virtuality -a
The former refers to a non-
field of potenfials or pre-individual
latter
through
individLiatioti
the
actualisation
to
of
processes
the
singularities - and
differenciation
and
be
former
the
The
without
posited
cannot
of this reality.
latter. SiMondon joins Deleuze and Bergson in seeking to avoid a conception of a
a
inject
that
nuight
He
',
concept
to
anNimport
is reluctant
rt,ellisal)k possible.
in\ol\'Cs
it
he
an
thinks
for
77 fie is \\ary of the concept of the vIrtual
this reason as
His
the
be
of
has
idea
of
use
to
realised.
that
designates
yet
possible
a
and
enteh,clicia
dimension
the
a
as
Deleuze's
\irtual
of
to
understanding
ho\\ever,
\erý close
potential is.
144
SIMONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECO-MINGS
teleological direction. For this reason he develops the idea of potential enerpPotential energy is related to the capacity for transformation of a system. I)Cleuzc
calls it the energy of the pure event (1969: 103). SImondon argues that the idea of
potential energy allows us to understand a system that could not be grasped
through formalism or through quantification, in other words a metastable wstem.
Through it we can trace real transformations in that system. There is a critical
moment where potential energy is at its maximum; however, it is not something
that exists independently. It is a part of a system and expressesthe dissymmetrý
of that system.
In my introduction,
I discussed P6guy's conception of the event. The c\-ent
dissymmetry,
involved a
indicating a state of affairs was 'out of joint'. S111gularities
described
or critical points
irreversible states that sparkled and hissed. Deleuze
remarks
that
"Singularities
are turning
points
and points
of
inflection,
bottlenecks, knots, foyers and centres; points of fusion, condensation and boiling.
points of tears and joy, sickness and health, hope and anxiety, 'sensitive' points"
(1969: 52). This
singular or critical point
is remarkable; it is a point
of
transformation. This point is pre-individual as it is anterior to anN,individuation,
law.
'notbe
It
because
through
is
it cannot
a general
and it is singular,
captured
both
believed
'always
P6guy
that
yet' and
-already'.
history
and event are
inseparable from these singular points (53). They delineate a problematic that is
irreducible to a subjective perspective indicating, rather, an objective or real state
ideas
These
length
by
StMondon.
described
being.
It
of
at
is this tension that is
of
be
understood readily if we
potential energy, metastability and singular points can
cxamine a supersaturated system.
A suinple example of a supersaturated system is a glass of ,vater dosed with
F,
becomes
The
it
sugar.
x-cntually
vith
supersaturated
water
spoonfuls ()f sugar.
,
form.
taking
the
operation of
immanent to a sNstern. "As a corollary. the energetic theory of
[
],
as
does
understood
potential,
the
of
virtualitý
notion
use
not
which we present,
...
and
its
because
state
is
the
a
metastable
of
reahtý
it
expresses
ival.
potential ener,-,ý,
68).
1989:
(Simondon,
energetic situation"
145
SENIONDON'S CRYSTALLINE
BECO. NIINGS
wiU take only the tirdest addition of sugar to trigger a process of cp-stallisation
which engenders a crystal. This genesis of the crystal occurs at its exterior lirrut
and the crystal is permanently ex-centric and peripheral to itself.
Another example of a kind of metastable state might be a stand-off between not
A
police and protesters. minor incident, or the n-usinterpretation of a movement,
lead
to a transformation of that situation into a pitched battle. '\ [etastability
may
entails conflict and uncertainty. Simondon notes that a pre-revolutionary stateis a
state of supersaturation (1989: 63).
SiMondon does not propose a difference in kind between physical beings and
beings.
latter
He
because
has
thinks
the
organic
are more complex
a phase shift
become
fact,
he
In
them
to
theatre
themselves.
enabled
a
of individuation
like
that
this supersaturatedsolution, and this is
surmises
reality is primitively )ust
different
it
manifests
itself
in
why
ways as wave or particle, as matter or energy
(24).
N. A. mediators
There is no love which does not begin with the revelation of a possible world as
in
it.
the
such, enwound
other which expresses
Gilles Deleuze, Differenceand Repetition.(1968a: 26 1).
DcN-eloping this idea further, SiMondon argues that we need to grasp
disparate
least)
(at
two
orders of magnitude.
individuation as a mediation of
Individuation resolves a tension that surges in a metastable system rich in
between
however,
Initiafly,
these
of
orders
there
is
communication
no
potentials.
language,
Deleuze's
to
the
In
proccss of
this
prior
is
a
virtual
magnitude.
between
disparity
A
flower
infrai-nolecular
an
the
a
resolution
of
is
actu,,ihsation.
to
nutrientsthat
correspond
magnitude
of
order
cosn-uc
a
and
order of magnitude
flo'\k-cr
living
As
is
thing,
neN-cr
a
a
the
photosynthesis.
process
of
in the soil and
146
Sl-'\IO\DON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGS
fully individuated or it would be dead. It is not simply the result of a process of
"in
but
theatre
individuation
of individuation:
it exists a more complete
agent and
that requires permanent communication, and maintains
regime of internalresonance
life"
(1964:
25).
It
the
that
metastability
is
condition
of
continues to modiý- its
a
but
does
In
it
its
milieu,
it
as
so modifies itself
relation with
other words, it
level
be
future
that
the
of potential
carries with it a certain
can
source of
transformations and new individuations. This is the pre-individual nature of the
living
being
being,
The
It
is an inventive resolution.
is a problematic
individual.
(1989:
20).
to
inferior
superior and
unity
For Deleuze, "Mediators are fundamental. Creation's all about mediators.
Without them nod-iing happens. [ ]I need my mediators to express myself, and
...
in
a group,
they'd never express themselves without me: you're always working
it's
F6hx
be
And
to
apparent:
still more when
on your own.
even when you seem
Guattari and I are one another's mediators" (1990a: 125). INIediatorsconnect
heterogeneous domains, they make worlds collide and they open us up to our
We
by
becorrUngs
this
a precall
indetermination.
zone
of
a
creating
non-human
lack
field.
Incommunicability,
of mediators to create transversal
a
individual
communications,
Intelhgence
is
is a sure sign of a state of ahenation and isolation.
but
of inventing them, creating a possible.
not the art of solving problems
A pre-individual field is both pre-subject and pre-object. When Deleuze
he
Ego,
Transtendent-e
The
by
the
Sartre
was
discovered a small piece
of
called
Sartre
impersonal
an
In
of
to
account
an
provide
text
this
endeavoured
thrilled.
bore
field
to
empirical
that
resemblance
no
transcendental
and pre-individual
does
"It
not
fields, and which could not be determined as that of a consciousness.
another
foundation
is
also
it
matter
that
is
it
another
the
suffice to say of
This
99).
1969:
(Deleuze,
being
another world"
geographý,, without
form
the
form
the
both
()f
field
the
and
general
the
of
excludes
transcendental
singularities.
developing
the
pre-individual
of
idea
their
place
in
indn-idual,
'fourth
to
commumicatc
singtilar'
Ferlinghetti's
person
the
Deleu/e used
image of
"OnlýDeleuze
when
that
(102).
maintains
this idea of a pre-individual singularity
147
SIMONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECO-MINGS
the world, teeming with anonymous and nomadiC, impersonal and pre-individual
singularities, opens up, do we tread at last on the field of the transcendental"
(103).This is the opening forced by Sirnondon.
IV.vii. difference
affirmed
As a general rule, two things are simultaneously affirmed only to the extent that
their difference is denied, suppressed from within [ ] To be sure, the identity
...
here is not that of indifference, but it is generally through identity that
opposites are affirmed at the same time [ ...] We speak, on the contrary, of an
operation according to which two things or two determinations are affirmed
through their difference, that is to say, that they are the objects of simultaneous
affirmation only insofar as their difference is itself affirmed and is itself
affirmative.
Gilles Deleuze, The4ýgic of Sense.(1969: 172).
Since classical logic cannot grasp pre-individual being, Simondon introduces die
Transduction
transduction.
idea of
is an operation through wl-ýich an acti6ty
domain,
directions
from
Think
of the
modulates a
extending in multiple
a centre.
bifurcation
that
reaches a
point and effectuates a
supersaturated water solution
liquid
from
This
the
resulted
sugar-water.
a primitive tension and
crystallisation of
incompatibility.
SiMondon,
Bergson,
echoing
calls transduction
'intuition':
a
becoming.
being
follow
the movements of
as
capacity to
Through transduction, Simondon wants to map out another way of thinking.
Infinitesimal dissection and the search for an ultimate commonality, are equally
This
the
by
to
tries
comprehend
method
the
transductive
method.
shunned
different and heterogeneous realities constituting the individual. Transduction is,
Serres'
or
vectorially
thinking
occur
that
must
to
idea
this
similar
regard, quite
in
being.
It
domains
phronesis,
heterogeneous
hooking
is
a
of
transversalIv,
up
hox
An
tcHs
%ve
thought
us
of
image
improvisational and experimentational.
It
directions
is
not
march.
should
thought,
\vc
in
what
in
should orient ourseh-cs
but
position
we
\vInch
upon
coordinates
of
system
a whole
only a method,
Fundamentafly,
it guides
ourselves.
1990a:
the creation of concepts ýDclcu/c,
148).
148
SENIONDON'S CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGS
Like Bergson, Simondon remarks that humans havc
a need to individuate objects
to recognise and find themselves in things. Bergson had postulated
feel more at home amongst inanimate
that humans
objects (especially solids) although he also
remarked, "In vain, we force the living into this or that one of our
the moulds crack. They are too narrow, too rigid, for what
moulds. All
N-,
-e try to put into
them" (1911: x). These two thinkers both question the privilege
of natural
perception and the subordination of movement to static shots of reality. "Bergson
himself, who made a remarkable effort to think the individual
falling
without
into
the traps of mental habits imported from psychology by a spirit accustomed to
treating other problems, remained too close to pragmatism" (Simondon, 1989:
148). Bergson concentrated too much, in Simondon's
dynamism to the detriment of intra-individual
view, on intra-individual
structural realities.
We cannot know individuation. "We can only individuate,
individuate ourselves
be
and
individuated" (1964: 34). It is not just being but thought too that
by individuations. To grasp the individuation of the real
proceeds
exterior to the subject we
need an individuation of the knowledge of the subject (34). Another manner of
thinking is required. The concepts we have may be perfectly adequate for an
individuated world, but not for a pre-individual one.
concept is neither apnon
but
because
posten'on'
praesenti,
nor a
a
it is an informative and interactlN-e
communication between that which is greater and that which is lesser than the
individual" (Simondon, 1989: 66). If we classify things in an arbitrary and abstract
way through speciesand genera, we take absolutely no account of the specificity
We
their
of
genesis.
need to understand them from the perspective of a prefield
is
It
that
individual reality
is never a matter of studying
a
of potentials.
but
individuation in general,
rather of examining singular individuations. Such an
lo
*
acentered gic means you make VOUr own connections invent your own
Simondon
deternuined
pre-exists.
is
not to permit
communications and nothing
his
he
idea of transduction: a thought that can
maps out
any transcendence as
by
An
I-,
Deleuze.
this
is offercd
example of
xplainiiig
cope with singularities.
Guattarni'sidea of aagroupuscule, Deleuze shows ho-\v it descn
i
tion
I
Unifica
149
SINIONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGS
that operates transversaHv,across a multiphcin-, in such a
way that it does not
crush that multiphcity (1972: vii).
Deduction tries to impose a principle on
domain
being.
Transduction,
a
of
however, does not seek a principle from
elsewhere in order to resolve the
problems of a domain. Induction, while analysing the character of terms of
reality, only conserves what is common between terms, eliminating whatever is
singular (Sitnondon, 1964: 32). Transduction discovers the dimension of the
system which make terms communicate. It does not search for terms that are
identical to one another, but it looks for that which makes them disparate.
A little piece of knowledge can make an entire system
metastable,and call the old
way of thinking into question. When Stephen Lawrence was murdered, his
parents set up a campaign appealing against racism in the Metropolitan Police
force. The evidence put forward about the case
called into question the
machinations of that police force, identifying an institutional racism embeddedin
it. It created a metastable situation that had to be resolved. A gradual resolution
dissipation
and
of tension occurred, though not necessarily one that fully
implications
disparity.
Those are the moments when
the
that
addressed
of
initial
things can never be the 'same' again.
"R]ransduction is characterised by the fact that the result of this operation is a
concrete web that contains all the initial terms
(32). It applies to operations
that are physical, biological, mental and social (30). An operation is the
Combes
(28).
Muriel
to
conversion of one structure
another structure
gives us a
from
formula
It
Marx.
Marx's
of the
nice example of such conversions. comes
delineated
initially
the
a market
nature of
capitalist relation of money and goods
buying
C-M-C
(commochties-moncý-to
in
order
sell:
operation premised upon
bound
Two
together in this
acts of purchasing and selling are
commodities).
buy
form
Its
to
of selling in order
chain.
corresponding
(moneý--
beconuing-capital
formulation
This
the
constitutes
second
commodities-money).
from
Simondon
29).
(1998:
calls this interest in changes of statcs
of iiioncý150
SIMO\DONý'S
CRY'S)TALLINE BECO-'\11-'\'GS
structure to operation, or conversely from operation to structure, 'allagmatics'.
We are accustomed to thinking in terms of common genera and specific
differences, and they seem to be natural classifications for us (Simondon, 1964:
87). 1 will discuss this proposition in the context of Deleuze's critique of the
'n-nage
identitarian
of thought' in the next chapter. Meanwhile, Simondon also
wants to introduce another way of thinking. Returning to the example of the
he
how
it involves an operation through which it structures itself,
crystal,
shows
being both cause and consequence of the polarisation of the matter N-6thout
The
singularity, or the germ, is the sugar crystal that
which it would not exist.
different
Hence
the
makes
orders of magnitude communicate.
its structure is
distinct
from
but
this
The
the
crystal.
properties of the crystal
germ is not
ret,eh)ed
discontinuity
This
(in
than
the growth
elementary
are relational rather
substantial.
discontinuous
SI-Mondon
the
that
the
is prirnarý, in
contends,
of
crystal) means,
Ibis
Laruelle
(94).
to
the
to
is close what
called the relation of
relation
continuous
disjunction'.
'inclusive
Deleuze
the
the non-relation and
named
Relations have a real claim to being in Simondon. A relation is not just the
"ýIt
the
two
terms.
internal
of
the
is
an
aspect
of
juxtaposition
of
consequence
This
(27).
it is a part of the state of a system"
e oJ'a ýystemoj'indizýduafion;
resonant,
being
than
that
one's
is
greater
individuation
part
of
an
involves
participation
harboured
being
the
potentials
reality,
the
pre-mdividual
through
of
charge
own
by the individual. A relation is a modality of being. The essenceof a reality cannot
by
be
James
(as Bergson and
told us over and over)
re-composed extrapolating a
being
have
All
between
are
and
of
class
terms.
a
relations
pre-existent
relation
the
ensure.
terms
ýT
the
existence
to
whose
regard
with
simultaneous
Rather than adhering
being
that
eiqiiders
to the model of substance, metastable
declaring
By
being.
the
on
a
"var
%,,,
-hich Nve call substance - individuated
highlights
a
as
Simondon
to
treat
relations
tendency
the
substantiahst tradition,
By
These
sLibstances.
already
thought
as
of
terms
are
terms.
rapportof pre-existing
land]
being,
being,
a
"a
of
relation
a
in
relation
the
as
individual
understanding
151
CRY-STALLINE
SIMONDON'S
BECO. MINGS
being
being
becomes
[
]"
(30),
that
itself
way of
as
is
understood
through
which
...
knowledge
S=iilarh-,
creating connections.
is not a simple relation of t-\X-o
I
but
be
"a
betiveeli
two relationr,one in
to
substances,
it needs
conceived as
relatioli
the domain of the object and the other in the domain of the subject" (81).
Like Spinoza, SiMondon thinks that something is an object only insofar as it is
being
by
other objects in a s\-stem.He saysthat
capable of affecting and
affected
there is "a virtual reciprocity of actions between the terms of a system" (66). A
but
born
by
does
link
terms,
is
pre-existent
relation
not
constituting terms
formula
34).
Twisting
Combes
1998:
Hegel's
(Combes,
themselves as relations
does
A
(35).
"What
relation
is real is relational, and what is relational is real"
says,
126).
This
being,
but
1964:
(SiMondon,
idea of
it constitutes it
not express
disjunctive
diversity.
being
that
to
the
is a
notion
relation introduces us
IV.viii.
crystalline visions
Mine is no callous shell,
I have instant conductors all over me whether I pass or,
stop,
They seize every object and lead it harmlessly through me.
Walt W'hitman, 'Song of Myself', Leavesof Grass.(1855: 90).
SIMondon's
propelled
theory
knowledge
of
by the problematic
does not extrapolate
from
but
is
sensation
Deleuze
being.
In
a seminar on music,
of metastable
designate
do
lines
lines
that
describes the crystalline
not simply
of an assemblage,
Deleuze and Guattan' call a refrain
but
trace glittering
a set of states,
movements.
"crystal
a prism, a
(1980: 348). It acts on that which surrounds it,
extracting
of space-time"
light and vibrations.
a natural affmity,
But it also catalyses, hooking up elements without
These
between
them.
crystalline
transversal
relation
creating a
becomings.
hiStor)T
lines have their own
and open up new
a
as
not
situation,
concrete
We need to understand the subject in a real and
heterogeneous
but
a
being,
with
reatity
fully
a
as
individuated
un-ified and
15i
SINIONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECONIING'ý
multitude of desires, passions and interests. The perceiving subject is part
dynamic system that is over-determined
of a
and super-saturated and perception
modifies both the subject and object. The individual is a transductive reality that
is neither an element, nor a pure relation (rappod).It is the reahtý-of a metastable
relation. "[A]n intensiVe diversity [ ] exists Nx-l-iich
makes
the
subJect-worldsystem
...
comparable to a supersaturatedsolution" (Simondon, 1989: 91).
There are many different kinds of individuations;
subject-type individuations
(that's me that's you ), event-type individuations that do
(a
not
rely
on
a
subject
...
...
battle, a wind ) Peleuze, 1990a: 115). But the
does
ha-,,
subject
not
-c any identitY.
...
Subjectification constitutes both a personal or collective
individuation (115), so
we need to ask in what ways can we constitute ourselves as selves?Someone
into
walks
a room and the atmosphere changesimperceptibly. This
because
the
is
person is, as Spinoza told us, a set of intensities. Individuations do not have to be
personal. Deleuze observes, "Hlix and 1, and manN-others like us, don't feel Nve
are persons exactly. Our individuahty is rather that of events
Mix.
an ethics
(141).
of the pre-individual
The individual is an activity, condensing information, transporting it, and
modulating it in a new milieu which it is instrumental in inventing. The processof
individuation is an operation of communication. (Simondon, 1964: 229). For a
being to be a living being, there must be a polarisation and an asymmetrical
This
through
tendency
idea of
qualification
which an orientation or
emerges.
birth
by
to
the
of the
asym.metry is explored
cosmologists seeking
explain
drawn
have
Big
Bang,
by
our attention to
and
geneticists who
universe after the
the asymmetry of the DNA strand. We came across it in our example of the
flower that mediates different orders of magnitude. Deleuze calls this the Unequal
be
live
To
'problematic'.
like
Simondon,
to
is
agent, milieu and
names it a
and,
Y,
).
1989:
(Simondon,
element of individuation
has
being,
"the
Nfalebranche
Simondon quotes
that
e-,-cr\who noted once
by
documented
This
further"
(144).
activity is \x-cU
movement to always go
153
Sl.'\10-\DO-\"S
CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGS
Spinoza. When he chronicled his story of the individual as
ý-,a potelitia
t-oliatu,
perpetually engagedin activities whereby it was both affected and affecting, he
described
that pre-individual zone of beingswhich is the part of 11ature
effectively
associatedwith individuals. From this zone, emergesthe new. We called this an
asymmetrical system, comprised in part of a pre-individual charge that
accompaniesindividuals. The future bearsupon the present,informing it. Let us
seewhy this is important for an ethics.
Ethics occurs in a network of acts, acts that resonate with each another,
modulating and transforn-ung one another. Any act is always becoming in the
becoming
(242). It is centred but infinite, and its value is its capacity
middle of its
for transductive shifts liberating new potentials and effectuating transformations.
No act that is isolated, consisting only in itself, or operating'With an end in view,
breaks
from
dominating
Cutting
this
off
is ethical in
sense.
oneself off
or
others
this communication. An ethical act is radiant, radiating, more than unity and more
deny
Rather
than trying to
than identity, creating new relations and connections.
by
becoming,
"Ed-iics
is that
it embraces it.
which the subject remains a
its
domain
become
to
of reahtN,,a
an absolute individual, a closed
subject, refusing
detached singularity; it is that by which the subject remains in a perpetually tense
(245-46).
[
]"
problematic, internally and externally ...
In an essay entitled 'Spinoza: From individuality to transindividuality', Etienne
Bahbar explores the eccentric nature of SpMoza's theory of individuation.
According to Gatens and Lloyd, "Bahbar has offered a reading of Spinoza's
both
to
classical
theory of individuation as a relational ontology that is opposed
leads
formalism
Spinoza's
121).
(1999:
to
antipathy
individualism and organicism"
him, as we have seen, to counter a philosophy of attribution with one concerned
with process and
be
definitions
cannot
and
concepts
in
which
one
networks;
definition
the
the
of
essence
of
the
real
to
and
context
indifferently
employed
be
The
individual cannot
human is not encapsulated in any single proposition.
Bahbar
others.
with
communication
constant
and
than
relation
in
thought other
first
Spinoza's
that
the
alleges
to
\x-ork;
takes issue ,vith m-o common objections
154
SBIONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGS
he has no theory of subjectivity; and the second claims that the individual's
autonomy is denied, immersed in the impersonal and undifferenciated entity that
God.
The conception of inclividuality developed býT Spinoza is one that
is
emphasises the individual's necessaryrelationahty with others since singularities
'network'
'system'
(1997:
9).
The ontology proposed
interconnected
are
in a
or a
is therefore a relationalone and Balibar calls it a general theory of Communication.
It is with obvious dehght that Bahbar tells us of his chscoveryof SiMondon who,
despite his pedestrian and conventional criticisms of Spinoza, is himself a true
Spinozist. Bahbar argues that metastable equihbna require an elevation of
form
the
potential energy in
of a polarity of individual and environment.
Adaptation to changing environments is not reactive but involves the invention
of new structures and modes of existence. Neither reductioMst nor vitalist, a
(11).
Individuahty
Spinoza
natural philosophy prevails
in
operates as a
transindividuality, or rather a transIndividual process of individuation, that is
being
decomposed
hohstic.
Individuals
to
avoid
neither individualistic nor
want
so they engage in an active process of exchange with the environment and
Freedom
their
is the
power.
cultivate a multitude of relationships which increase
dimension
the
of the individual.
active
expression of
With regard to Simondon, Bahbar asserts that, "His key idea is that -tnýdependent,
pre-indiz4diial
the
on
in
metastable
equilibrium,
a
remains
individuation
"structurings"
from
or
through
potential
successive
which the individual emerged
"distanciations from the environment". Therefore the existence of an individual
is always "problematic" or tense" (22, n.25). By creating a collectivity, a new
The
to
emerges.
individuals
that
internal
or
external
is
neither
entity
metastable
impels
the
individual
reality
of
that
is
a
non-individuated
prc-individual charge
"Spinoza's
is
immanence
as
relation
of
concept
toward
others.
this movement
best described by the term "transindividuality"
(33).
Spinoza's conception of the individual as the relative and changing reality of a set
the
SIMondon's
dissimilar
()f
understanding
differential
to
()-\x-n
is
not
relations
of
155
SBI()'\ýDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGIS
individual. Simondon agreesthat the individual must be
graspedas "Me R*ný,
giilar
poi*nIq1-an openhýfiniýyq1'relationZ'(1989: 254), adding, "the individual
is not a
being
like
substantial
an element,nor is it a pure relation, but it is the reahtý-of
,t
metastablerelation" (79-80).And like Spinoza'sindividual who dies slowly and
graduallyasit can no longer sustainso many affects,SiMondon'sindividual "loses
its plasticity bit by bit, along with its capacityto create
metastablesituationsand
to make of them problems With multiple solutions" (80). For each of these
thinkers, individuation is a voyage that takes place in relation to thresholdsof
intensity.
Muriel Combes notes that Spinoza, like Simondon, comprehends the subject of
ethics as the place of a perpetual variation in its power of acting that is its capacitV
to affect other subjects, and be affected, transforming itself. Ethical difference
liberatory
concerns a
movement from servitude. Consciousnessvaries in relation
to affective life and the forces surrounding the subject. Modifications in these
result in modifications of the individual. As a result the subject is nc\-er fully
(1998:
54).
both
It
constituted
is
individual and otherthan individual.
We call this being that traverses the individual the transindividual. The excessof
being that is the pre-individual nature of an individuated being is lived as a
tension. The presence of a 'more- than-individual' dimension makes itself felt as a
from
disparity,
A
it reveals that which is more than individual.
a
sign. sign stems
This sign results in a de-individuation of the individual, liberating its nonfrom
The
that in us that is not us.
transindividual emerges
individuated potential.
It is the limit of exteriority and interiority; a fold of an outside that constitutes an
limits
Subjectivity
(71).
the
is not contained -\x-ithin
inside that is not an interiority
A
in
a new
engage
individuals
the
emerges
when
collective
individual.
()f
the
just
terms,
pre-existent
of
rapport
is
just
a
relation
not
as
a
individuation.
that
does
is
oup
the
gr
into
a
the
individual
of
entnT
not constitute
transindividual
bct-\N-een
dis
i
i
Guatta
When
subjectanguished
a
ri
individuals.
other
an aggregate of
.
he
the
oup
gr
a
idea
of
(a
explored
group,
sub'ugated
a
and
groupuscule)
group
1ý
lie
Instead,
that was not simply a conglomeration or meeting of individuals.
156
SINIONDUX'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECONll\'GS
hierarchical
to
the
sought
express
possibility of a nongroup that could express
develop
and
itself through singular ideas, actions and relations. This would be an
ongoing process of invention.
If the individual enters an already constituted group, the leeway for change and
limited.
The culture of these groups can become ossified and ngid,
innovation is
unable to adapt to change, closed to the world. Ireland's Roman Catholic
doctrinaire
has
that
community is an example of a
group
seen its members
dwindle rapidly in recent years, partially because of its own intransigence.
Through the transindividual, humans are opened to their non-human becomings
"To
the extent that the transindividual takesroot in this zone of us
and potentials.
like
(71).
to
the
that is exterior
individual, it swells in us
an outside"
SlMondon
begins thus to reconceive the relation of individual
and society,
human
The
179).
(1989:
stressing the reality of the social as a system of relations
being
endowed with an abstract essence and generahsable
is not an exceptional
Individuals
nature.
enter a collective through the potentials of a real t-reated
"The
subjective transindividual names, therefore, the effects in a subject
possible.
herself
her
discovery
is
which
in
zone
a
of
the
more
of
of
-than-individuality,
82).
For
1998:
(Combes,
this
reason,
common"
and
pre-personal
as
revealed
Combes extracts a phrase meant for Leopardi and written býTNegri which calls
human
A
(85).
]"
death
[
for "a humanism after the
is an essentiak
of man ...
herselfý
beyond
for
have
What
being.
going
potentials can she
incomplete
form
\Ve
'transversal'.
Deleuze and Guattari call these aparal-lelcommunications
in
ith
that
a
\x-ay
such
1
deterritotialisitý
by
others
Wi
connections
creating
g,
rhizomes
disrupted
to
modifications.
new
itself
opens
and
the
is
self
the territorialitý- of
level
be
intensity.
the
of
on
These transformations can only
understood
thought
d-icy
their
rhizomatic
on
elaborate
Appeating to this idea of transduction,
In
hierarchical
thought.
of
image
to an arborescent and
which the)- oppose
develop
system,
acentcred
latter's
an
they
system,
centred
the
to
contrast
by
moment
given
"defined
a
their
at
state
only
individuals are only
(1980.17).
157
SIMONDON',
S CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGS
This operation is the transduction of intensive states (17). Anything
that nught
from
high
uniýy it
on
is subtracted, hence the formula 'n- F.
The relation of being to itself is much richer than
identity. Substantial being is
because
one
it is stable consisting in itself and for itself. However,
the original
being
state of
is pre-individual, surpassing its coherence with itself It is
metastable and potentialised. Any structure rests at a stable equilibrium only
within certain magnitudes and limits. It is defined within thresholds. A new
interaction can Berate masked potentials leading to an
abrupt change.
Ontogenesis is no longer directed toward the individuated individual but
designatesinstead the character of becoming of being, a character that is
neither
mechanistic nor teleological.
What is striking in this account is SlMondon's conviction that the world is not
already there, structured and existing as a system of reference that is ulltt,-Irýýand
fact,
objective; in
it is precisely this conviction that leads him to criticise both
Lamarck and Darwin. The closest philosophical account to this is Bergson in his
late work CreafiieEi)olufion.Being is understood as a problematic that contains a
These
differenciated
different
tendencies.
number of virtual
split and are
into
The
through
týT
paths
actuahsations
an inventive process of unforeseeablenovel .
'simple
this
of
virtual' constitute resolutions that are novel inventions of a
Similarly,
did
problematic that
not pre-exist their invention as realisablepossibles.
Spinoza's condemnation of a teleological conception of Nature mocked the
have
bet-ause
We
have
to
eyes and in
see
we
eyes in order see.
notion that we
Bergson's view, sight is the resolution of a problematic.
how
difficult
to
If all the potentials in a s),stem are already actual-isedit is
see
I
for
It
be
that
thýisreason
cobbled together. was
transformational strategiescan
dedication
limited
to
Negri's
their
a
Hardt
the
and
virtual
of
use
and
criticised
hope
false
the
the
of
system
in
contradictions
that
placed
rather rigid materialism
Guattarl"s
Deleuze
constructiVism
and
throwing up a new mode of reality.
by
immanence
the
of
that
plane
emphasising
always
challenged this approach
1
8
-5
ST-NIONDON'S CRYSTALLINF
does not pre-exist. Simondon does not
BECONIINGS
exphcldy align himself with a (Deleuzean)
'created possible' but this is implicit in his texts. It
his
novel
shines through in
thought of pre-individual and problematic being.
IV. x.
flashing
intensities
Difference is not diversity. Diversity is given, but difference is that by Ný-hichthe
given is given, that by which the given is given as diverse.
968a:
Repetition.
(I
Gilles Deleuze, Dffference
and
It seems to us that Gilbert Simondon's conception can be compared to a theon,
difference.
intensive
because
is
in
itself
intensive
of
quantities;
quantity
each
(1966b).
Gilles Deleuze, Review of L'ilidii4dil el,ý-ti,,
aenýsepý)ysit-o-hi'oloaiqlle.
Yet all is not guaranteed. We came across Deleuze's 'Postscript on Control
Societies' in chapter 2. In this piece, Deleuze argues that controls operate through
a transmutation
modulation,
from
that changes
one moment
to the next.
\N'e
are
Businesses try to create even greater competitions within the workplace.
longer
In
continuouslN,
this societ\-, N,
()u no
each in competition with ourselves.
factory
"business,
from
training
military
and
to
school
start over as you move
of
sort
a
being
modulation,
single
a
of
states
coexisting metastable
service
A
179).
(1990b:
and
[dormatim]"
openness
of
pretence
universal transmutation
limited
feigned
business.
It
and
is a
disparity is quickly co-opted in the service of
how
last
to invent a
chapter, is
disparateness. The real problem, as we saw in the
problematic.
Alberto Gualandi thinks that Sffnondon's theon, of individuation played a N-cn
important
In
64).
the
(1998:
cr1tiquC
the
of
context
Deleuze's
philosophy
role in
of conceptual
last
by
Deleuze
chapter, \X-cwill no"v
difference offered
in the
Simondon's
theory
difference
witli
in conjunction
develop his positive account of
of individuation.
In dramatic fashion, Deleuze tells us
but
by
calculating,
that God made the world
I ý, )
SIMONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECOMINGS
his calculations are never exact Vuste).This leads to
forms the conditions of the world. Even-
an irreducible inequality that
phenomenon is conditioned bN-an
inequahty and 'je]verý- phenomenon flashes in a signal-sign system" (1968a:2-22).
Paraphrasing SiMondon, Deleuze notes that insofar
least
heterogeneous
disparate
two
at
series or
as a system is constituted bl-
orders capable of entering into
communication, we call it a signal and "[t]he phenomenon that flashes acrossthis
bringing
system,
about the communication between disparate
series, is a sign"
(222). Every intensity is already difference in itself It
is already a coupling.
Intensities comprehend the unequal or different
and open onto divergent series.
"We call this state of infinitely doubled difference
which resonates to infinity
di.prio. Disparity in other words, difference or intensity (Chfference
of intensm-)
the
is
sufficient reason of all phenomena, the condition of that which appears"
(222). Deleuze concludes his first paragraph of chapter V 'The Asymmetric
Synthesis of the Sensible' by claiming that, "The reason of the sensible, the
condition of that which appears,is not spaceand time but the Unequal in itself,
disparateness
as it is determined and comprised in difference of intensity, in
intensity as difference" (222-23).
These are difficult thoughts but we should already be familiar with a number of
them through SiMondon. If we recall Simondon's own approach to individuation,
first
foremost
being
that
it emphasised
is not substantial. It is at odds with
and
It
than
than
itself, incompatible, more
identity.
is this intuition
unity and more
that Deleuze picks up on to amplify his theme of disparate and heterogeneous
he
develops
Through
this
a real and genetic account of a
orders of magnitude.
difference that is not subordinated to an identitanan image of thought.
In notable distinction to his earlier 1956 essayon difference, Deleuze no longer
begins with a Bergsonian distinction between differences in kind or nature
(quality), and differences in degree (extensity). Though this distinction remains, it
deny
difference
but
difference,
"Intensity
tends
to
this
or to
is
is secondary.
Repetilion
0ý#ýi-ente
(223).
and
cancel itself out in extensity and underneath quality"
those
the
approaches
of
to
throw
shackles
off
attempt
a
constitutes veritable
160
SI-NIONDON'S CRYSTALLINE
BECUMINGS
which remained limited to a consideration of empirical difference. Throughout
this thesis, I have tried to show x,-hN,this is an important endeavour,
,
indeed)
Simondon's critique of the constituted individual
provides, perhaps, the greatest
impetus for this renewed theory of individuation.
If we only know difference "as already developed
within an extensity, and as
covered over by qualities [ ]" (223) then we will strive in vain to understand the
...
conditions or genesis of reality. The postulates that structured the image of
thought are Implicit and complicit In the development of a seriesof philosophical
concepts. The old adage is transformed as we are asked to think with the grain,
with the singularities of the matter.
Good sense distributes, and in this distribution it tries to banish difference,
cancelling it out (224). The explication of difference is a process of identification
difference.
Good sense tries to bring things back to a calm senseof stable
of
equilibrium. Deleuze, in a moment of penmanship worthy of Nfarx says,"Good
senseis the ideology of the middle classeswho recognise themselvesin equality
dreams
less
It
with an abstract product.
of acting than of constituting a natural
milieu [...]" (225). Instead of negating difference, it recognisesit just enough to
dissipate tension and ensure that difference negatesitself However, this systemis
by
difference
learned
how
We
this
intensity
it
itself
created
of
as explicates
has
Simondon's
Still
"difference
occurred in
account of crystallisation.
nc\-er
be
be
to
to
implicated in itself even while it is explicated outside
in itself,
ceased
itself' (228).
CIommon sense is defined, on the other hand, by facing a supposedlý-identical
Self With a supposedly identical object. This static approach has nothing of the
dynamism of Simondon who, according to Deleuze, maintains that 'JolbJects arc
divided up in and by fields of individuation, as are Selves" (1968a:226). Thought
has not gone so far as to dare think that bý-which the given is (,,,
lN-cn.
Intensity has three characteristics, Deleuze tells us. It includes the unequal in
161
SENIONDON'S CRYSTALLINE
BECONIINGS
itself, representing a difference in quantity that cannot be cancelledin quantitý-.In
is
belonging
Because
this Nxaýthe
to
it
quality
quantity.
it is alreadý-difference in
difference.
As difference, intensity already refers to a series of
itself, it affirms
differences
that it affirms by affirnung itself This becomes clear if N-e
other
,
remember Simondon's explanation of the incompatibility or difference of orders
of magi-Atude that creates a state of metastabihtý-.Difference is not, hoxvever,
Again
drawing
Simondon,
Deleuze elucidates this contention. A
negation.
on
field of forces refers to a potential energy, and opposition refers to a 'deeper'
disparateness.These oppositions are resolved only insofar as disparate orders of
have
magnitude
invented an order of communication.
Intensity can be distin gui'shed in the following way: as a really implicated and
diffirence,
distante
(236).
enveloping
and as an implicated and enveloped
a
-\s
like
Deleuze
that
consequence,
claims
intensity is neither indivisible
quality, and
divisible
be
like
formula
Flourishing
that
repeated at
will
nor is it
quantity.
a
length throughout A Tl)ollsalid Plateaushe states, "An intensive quantity may be
divided, but not without changing its nature. In a sense, it is therefore indivisible,
but only because no part exists prior to its division and no part retains the same
division"
nature after
multiplicity.
(237). This is, of course, his classic definition of a N-irtual
SiMondon and Spinoza are therefore reN-ealedto haN-econstructed
due
in part to
theories of virtual multiplicities as intensive quantities, and this is
love
formalisation,
for
the
their
to
of
in
part
and
and
their antipathy
abstraction
singular and concrete.
heart
Deleuze's
disparate
the
of
The idea of the unequal or the
is at
be
This
differences.
not
the
should
of
unequal
primacy
understanding of
It
hierarchy.
the
to
of
justification
an
opening
akin
more
is
of
understood as a
brimming
that
needs
one
albeit
potentials,
with
possible, a world without identiq,
has
t,
principles:
"The
onlýý
be
quantities
intensive
of
\N-()
ethics
to
constructed.
(244).
(too
do
lowest,
much)"
oneself
explicate
not
the
affirm even
I-
Stmonclon's metastable state
by
Deleuze
fine
a
means
of
xvhat
cleschption
is a
16-
SIMONDON'S
CRYSTALLINT
BECO'MINGS
problematic. Deleuze sometimes calls this non-being, in the -,-aN-that SiMondon
,
stressesit is pre-individual: both involve a conception of being that is more than
unity and more than identitý-. The disparatenessof tl-iis being is, resolved by a
germ, or 'dark precursor', that integrates "the elements of the disparatenessinto a
state of coupling which ensures its internal resonance" (246). The pre-individual
half of the individual is the reservoir
of singularities from xvluch new
transformations can emerge. Deleuze believes that individuation is essentially
intensive and that "the pre-individual field is a virtual-ideal field made up of
differential relations" (246). Bergson told
us that the most difficult thing is to
invent good problems. Inventing or constructing a problematic forces a si-stem
into a state of disparateness.
Metastable being requires a distinction between singularity and individuality; the
pre-individual field is not individuated, although "it is filled with singularities
which correspond to the existence and distribution of potentials" (Deleuze,
1966b: 116). Deleuze underlines this idea that the state of the pre-individual field
is singular without being individual. And what encourageshim in Simondon is
that this state is one of "difference, disparity, disparateness"(116). Disparitýyis the
first moment of being, and all the other states that we commonly associatewith
being like opposition, integration, unification, are secondary. This idea of
potential energy is a more profound idea than a field of forces (116). The
disparate
by
these
orders of magnitude
problematic resolves
organising a new
dimension. This is not a dialectical resolution but an invention. Deleuze's sole
from
Simondon's
the pre-individual to the
that
ethics
moves
reservation about
transindividual
through individuation
form
the
is that it Might restore
of a Self
he
disparitýHowever
his
(118).
banished
himself
had
Simondon
theory of
in
that
beheves that Simondon has developed new concepts that transform the classical
how
Deleuze
Throughout
the
next chapter NveNxill see
problems of philosophy.
himself mobihses these ideas as he constructs a thought without image.
like
difference,
by
the
If thought only thinks
it needs a rcvolution
means of
"This
from
the
is
aim
a
to
of
abstraction.
took
representation
that
art
revolution
16')
SLMONDON'S
CRYSTALLINE
BECO]MINGS
theory of thought without image" (1968a: 276). This would be a -,x-orld of pre-
individual singularitiesand non-personalindividuations.
A world of dissensus,not consensus.A world of disparateness,not identitv. A
dissolved
is
This
the
the
individual
pre-individual celebrated.
and
world where
be
Guattan
indeed.
a strangeworld
calls it'chaosmosis'.
world would
164
AXOM-ýDIC
V. L
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
the radical thought of empiricism
The character of the world in a state of becoming as incapable of formulation,
as "false", as "self-contradictory". Knowledge and becoming exclude one
another.
Friedrich Nietzsche, TI)e 11"illto Power.(1901: ý517, '8())-
What dawns on philosophers last of all: they must no longer accept concepts as
a gift, nor merely purify and polish them, but first make and create them,
present and make them convincing.
Friedrich Nietzsche, TI)e if-'ill to Power (1901: §409,220).
In a letter-preface to jean Clet Martin's book Vanafions,Deleuze confesseshe has
little use for the concept of the simulacrum aný-longer, despite the fact that this
Tbe
Difýrente
Repefifion
This
Lo
throughout
is
concept recurs
and
git,qj'Sense.
and
Badiou
less
because
'mere
than
it intimates something
real, a
effect' as
perhaps
he
been
has
Instead
Deleuze
trying to think of philosophy
claims
might suggest.
feels
has
he
heterogenesis,
be
This
not
somettýng
a
system must
as a system.
double
before.
There
been
turning away that installs a radical
tried
is a
really
dedication
his
line
In
to the concept of multiphcity, as revealed
with
immanence.
he
Guattari,
Plateaus
Thousand
A
the
to
idea of
explore
seeks
with
in
spectacularly
I
Throughout
the
this
nature of
explore
chapter
-\vill
transcendental empiricism.
this 'transcendental
empiricism'.
beyond
(-\vhich
between
the transcendent
appealsto principles
Kant distin guiished
(Nvhich
the
within
principles
immanent
are
experience) and the transcendental
bN
looselv,
distinction
This
is adhered to, albeit
hn-lits of possible experience).
Deleuze. While the Kantian transcendental is concerned with the waý-sthat \%-c
know
objects,
can
experimentation.
for
real
Deleuze's transcendental concerns the conditions
for
'the
Adorno's
force
possibility of
It resounds xvith the
cry
of
being
otheiNvisc'.
tl'Ungs
kccp
and
to
the
(and
concrete
Martin
(Act
rcturrUng
jean
to
us)
Deleuze implorcs
165
A'NOMADIC
IMAGE
OFTHOUGHT
not to give one concept a primacy over all others. This effort to th,,vart a
totalising model or image of thought is also found in Guattari's Nvork on
metamodelisation. The challenge is to proliferate possibilities of being and creatc
networks and rhizomes to escapeanN-given sN-stem
of modelisation.
The importance of distinguishing between transcendence
and immanence was
made clear in chapter 3 in relation to the thesis on umvocity. Here another term is
introduced: the transcendental. It is important for Deleuze since he -\X-antsto
retain a commitment to pluralism and empiricism, while not facilely positivising
,
all that IS.His philosophy of difference is developed in the hope of inventing a
wild or radical empiricism-,8 that can think becomings (relations, difference,
process...), Without abstracting and extrapolating from things that already are
(individuated). We learned about this project in the last chapter when I discussed
Simondon's motivation for his theory of protesses
of individuation. It is this
impetus, combined with an allegiance to an immanent ethics, that enables us to
Deleuze
understand why
seeks the conditions for the invention of the new.
Bergson's CreativeEvolillioli sought to eliminate teleology and mechanism from
by
evolutionary accounts
emphasising the production of radical and itýilbreseeable
he
Deleuze
It
this
that
picks
on
intuition
as seeksto reconfigure the
up
novelty. is
conception of the transcendental.
Transcendental philosophy, for Kant, sought to avold extrapolating the
from
(the
the empirical; its status \vas
transcendental
conditions of possibility)
He
le
islate
faculty
to
criticised
that could 91
apn'OrlWith regard experience.
that of a
to
the
that
conditioned
required
reference
of
conditions
tautological
account
a
" Wahl discusses the idea of a radical empiricism in relation to Whitehead (1932: 219). He
between
(rapports)
their
terms
between
the
is
and
the
relations
adds that the problern
is
theory
this
He
theme
not
a
of
this
to
empiricism
saying
(i-elations).
returns
relations
it
intervals
Wahl
to
Deleuze
Hume
and
seerns
(127).
at
like
ýarious
praises
that of
sensations
idea
James's
bý
William
inspired
a
empiricism.
Wahl
of
radical
he
both
were
that
and
rne
bN
frorn
exploring a relational
radical empiricism
Jarnes distinguished ordinarý empiricism
\\ahl
Relations
themsel%es
a
part
of
experience.
are
actiNitý.
of
conception
and empirical
be
the
to
abstract
James
task
explain
must
the
that
of
philosophy
Whitehead
and
agrees Nvith
dear.
Yio\\e\
holds
the
DeleLize
iction
abstract
must.
in
er
334),
also
(1
con\
a
the
concrete
not
kind
is
lover
Deleuze
of
ofanother
a
be
generalising.
of
this context.
understood as a mode
abstraction.
106
A NO. MADIC
INIAGE OFTHOUGHT
(the aposlen'on).Undoubtedly Deleuze is indebted to a Kantian
conception of the
transcendental. He argues nonetheless that Kant fell into his own trap by
extrapolating the conditions of possibility of the transcendental from the
empirical itself. In response, Deleuze maintains that the transcendental must be
explored on its own account and only this kind of exercise will enable us to
discover multiplicities and the exercise of thought. As Daniel SM1'thsavs, the
conditions of possible experience become the genetic conditions of real
29).
expenence(1996:
Instead of being transtmdentprinciples of mere conditions, Deleuze develops a
transcendental philosophy of internal genesis (1962: 91). He maintains that Kant
failed in his project of immanent critique since his "[t]ranscendental philosophy
discovers conditions which still remain external to the conditioned" (91).
Deleuze's antipathy toward the ilhcit invocation of transcendent principles must
be
Todd
Maý'
When
transcendental
principles.
not
negation
of
confused with a
takes issue with readings of Deleuze that present him as a philosopher of
difference (that is, a thinker who privileges difference), he arguesthat difference
this,
Without
Deleuze's
the
philosophy
surface.
and unity are intertwined at
"'Me
44).
He
(1994:
be
antitranscendentalpath
says
rendered incoherent
would
difference
him
has
Deleuze
to
the
at the
primacy of
trodden requires
reject
that
falls
(44).
May
he
to
comprehend
the
that
of
primacy
un1ty"
rejects
same moment
formulations
Deleuze's
that
'One=Nlultiple'
such as
concern a specific
but
One,
the
e
inclusiN,
as
as
nor
unified,
the
as
numerical,
not
of
understanding
disjunction of the differences of differences. Rather than examining an
hnnself
May
difference,
cal
an
epistemolo
ical
with
contents
of
ontolo 91 account
10
discourses
(39).
difference
(and critical) claim that
is a means to contest unifý'ing
back
folding
it
onto a
This waters down the radicahtý- of this enterprise
difference
"a
thotight
is
at
not
a
pure
thought
of
that
Hegelianism xhich claims
for
Deleuze
ises
lightly
the
1
nature
misunderstanding
May
In
ti
(46).
chas
sum,
all"
think
thought
being
for
of
pure
to
try
a
and
as
his
nalve
so
own project and
of
difference.
10-
NO' MADIC
I"\LAGE OF THOUGHT
In the preface to the English edition of Dýýerent-e
Repefilim,
Deleuze clairns
aiid
that everythlng he has tried to do since has been connected Nviththis text, the first
he
'does'
one in which
philosophy. His problems were the concepts of difference
and repetition.
Difference
had tended to be subordinated to identitv,
resemblance, opposition and analogy; repetition was also thought in this way. By
"putting into question" the traditional linage of thought, these themes could be
re-addressed.
Deleuze suggeststhat the 'image of thought' chapter is the most important one in
the book. He says"[i]t is therefore the third chapter which now seemsto me the
most necessaryand most concrete
(1994/1968a: xvii). The image of thought
is not simply a question of thinking in accordance with a gl\-cn method, but it
These
detern-une
ide
the process of ttying
rests on implicit presuppositions.
gui and
to think. We assume the good nature of the thinker and we take the process of
faculties
forms
'common
the
on a supposedlý
recognition that
a
sense'conjoining
These
images that thought gives to itself of what it is to think
same object.
imprison
thought,
with
formally
beyond
the
ramifications that spread
development
The
of the concept of a rhizomatic thought that
philosophical stage.
from
in
this research.
thought
stems
is opposition to an arborescent
V. ii.
idealism or immanence
discusses
he
follows
Laruelle
the
It seems that Franýois
up on this thematic when
idea of a philosophical
Decision. This concerns the presuppositions made 1)ý-
concerning
is
Laruelle
there
that
a
argues
its own character.
philosophy
difference.
He
that
that
notes
Decision
of
an
autonomy
expresses
philosophical
demonstrated
decision
the
in
are
philosophical
a
of
consequences
some
is
strut),
gic
to
anti-humanist
an
the
-\vage
necessity
contemporary situation whereby
human
the
of
essence
positive
and
specific
a
to
recogruse
conflated with a refusal
(1986: 10).
displaced
is
the
the
thought
of
and
I
ffcrence
contraries
1)
of
With
the
opposition
11,
168
A XOMADIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
from
difference
linking
Being
the
aporia, an aporia sterni-ning
ontico -ontological
to being, is positivised. The aporetic nature of this thought is revealed in a
series
'One-NIultiple'.
Difference is explicitly constructed in
the
of conjunctions such as
opposition to presence and identity (though Laruelle remarks that such presence
fffl
difference
the
and identity
essenceof
with a punfied presenceand identity).
In Deleuze's case the modusoperandiof this theory of mLixturesis to create a zone
Couplings
hierarchies
of combat.
and
are affirmed over and above the terms in
Differences
forces.
The
combat.
are understood as relations of
immanence
from
This
idealism
Laruelle.
the
to
celebrated is an idealist one, according
stems
Diverse of distances of forces and perspectives. Scission while reconciled is not
longer
designates
The
prion'
the
a spaceof the possible.
concept of
a
no
sublated.
Instead, the apn*On'consistsof relations or non-relations as Indivisibles.
The difficulties associated with the concept of the differential or problematic
According
Laruelle,
thcN-are not unrelated to allegationsof a
to
themselves.
reveal
Idealism
Deleuze's
to
sen-c
thought.
materialism
and
in
pervasive idealism
The
idealism
indicate the prioritisation of a supplement of either idea of matter.
from
be
the
Deleuze-s
and
to
continuous
then
emerge
thought
seen
could
of
.
.
differential
the
on
apn S.
synthetic nature of
Me
Problem
Spznoýq
Philosoply
Nielýýwl)e
qj'E%Pression
and
and
Indeed, throughout
and
this thematic is ftequently invoked. Portrayed as the struggle of active and
differential
forces,
and
themselves,
activm,
(passive)
multiple
and
reactive
life.
(I'his
dimension
constituting an ethical
becon-ung-activeare valorised as the
form
)
In
Machiavellian
of
place
sounds.
initially
it
as
is not so straight-forwardly
is a
force.
Laruelle
has
that
at the core this concept of
being-able-to (ýowwh--M-e)
this
philosophising.
of
mode
Undecidability
in
inherent
contests the
Contradiction
derivative.
the
thell
but
is
as
seen
Identity is not cxpurgated
depths.
Laruelle's
In
base
from
the
Difference
ved
vie,,
insidious underbcHy ()f
'hoN,,
to
questl()n
greco-()ccidental
the
age-old
of
repetition
vie-w, this is another
169
A \ONIADIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
think duality-as-unity?' - that is, the unit\- of passage from one contran- to
another. In the case of Deleuze (and Nietzsche), the pathos of distance traverses
the analytic of the Will to Power. The reciprocal symmetry comprising the
ic of this philosophy
unstable equilibrium of passageis a continuous one. The lo 91
Difference
of
is to simultaneously purport to think the real as all (absolute) and
Other.
disjunction
The
difference
conversely as
of
is seenas a mode of indivision:
Difference
Repetition
unitý, in
and
is thus understood as the dorencesof ýi#ýI-ences
differences.
Being is definitively affected by the being
through
their
communicating
that it conditions (1986: 31).
Laruelle calls this indivisible
disjunction
inclusive
or
that is a unifying
of
kind
One
the
opposites a
of neo-Platonism, whereby
is a unifying unity in a
transcendental rather than empirico-ideal sense. Difference is immediately as One.
The One is not transcendent
there
is
no exterior unity governing contraries ,
division
One
distribution,
the
the
instead
is of
reign of
and
not a transcendent
his
Although
Deleuze
conception of univocity
model of causality.
would not call
Neo-Platonism,
a
Laruelle is correct in his assessment of the distributive rather
than collective power of Deleuze's 'One-All'.
A double turning away or double articulation can be understood as follows:
Difference is interpreted as a function of disparity and multiphcltý- and as a
ing Beiing
i, 1
function of unity. We saw in chapter 3 how Badiou argued that 1)ý-gn
I
door,
back
thus
the
the
and
virtual
in
smuggled
transcendence
was
two names
I
this
the
addressed
actual.
vis-A-vis
superiority
adopted the position of unilateral
Laruelle,
Spinoza's
the
býcause.
immanent
of
conception
explicating
criticism
legitimacýdraws
Difference
He
different
its
however, makes a
argues that
point.
from itself.
distinction
Difference, even if absolute and self-determMimig,retains a
"the
Lanielle
This
detern-uned.
calls
indicates
what
determining
chiasm
and
of
absolute-idealist
A
59).
(1986:
Difference"
reciprocity
ind
continuous
of
usage
governs
t-c\-crsibiht-ý-
being.
Being
here. There is a co-determination ()f
and
fcaturcs
the
this
rc,,
articulation
()f
tl
characterising
the
What then are some of
17()
A NONLXDIC I-MAGE OF TI IOUGHT
from other forms of orderingý Difference, as a philosophical decision, is not
but
transcendental. It is neither category nor Ideal. Laruelle diagnoses
secondary
the ontological proposition relating to Difference as follows, "Difference is
Scission-immediatelý--as-L-nin-,
Becoming-as-Being
[ ]" (39)a
...
Difference operates a genesisof empirical reality but it also attempts to re-unite
the concepts of Being and One. Deleuze's non (?) being or the 'problematic'
operates as a concrete principle, or even apn'on'emotion ()r sensibility, positivising
nothingness, making it different and multiple thus allegedly (and only allegedly),
says Laruelle, re-invigorating and re-vitalising philosophical thinking. This selfproclaimed jolt of Frankensteituan electricity aruimateswhat would be a dead
world of structuralism or Hegehanism.
Deleuze wanted to grasp the conditions of reality (of real experimentation) since
he believed that Kant's approach was too broad, inad%-crtentlNniffiroring and
from
the empirical. In turn, Laruelle levels this critique at Dcleuze,
generalising
the apn'on elements are too abstract for Laruelle, since thcý-are too close to that
from which theý, seek to escapeand risk falling into the facticity of the givcti"But the risk hes in confusing \vhat we must seek, their [that is, idealism and
differential
pn*on*
and material
materialism] esseil,,
elements, with the rclative
ý,as a
hence
J-aruelle,
1981:
§27:
this
1
ideal
of
structural version
essence"
necessarily
and
105). Ideality is re-introduced into the concept if the differential elements are
determining.
they
to
reciprocally
if
are
relative one another, or alternatively
forces,
key
Deleuze's
\rc
to
ideal
the
and
continuous,
so
enterprise,
of
relations
,
hidden
Is
Real
Awithat
the
idealism?
is
called
in
which
simply indicative ()f a
Oedipus another appellation for Being, giving (as Badiou fears) a primacy of
differential
4
D()cs
the
the
the
character
verý- relativity of
ideality over the rcaP
froin
lead
difference
their
terms
their
to
independence
and
or entities
relations of
a complex intertwining of- idealism and materialism, ot continuity and cut, in the
Laruelle's
by
to
conclusion is stark and clear.
sustain itself?
attempt
cach
W
1-1
A NOMADIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGH-r
"By elevating it [Difference] in a circular fashion to the level where it becomes
('will
to power'), the systemsof
the
self-producing, that is, to the state of
tvllsa sili
Difference make ideaht\- self-confirming and render any genesis of ideality or its
forms impossible. From this point of view Nietzsche, Heidegger and all the
founding
Difference
remain incapable of
a genuinely immanent
systems of
longer
becomingbecoming-'material'
that
thought
is no
materialism,, a
of
a
beyond
difference
as a multiplicity
continuity itself"
continuous, or of realising
(1981 §27,105)
Laruelle believes it is a transcendental illusion to claim that Difference determines
the real. His own work attempts to display the presuppositions of philosophical
thinking and to articulate the principles of non-philosophy, a philosophy of
brooks
One
the
the
that
is
radical immanence in which
condition of real critique,
This
One
transcendence.
is the transcendental unreflective experience or
no
donation
(oo
It
immediate and non-thetic
itself.
is singular, autonomous and as
does
before
The
One
Difference
that
is
not recognise,
such
any universal.
which
(1986:
33).
Laruelle
it
simultaneously
requiring
sees the inflexion of
while
Deleuze's fold, as is found in the concept of the 'difference of difference' (or
Repefifion
His
transcendence.
intensity) in Difference
own work
and
as an instance of
kind
'meta
the
presuppositions
philosophy
is a
of
and
questioning
of
-philosophy,
'what
is philosophy?, while staving off the trap of the philosophical
asking
decision.
I agreewith Laruelle that one can argue that a philosophical decision in favour of
difference has been made in the case of Deleuze. However, Deleuze is himself
function.
He
to
the
that
in
philosophy rests upon
order
presuppositions
aware of
beginning
"there
that
true
in philosophy, or rather that the true
is no
says
beginning in philosophy, Difference, is in-itself already Repetition" (1968a: 129). 1
detail.
difference
he
develops
that
in more
want to explore this concept of
Indeed, I suggestthat Deleuze's philosophy (like that of Spinoza) neither adheres
to a supplement of the idea or of matter. Deleuze's primarý- concern is with the
for
delimits
that
the
thought
potentials
imposition of a particular model of
172
A NML-ýDIC
1-NLAGEOF THOUGHT
begins
Deleuze's
LarueUe,
Unlike
thinking in advance.
philosophy alxvays
in the
is
Repetition.
Difference
hiteiwcýý-O:
that
alreadN
nu*ddle,
11\.-,,
A lengthy quote from Brassier synopsisesLaruelle's position. "For Laruelle, the
fact that the univocity of Deleuzean immanence can be purchased only at the
price of an irrecuperable excess of transcendenceis neither an accidental nor an
feature
Deleuze's
thought;
inconsistent aspect of
of
- it is a structurally necessary
all philosophical attempts to conceptualise immanence; one, moreover, that
feature
That
per
the
philosophical gesture
of
ultimately constitutes an invariant
se.
Deleuze is obliged to think immanence transcendentlv, or to think multiplicity
under the auspices of an uncircumventable unity, is not a question of
philosophical inconsistency, Laruelle argues; on the contrary, it merely indicates
the rigorous consistency of Deleuzean thought insofar as its internal coherence is
logic
Decision"
the
the
regulated in accordance with
philosophical
pernicious
of
(2000: 207, n. 16).
It is through the attempt to conceptuahse immanence philosophically that
logic
becomes
philosophical
circular, presupposing that which it seeksto explain.
While acknowledging this important criticism, Laruelle's critique operates at a
formal axiomatic level whereas Deleuze's praclicalphilosophy is both critical and
development
To
to
the
creative; integral
of an immanent ethics.
create a
philosophical approach one must invent a problematic that informs the concepts
that one develops. In this chapter, I will focus on the problematic of a 'thought
without image'.
V.iii.
the art of creating concepts
By the time of writing 11"hati's Philosopýy?Deleuze seems more concerned with
l
beginning
be
in
the necessity to 91 and to create concepts than with constructing a
1
Guattan
both
He
that eliminates
and
objective and subjective presuppositions.
be
be
"Planes
must
say,
constructed and problems posed, Just as concepts must
do
have
do
but
Philosophers
best
to
too
to
the
they
they
much
can,
created.
kno,\x-\N-hetherit is the best, or even to bother with this question. Of course nc\x173
A NONLADIC 1,\LNGE OFTHOUGHT
history,
to
and above all, to our
our
concepts must relate to our problems,
becomings" (1991a: 27). The 'image of thought' chapter remains important
becauseit emphasisesthe \-aluesunderlying the image that thought gives itself of
his
Deleuze
to
think.
in
may not succeed
eliminating
own
what it is
he
tries to invent a neighbourhood of concepts that might
presuppositions when
be called a 'thought without image', but this is not his primary goal.
The passageswe will read, and the quotations cited, show us that at an earlý-stage
Deleuze, inspired by Nietzsche, is fired by the prospect of creating concepts,
becomings.
for
His
tone is
that
time
Might prove useful
our
and our
concepts
because
tempered by the time of writing What I'sPhilosophy?,
rattler than
perhaps
down
he
Guattari
business
'doing
to
the
trN,to
just getting
pHosophy',
and
of
have
been
doing
lives?
'.
'what
is it we
articulate
all our
This contemplation does not negate their previous endeavours to 'do philosophy',
becausewhat they had been doing all along was nothing other than this "art of
forming, inventing and fabricating concepts" (1991a: 2). They say that philosophy
from
distinguished
is
(6).
It
is not reflection, communication or contemplation
the other (equally valid) ways of thinking: art which thinks through affects and
functions.
Philosophy
thinks
through
is not just a
percepts, and science which
has
been
frivolous
However,
it
profoundly
meaningless,indulgent and
endeavour.
has
Critique
"by
the
that
replaced
general movement
with sales
affected
"This
(10)
that
the
is our concern,
promotion"
marketers and advertisers
say,
and
"
These
(10).
ideas
the
the
inane rivals give
creative ones, we are
men!
we are
fit
Guattarl,
Deleuze
to
of the giggles which wipes
philosophy, according
and
a
They
(philosophical)
that
the
tears.
say
concept posits itself as it is
away its
friends
Philosophers
of the concept.
created.
are
Reading Dý#ýrentvand Repefifionin light of IVY)a/IS Pbilosopbj?enables us to
dogmatic
he
'image
Deleuze
of thought'.
calls a
criticises what
understand why
This image of thought stifles the creation of concepts. However, the philosophers
that he initially accusesof inventing 'a philosophy of representation' are portrayed
1-14
A NOMADIC
RNL-ýGEOF THOUGHT
longer
latter
It
text.
is subsequently no
a matter of
as conceptual personae in the
deciding which one invented the best concepts - Hegel and Descartes have totally
different ideas of what it is to begin - but of seeing how their concepts resonate
depending
If
they
the
transmute
on
problems
are a part of
with one another, and
be
'better'
than a previous
a concept makes us aware of new variations it may
be
Concepts
light
one.
can always reactivated in
of new problems.
V.iv.
restoring the rights of immanence
But deterritorialization is absolute when the earth passes away into the pure
immanence of a Being-thought, of a Nature-thought of infinite diagrammatic
[
]
does
Deterritorialization
movements. ...
of such a plane
not preclude
but
reterritorialization
posits it as the creation of a future new earth. [ ...] There
is always a way in which absolute deterritorialization takes over from a relative
deterritorialization in a given field.
Gilles Deleuze and F6hx Guattarl, If"hat is Pbilosoply?(1991a: 88).
back
As Wl'hat1SPhilosqpýy?
has
his
Deleuze
that
turned
continues, we perceive
not
The
difficult
most
on immanence.
problem
how
remains -
to expel
transcendence?The plane of immanence is the non-thought within thought. They
"Perhaps
this is the supreme act of philosophy: not so much to think
surmise
THE plane of immanence as to show that it is there, unthought in every plane,
[
]this
that
to
think
the
thought
it in
outside and inside of
which
and
way as
...
be
be
thought
thought
cannot
and yet must
the possibility of the impossible"
(59-60).
23. sch.) of the Ethit's, Spinoza wrote that we feel and experience
In Book V (ýpr.
kind
This
(sentimits
third
that we are eternal
of
expefimitrquenos aeternosesse).
knowledge has often been presented as the thought of the pure cool geometrician
It
God
the
thought
is as
impassively comprehends
and world.
nature of
whose
though Spinoza sits on a pinnacle and gazes upon the world. Such a reading
This
'forgets' the crucial words '-\x-efiel and e.%pelieli,
that
-e
we are eternal'.
'knowledge' is not an abstract theoretical knowledge, but a real experience of a
from
the point
through
things
as necessatýprescnt eternity,
which Nveunderstand
175
A NOMADIC
INIAGE OF THOUGHT
beatitude
It
irreducible to a statc
of view of eternity. is a concrete experience of
Deleuze
calls the event, and
of spatio-temporal actuahný,resembling rather what
I
Ruyer names sunvl (an absolute and immanent survev without beginning or end).
This is why it differs from the other affects for Spinoza.
Guattari's
Deleuze
that
propose
and
concept of the plane of immanence as
deterritorialisation
draws
beatitudo.
Spinoza's
It
to
is the
close
concept of
absolute
liberation
being
from
baggage
thought
the
revolutionary
of
of inadequate
and
from
The
((-onseius)
ignorance.
ideas,
superstition and
accompanying
consciousness
this experience is not a personalconsciousness,but is an understanding of oneself
found
(pars
Eternity
is
on earth and not in the skies.
as a part of nature
naturae).
We cannot understand without loving. The Joy felt when one operates at one's
love.
love
God
Spinoza's
threshold
transforms
maximum
into
is a
intellectual
of
love without object and without subject. "This is why it constitutes the perfect
form of human liberty and happiness" (Macherey, 1994: 152). This joy has
because
do
desire,
it
nothing to
With satisfying a personal and egoistic
"tendencially enlarges the perspective of the mind to the whole of nature" (154).
In fact, Macherey claims that this love of God (amor Dei) confers upon us the
feehng of an impersonal dimension existing within us.
We do not cease to love, but love with a greater intensity because we are
bound
(169).
1
to other
the
am
reconciled with
nature of which we are a part
humans through a network of concrete determinations that expressesthe infinite
but
hermit,
love
God.
God
Love
the
the
affirms on
is not
power of
of
solitary
of
the contrary a solidarity with other humans. For Nfacherey, this constitutes the
from
love
dimension
love
God,
that comes
a
a
political
of the intellectual
of
tendencially collectivc practice (172). The agonistic relations that accompany the
dissipate
Even
the tendency
this.
to
the
imagination
relative
machinations of
from
things
a
toward umN-ersahsationof the common notions which explain
(tqnitio
knowledge
is
Here,
tl-ýings
this a
of singular
gcneral point of N-icwvanish.
death.
fear
lose
We
(q#itere).
through ,N-hichNveare moved
of
our
rel-11PI
i-1*11ýglllantpi)
176
A NONL-ýDIC IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
An ethics of hberation has thus truly commenced.
SIpinoza speaks of this programme of action in clinical and diagnostic terms,
how
explicating
we need to perfect the corporeal and mental aptitudes of the
liberates
Freedom
to the maximum the power of being of a tl-iing
individual.
(186). Virtue (iirtus) is no abstract or theoretical quality, the mark of an ascetic;it
flourishing
longer
(a
to
corresponds
a
expansive movement
eudaimonia,no
theoretical, and without telos).It is with respect to De PotentiaIntellettils,seu de
LibettateHumana,the last part of the Etbics,that Deleuze and Guattari say Spinoza
knew that immanence was only immanent to itself They add that he "produced
kind
the
to
thought
the
third
infinite and gave infinite speeds
movements of
in
of
knowledge. There he attains incredible speeds,with such lightening compressions
that one can only speak of music, of tornadoes, of wind and strings" (1991a: 48).
In his seminars, Deleuze asks us to imagine Spinoza stroffing around, hving
line
This
kind
(24/3/78).
existence as a continuous melodic
of
of variation
hovers
deterritorialisation.
It
the
threshold
existence
about
awaits
of an absolute
distinction
The
takes
its creation which always
made
place in a relative milieu.
between perceiving things from a global perspective (Natura Naturans)and from a
Naturata)
here
(Natura
3
in order to
partial perspective
in chapter
is useful
features
distinction
to
this
pertaining
elucidate some
of absolute and relative
deterritorialisation, a theme I will return to at the close of this chapter.
V.v.
the possible of the possible: a revolutionary
becoming
Instead of gambling on the eternal impossibility of the revolution and on the
fascist return of a war-machine in general, why not think that a new type of
kinds
becoming
is
in
that
the
of mutating,
all
course of
possible, and
revolution
living machines conduct wars, are combined and trace out a plane of
World
the
the
the
and
of
organization
undermines
plane
of
consistency which
States.
Gilles Deleuze and Claire Parnet, Dialovites.(1977: 147) [trans. modified].
Exhausted'
'The
has
Ctitkal
Clill/Cal,
Deleuze
In 11ý',
on
a piece called
wid
fs(-as
177
IMAGE
N
0,
',
\L-ýDIC
-ý
OF THOUGHT
Samuel Beckett (1993: 152--4). Written after the coRapseof the Berlin Wall, this
discussed
the
theme
theme
throughout the
the
possible, a
of
essay returns to
Dý#ýreiit-e
Repefifim.
Bergson
Franýois
texts
in
other
such
as
and
aiid
works on
Zourabichvih (1998) has written a very thoughtful commentary on this text. It is
Finvoluntarisme
le
(de
'Deleuze
en pohtique),.
et possible
called
Zourabichvih reflects upon the proliferation of discourses proclairming the death
free-market
fall
the
the
the
the
the
reign of
possible and
in
of
aftermath of
of the
Berlin Wall. Thereafter, Fukuyama declared the End of History - in other words,
the end of major ideological conflicts - and a number of thinkers proclaimed that
democratic
free-market
'liberal(A
to
capitalism'
no alternatives
could exist.
wealth of single issue movements today sound together to voice a challenge to
before,
like
Sounding
Hegel
)
these thinkers were
many years
such presumptions.
horizons
beyond
to
their
see
own
so convinced were they that their place
unable
free-market,
liberal
democratic
(of
Idea
the
capitalism) come to
and era embodied
fruition. Similar to evolutionary theorists of the past, they believed that this
declarations
be
future
for
Such
the
present would
all societies.
claustrophobic
being
Dialques,
Deleuze
'the
In
to
things
possibility of
otherwise'.
sought paralyse
had sighed, echoing 1'Cierkegaard'the possible, the possible, or I will suffocate'.
Here he says "There is no longer any possible: a relentless (acharne)Spinozism"
(1993a: 152). In light of the above discourses and Deleuze's own affection for
SpMoza, Zourabichvih finds in this assertion a hint of sarcasm(1998: 336).
Whilst Deleuze distinguishes between the exhausted and the tired, he is also
"For
Deleuze,
think
the
that
that
is.
it
possible is not at all
saying
exhausting
you
discourses
two apparently opposed
coexist: to exhaust the possible/to create the
have
Bergson,
Deleuze
(337).
Like
to create the
that
contends
you
possible"
have
have
do
it until you
not
possible; it is not given to you in advance and you
His
found
Spinoza.
This
ethics of
in
idea of creating the possible is also
created it.
liberation rests upon creating relations and compositions that do not pre-exist
Guattari
Philosoph,
11"hat
Deleuze
In
reiterate the
and
their creation.
1S
),?
addition, in
limxby
dimension
the plane ()f
showing
of their philosophy
constructivist
1-8
A NOMADIC
LIMAGE OFTHOUGHT
having
Rather
be
than
a rigid, segmented 'molar'
immanence must
constructed.
laid
in
out in advance, they encourage
mode of existence which possibilities are
for
that
to
seeks
explore
one's
an ethics of experimentation
capacities
exist-Ingand
thinking.
In this vein of thought, Zourabichvih adds that a revolution is not the reali.falionof
but
le
b
This
(338).
ig
the
the
possi'
openi*nýg
oj'
openin
a possible
of the possible is
by
Guattarl:
"But
Deleuze
the event itself is uncoupled or in
elaborated upon
and
bifurcation,
deviation
laws,
to
the
rupture with causalities:it is a
a
with respect
an
field
for
(1984:
75).
While
Lacan
that
the
opens
of
possibles"
a new
unstable state
for
Guattari
"within
Deleuze
the
the real everything is
real is
impossible,
and
possible, everything becomes possible" (1972a: 27). They say, "[t]here is only one
kind of production, the production of the real" (32). How do these assertions sit
Bergsonian
illusion
the
the
critique of
retrospective
of the possible, and
with
Deleuze's own distinctions between the virtual and the actual (which do not
resemble one another) and the possible and the real (where the possible resembles
the real)?
Asking what this new field of possibles might be, Zourabichvili wonders if it is
hoped
for
be
that
in a
perhaps simply all
can
conceived, imagined, projected and
demonstrates
When
Deleuze
He
this
time.
that
the
is not
given
soon
case.
described a mutation from a 'society of discipline' to a 'society of control' this
but
field
Zourabichvih,
the
to
of possibles
an opening of a
was not, according
"series
field
domination.
A
of
instigation of a new regime of
of possibles is not a
dynamic
[
]
It
the
emergenceof the
real and imaginary alternatives ... now concerns
There
(339).
bergsonian
Deleuze's
It
thought"
is
inspiration of
political
new. is the
96-7),
1966a:
between
(Deleuze,
difference
that
and a
is realised
a possible
a
helps
This
that
to show us why the axiomatics of
is tTeated.
insight
possible
deterritorialisation
that
remain a mode of
capitalism
constitute a relative
domination. Uthough it tolerates (and encourages)the creation of new degreesof
liberty, this is within strict limits. The emergence of a force that threatened its
human
Guattari
be
Deleuze
that
riglits
tolerated.
profess
and
axioms Nvouldnot
1-9
A NOMADIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
democracy
"[-\x-lhat
has
bless
iven
them
social
the
capitalism;
not 91
will not make
fire
(1991a:
107).
their
territory
to
the
of
poor
out
or
ghettoý"
order
come
when
The exercise of force and erection of barbed wire barriers to surround delegates
O.
W.
T.
the
recent
conferences are an example of the response to irrecuperable
at
differences and singularities. The fact that these singular movements act in
definable
representational umbrella that might
commonality, whilst eluding a
T'he
them,
them
transversal relations that
makes
encompass
unknown quantities.
both
them
embrace
commonality and singularity.
unify
The distinction between a realised possible and a created possible informs this
Spinoza
different
just
living,
to
chapter.
as
sought
open up
possibilities of
Deleuze mobilises this concept of the possible to try to create spaceswhereby the
future can act upon the present. As Zourabichvili remarks, the inventions of new
life
being
This
kind
possibilities of
is
concern new ways of
affected.
a
of patl)osin
differential
linked
(puissance)
the
to
possible is
power
and power concerns a
which
distribution of affects.
A political event is a new distribution of affects, "a new circumscription of the
1968
May
It
moment
intoleration.
I.ntolerable".
expressed a
of
was a collectivc
form
"the
I
the
that
took
possible or will suffocate" as though
phenomenon
bear
longer
for
(Deleuze
its existenceany
change"
society could not
and cried out
Guattari,
But
1984:
76).
and
what precipitates this moment?
In chapter 3,1 explained why Spinoza denies a role to the realisablepossible.
Rather than participating in the immanent movement of reality, this possible adds
however,
does
This
dimension
that
to reality.
not mean,
a supplementary
Spinoza's system is arid and rigid. In fact, it concentrates upon the ways of
liberation.
It
different
is this
through
an ethics of
modes of existence
opening up
Elthl*Cs.
It
drives
being
the
otherwise that
understanding of the possibihtý-of things
does not rest upon a comparative model that measures different modes of
Instead,
it is necessaryto experiment,
existence against one another abstractly.
forms
of association that cultivate the potentials of indn-iduals.
and construct
180
A NO-MADIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
This process is one of becoming-active.
By grasping the potentialitiesof an actual situation, we do not dra,\N-up a plan:
dimension
"In
the
is
of
a
situation
perceived.
rather,
concrete modes
unactualised
like
the
to
possibilities offered
of existence, we perceive
us,
so manv affectivc
life
these
possibilities:
possibilities of
are the ways in which potentialities are
distributed and condensed, in a given time and social field [ ] When, \,,-e grasp a
...
situation as a pure possible, or in its potentiality, we evaluate these possibilities of
life [ ]" (Zourabichvili, 1998: 343). This pure spaceof the possible was discussed
...
in connection with Simondon's conception of the pre-individual. This possible is
the virtual. It is not given in advance.Both Bergson and Spinoza critique the idea
be
Both
that
realised.
can
are interested in the conditions of real
of a possible
follow
It
I
this
to
insight want
experimentation. is
up on through this chapter.
The possible does not pre-exist, it is created by the event. It is a question of life.
The event creates a new existence, it produces a new subjectivity (new relations
body,
the
time, sexuality, milieu, culture, work ) When a social mutation
with
...
appears, it is not enough to draw out its consequences and effects, following
lines of economic and political causality. The society must be capable of
forming collective assemblagesthat correspond to the new subjectivity, in such
it
is
'reconversion'
That
true
that
the
a way
wants
mutation.
a
Gilles Deleuze and F61ix Guattarl, 'Mal 68 n'a pas eu heu'. Les Nouvelles,
(3-9 mal 1984: 76).
In a section headed 'C&,hýs,orpolilit'sas onlypossiN e', Zourabichvih argues that part
live,
"Everything
be
be
done
to
even
we see,say,
must
I
with chch6s.
of this pro'ect
feel,
is always already recognised, carrying M advance the mark of
imagine and
It
form
'd6JA-entendu"'
(351).
'd6jA-vu'
the
is as though nothing
recognition,
of
or
like
happens.
The
the
chch6,
is new, everyd-ling stays the same, nothing ever
Kant
Zourabichvih
to take issue with this
to
returns
possible, is pre-existent.
He
the
claims that the transcendentalis pre-formed since
possible.
conception of
BNtracing
it maps out the conditions of possible experience, not realexperience.
from
field
from
the
the
the transcendental
of the empirical, noveltý- is eN-acuated
field of thought. A real experience is an encounter that forces us to think that
be
thought.
which cannot
181
A NOMADIC
V.vi.
BIAGE'OFTHOUGHT
doxology and the State
In our thought the essential feature is fitting new material into old schemas
] making equal what is new.
...
Friedrich Nietzsche, Tbe If-illlo Pomer.(1901: ýý499,2773).
The entire apparatus of knowledge is an apparatus for abstraction and
directed
knowledge
but
simplification not at
at taking possession of things [ ...]
Friedrich Nietzsche, TI)e Villto Power.(1901: 'ýý503,274).
At the heart of Deleuze's critique of the image of thought hes a concept of the
disparate. Deleuze's conception of a philosophy of immanence centres upon the
developing
By
to
than
immanence qf immanence rather
an immanence something.
differences
Deleuze
the
a philosophical account of univocity as
oj'differences,
hold
both
to
out
seeks
an allegiance to a philosophy of immanence and a
conception of a system that persists in a state of tension, a tension that is not
force
finds
by
force
Badiou
While
of
a
impelled
any
exterior to the system.
transformation and rupture in the stellarvoid,Deleuze's alterity is embeddedwithin
the system. For this reason Laruelle is correct when he observes that this
Laruelle
both
'all'
'other'.
However,
the
accuses
real is
as
and
conception of
Deleuze of being a philosophical idealist because of his development of a
I
SiMondon,
force.
Spinoza
Reading
Deleuze
challenge
and
philosophy of
with
dualism.
how
this
these thinkers sidestep
this assessment,showing
Rather than figuring out if an idea is Just or correct Vilste),Deleuze and Parnet sa\between
for
different
look
the tx()
idea so that something passes
a
we should
(1977: 10). This is the encounter of thinking that takes one by surprise, opening
how
dictating
has
Philosophy
one
its own apparatuses of power,
new worlds.
be
have
has
to
able to
to
read in order
thinks, what one can think, and whom one
"The
for
(13).
has
The
State-form
thought
cxercisc of
think.
provided a model
dominant
State,
to
the
meanings
thought thus conforms to the goals of the real
18"
A NO'\L-kDIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
(13).
This
the
contention informs
estabhshedorder"
and to the requirements of
developed
Dý#ýrol,,
Repefilim.
'iMage
thought'
the conception of the
in
e aiid
of
Deleuze and Guattari sayif thought is not taken seriously and it is laughed at, this
less
"Because
the
that
people take thought serioush-, the more
is required.
is all
they think in conformity with what the State wants" (1980: 376). The destruction
forces
thought
the
and
of thinking is the
of a model of
unleashing of other
Repetition.
Difference
The
Deleuze
enterprise
undertakes in
and
classical image of
thought effects a striation of the mental space and it "aspires to universality"
(379). A nomad thought challengesthis image and refuses to be bound by it.
Opinions or doxashapewhat thinking is supposed to be. Differences are captured
3,1
In
through
and contained
strategies of mediation.
chapter
outlined the
his
The
being.
In
the
primary points concerning
admiring reviews of
unlVocity of
Lqgk of Sense
Dýfferente
Repefilion,
"[t]he
Foucault
that
surmises
and
and
univocitý- of
being, its singlenessof expression, is paradoxically the principle condition -\'A-1ich
frees
ftom
difference
dorrunation
the
to
the
it
permits
escape
of identity, which
law of the Same as a simple opposition within conceptual elements" (1970: 192).
Difference is not organised and divided through the categories.
As we learned in the last chapter, from his 1956 essayon Bergson Deleuze tried
He
difference-in-itself.
develop
to communicate the pressing need to
a concept of
between
by
distinguishing
for
Repetition
Diffireme
this in
and
clarifies the impetus
Arguing
difference.
difference
that
to
think
that
allows
and
a
concept
us
empirical
difference is always subordinated to identity, analogy, opposition or resemblance,
he concludes that these are features of a representationalist philosophy. For
be
difference
Aristotelian
the
the
of
through
principle
thought
can
only
example,
because
difference
Deleuze
it is
is pure
says that specific
excluded middle term.
formal; intrinsic becauseit operates in the essence;and qualitative to the c-xtent
that the genus designates essence.Difference is thus synthetic; a specification
formal
It
cause.
added to a genus, chviding the genus and producing species. is a
lacking
hierarchical,
distributive
being
Aristotle's
Since
aný
and
is
concept of
18")
No,
M-\DIC
-ý
ý
E\L-ýGE OFTHOUGHT
being.
from
Spinoza's
conception of univocal
content, it chffers greatly
The classification and division of difference is not just a matter for archlike
The
differences
Linnaeus.
taxonomists
ordering and subordination of
to
The
is,
undeniably, an everyday occurrence.
question of what
general concepts
difference
fashion
to
that
is
replied
in
often
a comparative or negative
makes a
'difference
indicates the
A
thing.
previous
state or another
natural order
-from' a
differences.
Spinoza
to
appears operate as we collate and categorise
writes rather
from
distinctivc
the
that
trait, creating a
people extrapolate
a
way
vitriolically of
he
Indeed
morass of superstition and ignorance.
eyesthe usageof the generalising
fiction
concept With some suspicion, understanding its utility as an abstract
and
focal point for common imaginings, but wary of the insidious prejudices which
divide
destroy
and
communities.
can
When Spinoza discussed the mechanisms of the imagination, he described the
fit
things into categories according to principles of recognition
ways in which we
by
depends
bodies
This
are affected
on the ways in which our
and association.
dispositions
formed
bodies,
the
the
of our
reflect
images
nature and
and
other
bodies.
Though
bodies
than
the
rather
we may collectively
nature of other
own
for
the sake of convemience,often the
cluster images into similar categories
Spinoza
depend
different
on our own experiences.
images evoked are very
and
differentially
to
think
rather than through empty
tries to encourage a capacity
generahsing,and stereotypesand prejudices.
hilarious
Michel Foucault famously began The Order oj'Tbznýgs
with a poetic and
describes
Borges
Via7'olies
(1944).
from
Borges's
the categorisation of
quote
follows
In
Chinese
that
animals
encyclopaedia. the passage
animals in a certain
belongilig
from
"a)
to
divided
that
tumble
another
one
over
into categories
are
brush"
fine
drawn
"k)
camelhair
with a vety
the Emperor" to "b) embalmed" to
disturbing
The
1966:
(Foucault,
broken
xv).
the water pitcher"
to "m) having just
dissolution
the
of a common ground whei-C
oddness of the juxtapositions reveals
No
fantastical
these
is
taming
animals
of
meet.
might
and real creatures
all these
PS4
A NOMADIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
distinction
"threaten
bemeen
collapse
pernutted as they
our
with
age-old
the
Sameand the Other" (xv). The wildness of their being overspills any classification
Borges
"does a,,vay with thesile, the
within a common ground or excluded middle.
for
be
(xvii).
For
to
mute ground upon which it is possible
entities
juxtaposed"
Foucault these unravelled sites are called beterotopi'as
"since they make it
impossible to name this and that
(xviii). Through what image of thought are
things ordered?
V.vii. the State versus the nomad: counterposing
multiplicities
On a superficial level at least, the distinction between the image of thought laid
Different-e
Repetition
in
out
and
and the idea of a new image of thought or a thought
distinction
to
the
without image, runs parallel
of the two multiplicities, metrical
Tbousand
Plateaus
Reading
A
Dorent'e
Repetition
the recurrence
and virtual.
with
and
Throughout
Dorent-e and Repetition,Deleuze opposes a
this
theme
of
is striking.
nomosof crowned anarchy to a representational identitarian image of thought.
Similarly, in a more politicised environment, this duality occurs in 1227: TI)e
TreatiseonNomadolqV The WlarMacbine.
Spinoza's immanent philosophy countered the hierarchical Power of the State
divides
The
State
polis
the
the
power of
tiomos.
or
up space, it segments,
with
for
things
this reason it is called an apparatus
classifiesand groups people and
and
distributes
distributive
the
people in an
power since it
nomosis a
of capture, while
])ýbeen
has
leap
This
They
a
adopted
strategy
can
open space.
up anywhere.
decentralised
protest movements who use the element of
number of intensively
The
resonance of a number of singular
surprise when mobilising resistance.
difficult
both
finds
to
polis
groups creates an acephalous movement; one the
control and intensely threatening.
(metrical
TWO tVJ-)CS
and virtual)
the
t-\N-o
multiplicities
of space isomorphic -with
These
discussed
the
the
and
the
tionios
space
of
this
smooth
plateau.
are
in
are
Guattan
Deleuze
III
State.
In
Proposition
and
of the plateau,
striated spaceof the
hylomorpliic
between
distinguish
a royal science, that \x-()rksthrough a
seek to
18---)
-\
\O-MADIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
"u-nplying
both a form that organises
model
form
for
the
matter and matter prepared
(1980: 369), from a nomad science.A royal
sciencecopics government
divide
to
seeking
and organise its populace or matter. It homogenises matter in
Converselv,
to
treat
order
it.
a nomad science is laden vvith singularities ind
presupposesanother organisation of the social field.
These models of science are named in the fashion of Plato's Titv(ielts.The first is
called a Comparslland the second is called a Dispars.The first involves extracting
constants in order to form laws. The second places variables in continuous
variation. Unlike the earlier matter-form distinction this is a matter-force
distinction. "They seize or determine singularities in the matter instead of
form"
(369). Such is the opposition of Igos and iiomos.The
constituting a general
distinction relates to the treatment of the play of forces.
In the first case, there is a treatment of forces or potenliaeso that the space is
homogenised
striated, ordered,
and made comparable. This kind of multiplicity is
called metric, or arborescent, since it imposes its laws and dimensions
indifferently regarcUessof the situation. The nomosor the dispars does not
succumb to a Euclidean space; it is a hodological or haptic space. "A field, a
heterogeneous smooth space,is wedded to a ven- particular type of multiphcm,:
nonmetric, acentered, rhizomatic multiphc1ties that occupy space without
44counting"it [ ]" (371). This is a search for the singularities of a matter. It is
...
concerned with the pre-individual or the event of non-personal individuations.
Deleuze and Guattari suggest that these spaces or multiplicities operate as
do
(metrically)
in
Bergson,
intelligence and intuition
since intelligence employs a
by
formally
"solve
the problems posed
intuition
spatiahsedmethod to
(37/4).
11()'\vcver,flicy also ask whether thought can be extricated from the State niodcl.
Rather than being gathered into an interior form, can thought become a slingshot?
79See Deleuze (1968a: 161-2) for a discussion on the \\aý that Euclid kept geometrY in line
it
from
becoming
identit\,
the
a geometrNof sufficient reason.
preventing
principle of
with
186
A NO. \L-ýDIC INL-ýGE OF THOUGHT
Does the immanent axiomatic of capitalism imply that the concept of the 'image
State-form,
beginning
At
thought',
the
it
premised as is upon
of
the
is obsoleteý
discusses
Dialoýgues,
Deleuze
the relationship of philosophy and Power. He
of
borrows
"thought
from
that
its
properly
the state as
argues
philosophical image
beautiful, substantial or subjective interiority" (1977: 13). The goal of beconuing
language
State
Pure
of
an official
a
means that philosophy adheres to the
(This
Nietzsche's
)
There
Kant.
is
order.
established
criticism of
are mechanisms
fulfilled
to
that
of exclusion
ensure
certain criteria are
conforming to the agreed
how
have
has
been
ideas.
An
to
the
this
procedures of
correct
example of
imposition of an official languageof the State that operates on a 'higher register'
than all the dialects and minor languagesscattered throughout a society. It is this
from
has
for
itself, which in turn prevents it
image that philosophy
set up
functioning, that Deleuze takes issue with. For him, it is a question of breaking
ftee from the repressiverole of philosophy in order to invent his own approach.
So what matters with the image of thought is not whether the comparison with
the State-form is legitimate, or whether there is a new image of thought
but
the ways in which thinking is
accompanying the axiomatics of capitalism,
delimited and we are forced (or succumb) to thinking in accordance with a
At
deHmited?
delineated,
How
stake is
striated and
is thought
particular model.
but
know
that
rather a Ný,
-ay of
everything
would
not an omniscient subject
Thinking
differentially.
differently
in accordancewith
or
thinking about thought
(without
thought
image).
this
other
recognIsedprinciples precludes
V.viii. the idiot
The image of
demands
thought imposes a model of thinking correctly that
"When
le
islation.
Kant's
This
stop
v.
-C
91
to
of
philosophy
is
reference
obedience.
to
State,
God,
continue
us
persuades
and
appears
reason
the
parents,
our
obeying
(I)eleuze
because
docile
the
being
orders"
it says to us: it is y()u who are giving
Trinity
"the
deranged
madness,
terrible
Otherwise
of
1962: 92).
stupid:
or
are
y()u
stupidity and malevolence
(1968a: 149) - those obstacles wher than error
I
's
-
A NONLNDIC 1-'\L-ýGE OF THOUGHT
than the dogmatic image must overcome. How can one then articulate a nondeny
How
thought?
the patently obvious? "[H]ow is s-tupiditý
conformist
can one
(not error) possibleý" (151). The new idiot, saý-Deleuze and Guattarl, is a
longer
the
persona
conceptual
who, unlike
old idiot, no
strives for indubitable
truths. It is a thought that thinks against reason. "The new idiot will never accept
the truths of history" (1991a: 63). 1 am no longer myself I is an Other. This is
thought as the dice-throw.
But in reality, we encounter the tyranny of good-will, the obligation to think "in
common" with others, the domination of the pedagogical model, and most
importantly, the exclusion of stupidity - the disreputable morality of thought
whose function in our society is easy to decipher. We must liberate ourselves
from these constraints; and in perverting this morality, philosophy itself is
disoriented.
Nfichel Foucault, 'Theatrum Philosophicum'. (1970.18 1).
Deleuze begins his chapter 'The Image of Thought' with a question on beginning.
He says"Where to begin in philosophy has always rightly been regarded as a
delicate
for
beginning
problem,
very
means eliminating all presuppositions"
(1968a: 129). Although
philosophers may strive to
eliminate objective
presuppositions, a series of subjective implicit presuppositions shapes their
philosophy. 110Deleuze gives the example of Descartes' second meditation:
Descartes did not want to define man as a rational animal since this presupposed
the concepts of rationality and animality (129). In this way he could avoid
defining humans through genera and specific differences. However Descartes's
thought is laden with other presuppositions, that derive from opinion - "it is
by
knows,
that
self,
presumed
independently of concepts, what is meant
evetyonc
thinking, and being" (129). What appears to be a true beginning rests on
figure
from
Rather
to
the
than
trying
out what
empirical.
presuppositions wrested
different
be,
beginning
Deleuze
takes
trajectory, and this is \ý-hat
might
a
a true
He
most interests us.
asks what a subjective or implicit presuppositioti is,
80See
for
discussion
Descartes'
3)
2
Philosol)hY9,
this
It'lica
is
of
and
especially chapters
also
he
his
as
correlatiNe subjective presuppositions
challenge to objective presuppositions and
being
1.
hat
knows
thinking,
and
mean.
that
\\
e\ er\ one
assurnes
188
NO-MADIC
OF THOUGHT
Iý\I_-ýGE
form
"Evcn-bodv
knows
the
surreptitious
concluding that it comes under
of
That hint of sarcasm Zourabichvili spoke of earlier disparaged the presumption
that the possible can no longer be created. Bý-making thinking function under the
knows
'obvious'
"everybody
be"
(130)
the
to
think
rule of
to
it
means
what
and
thought
is imprisoned in a conservative world where the status quo is affirmed
differential
thought is severed in advance.This is thought
as a natural order, and
And
this
the
consequencesof
as opinion.
image of thought are pervasive and
have
"Many
in
knows
ing
'this', that
that
political.
people
an interest saYi
everybody
deny
They
this,
that
that.
triumph easilý-so
everybody recogn1ses
or
nobody can
long as no surly interlocutor appears to reply that he does not wish to be
represented, and that he denies or does not recognise those who speak in his
for
(131).
Spivak
I
'orstelllltýg
When
Deleuze
narne"
criticised
conflating
and
Darstellun she did not grasp the ed-tico-political undercurrent of Deleuze's
forms
hes
critique of representation which
precisely in critiquing all
of mediation
that deny or assimilate difference.
Thought is paralysed if everything is set out in advance. Spinoza's quest for
knowledge was kept a relative secretbecausehe knew he would not last long if he
The
by
found
have
'differently',
thought
most
to
questioning common sense.
was
Deleuze,
form
and this is
general
of representation is common sense, argues
A
(131).
"upright
morality underlies the
nature and good will"
understood as an
Of
for
Thinking
truth.
course,
is presented as a quest
image of what it is to think.
Spinoza searched for true knowledge, but for him there was no model of what it
liberation
Etbics
The
of the activities of
constituted a process of
is to think.
thinking and em-sting.
Beyourselves- it being understood that this self must be that of others. As if we
do
themselves,
long
the
problems
control
not
as
we
would not remain slavesso
in
to
do
long
to
the
and
problems, a participation
not possessa right
so
as we
managementof the problems.
968a:
158).
Repelition.
(I
Gilles Deleuze, Dýl -ence
and
189
A, <OAADIC
I. \L-ýGE OF THOUGHT
If 'e%-erybodyknows...' and 'no-one can dený----'are utilised as weapons against
happens
does
know
to
that
thinking,
person
who
what
not
critical
or recognise
the universality of the premises of what it is to think and to be? This is whNsubjective presuppositions are such an insidious method of oppression: by
free
that
thought
is
a
of objective presuppositions, it appears
contending
transparent, obvious and universal. This is how philosophy can claim to begin
'e-,
knows'ý
What
thinks
than
if one
other
what -erybody
without presuppositions.
You used to be burned to death for it, now you can be detained or imprisoned,
dismissed as insane or an agitator. By implicitly knowing what it means to think,
label
them stupid, cN-ilor mad.
those
thinking
and
one can mark out
who are not
knows, this indiN-idual
If through ill will a person does not know what eN-erý-body
"is without presuppositions. Only such an individual effectiN-elybegins and
(130).
effectively repeats"
A series of postulates, that is, implicit and pre-philosophical propositions,
The
from
borrowed
These
thinking.
common sense.
are
underscore philosophical
has
"thought
that
an affinity with the true; it
image of common sense claims
formally possessesthe true and materially wants the true" (131). In accordance
Deleuze
'knows'
think.
to
this
calls this image of
image everybody
what it is
with
A
(131).
"dogmatic,
philosophy without
thought a
orthodox or moral image"
presuppositions would embark on a radical critique of this image of thought and
from
liberated
begin
Thought
to think if
the postulates it relies upon.
could only
It
Truth
is not just a case of
is produced.
this image and its postulates.
designation. Thought has been conflated with recogn1tion. Indeed people seldom
(echoing
Thought
forced
the
is a shock
to through a shock.
think, except when
disjunction of the faculties that occurs in the K'antian sublime").
bý
Uthough Kant nught have overturned the prevaihng image of thought
did
he
for
illusion
did,
he
that
ultimately
error,
of
the
of
concept
as
substituting,
forth.
faith
kno,,
so
and
morahtv,
vledge,
the
of
presuppositions
not renounce
81 This is discussed in Cinenta ?- The Fitne-Image. See also Deleuze"s discussion of the
dissolution of the faculties (I 968a: 143) and his book on Kant.
190
A\O'\L-ýDIC
1--\L-ýGEOF THOUGHT
Deleuze concludes consequently that "Critique has even-thing -a tribunal of
justices of the peace, a registration room, a register - except the poN,,
-cr of a new
(137).
112
the
thought"
overturn
image
politics which would
of
Deleuze's battle is with an image of thought that remains upright as it follows a
He
"[s]uch
hindrance
to
model of recognition.
complains,
an orientation is a
The
levels
three
philosophy.
supposed
-a
naturally upright thought, an in
principle natural common sense,and a transcendentalmodel of recognition - can
figure
This
(134).
Ur-do.
the
the
ideal
is
orthodoxy"
of
%-a.
constitute only an
Thought for Deleuze is not about recognition, or rediscovering that which N,,
-as
latent. The image of that thought gives itself of what it is to think has been
facts,
from
Kant's
banal
Even
Recognition.
the
most
of empirical
extrapolated
he
disguise
(135).
tried
to
philosophy rests upon a psychologism which
The intimate link between recognition and establishedvalues was condemned bNNietzsche in 'Schopenhauer as Educator'. One of the primarýl problems with the
Nietzsche
it
that
remarks
is chsturbingly complacent.
image of thought is
from
being
be
"a
Truth
which no
more modest
may seemthen to
vitriohcally that
disorder and nothing extraordinary is to be feared: a self-contented and happy
be
to
creature which is continually assuring the powers-that-be that no one needs
knowledge....
"pure
for
least
it is, after all, onlýý
in the
concerned on its account;
(Nietzsche quoted in Deleuze 1968a: 135). The image of thought affirms
difference:
is
The
it
new called
establishedvalues rather than creating new values.
from
a terrain(,qgnitasprings
,
In Nieljýs-ýJ)eeiiid Philosophj, Deleuze
form
the
that
only
states
of critique
is 'to
first
him,
han-imer'.
Kant
the
to
philosopher
was, according
phflosophise, %vith a
engage in a total, positive
been a more
conciliatory
and i-mmanent critique.
or respectful
total
However
critique"
"[tihere
(1962:
to
has never
89). By only
82It is not Nvithin the scope of this thesis to assessthe extent to NNhichDeleuze's critique of
Second
Cartesian
the
both
is
especial1%
philosoph".
the model of recognition
a criticism of
faculties,
the
to
the
harmonious
eNaluate
or
Kantian
of
Meditation, and the
exercise
legitlrnacý of such a critique.
191
A NOMADIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
knowledge
knowledge
to
truth,
the
and
challenging t-laims
values of
and truth
function unimpaired. Believing in that which it is criticising, this critique isConsequently
Deleuze
(quoting
Nietzsche) asks: "Is this
critique as justification.
the announcement of the great politics?" (90).
Rather than measuring, judging and equalising life, thought must become the
life,
life
be
force
the
power
of an active
just as
affirmative
would
active
of
knowledge
legislates, thought becomes subjected to it. Instead
(101).
If
thought
Deleuze, with Nietzsche and Spinoza, calls for a thought that goes to the limits of
do.
"Thinking
it
discovefiq,
ihmifiq,
then
can
mean
nmpossibilifiesq1
what
would
hfý' (101). Summarising the dogmatic image of thought, Deleuze says:we are told
the thinker wants and loves truth, and thought, as thought, formally possesscs
truth; we are diverted from the truth because of passions like the body and
sensuous interests; thinking truthfully is a method through which we ward off
forces
ftom
Truth
(103).
that
the
real
is presented in abstraction apart
error
by
be
But
thought.
thought is an actlNlt-\,,an activity that can
controlled
engender
forces
Hence,
the establishedorder and current
to
that
remain external it.
reactive
values reign with impunity.
Truth, as we learned through Spinoza, must be evaluated in terms of a pluralist
It
'what
We
must ask
use is philosophyý'. may
typology of modes of existence.
does
however
dominant
if it
not challengeits own image
mý-stifications,
critique
be?
does
task
not act against its time, what can its critical
of thought, and if it
Nietzsche and Deleuze say that philosophy is the Untimely. I refer the reader to
detail
I
Spinoza's
earlier.
thought, a concept explained in
the notion of conatusin
This concept demonstrates the way that thought is an activin-, and never simph,
facultý-.
Nietzsche's
that
thought
is
thought
is
a
the exercise of a natural
disparate.
"Truth
difference
diapbora.
It
the
and
is a thought of
unequalisable:
depends on an encounter with something -\k-hichforces us to think, and to seek
16).
(1964:
the truth"
"betomes
Samc
Difference is crucified on the altar of the
once it
(m oý)Ieclol
19-
A NOMADIC
INIAGE OF THOUGHT
identity,
to
relation
a
eired
a jud,ged analo, all IMI(ollied
twit,
alivajsin
representation
'D
.
(138)
.
.
It
perrei
/Z
oil
or
a
Ped
similitude"
opposi
is alxvays mediated through recognition,
distribution
(rýpartifion), reproduction
philosophy of the pre-individual
and
resemblance
(138). SIMondon's
sought to challenge these presuppositions by
developing another kind of thought and another kind of ethics. The postulate of
leads
recognition
us to the predominance of a representational image of thought.
Once an empirical figure is elevated to the status of the transcendental this is "at
the risk of alloNVing the real structures of the transcendental to fall into the
empirical"
(154). Under
the essential forms of representation the image is
hierarchalised. The imperatives of this kind of image are: compare, calculate,
identify.
V.ix. an encounter with Proust
Deleuze's short monograph on Proustand Signsis ostensibly a commentary on A
,
la Re6ýherrhe
du TempsPerdit.Yet lurking in the pagesof this book is the genesisof a
C.
S.
Like
Peirce, Proust proliferated a senuioticsof signs."
thought.
new image of
I want to concentrate on one particular aspect of the sign that shines through this
text; the sign as disparate. This is an idea we are now familiar with. lnvoluntarýbut
for
does
Deleuze,
It
memory is,
not represent anything
an example of a sign.
Bergson
the
called this
present.
is instead something which is and coexists with
"Real
Proust
'virtual',
Deleuze
to
the
without
explain it,
quotes
memory
and
being present, ideal Without being abstract" (1964: 57). With involuntary memorý
in
(without
the
the
representation)
mediation
of
immediately
place
ourselves
we
Zourabichvili's
(as
Involuntary
examples)is effectuated through
memory
in
past.
a shock or an encounter: that is, a sign.
The unstable opposition and qualitative transition that occurs in an encounter is
11,11(.
Proust's
becoming-other.
figure
transversals
in
establis,
consists
the
Nvork
of a
1,
from
leap
that
one -world to another without gathering the multiple into a unified
(11-2).
fragyn-ients
bv
affirmino, at once the unity of the multiphcltN' In all its
wliole,
8-'Deleuze discusses these in great detail in his t\\o cinerna books.
193
A NOMADIC
A
sign is
fragment
a
1'\L-kGE OF THOUGHT
that
is
a power
of
nonconu-nUnication and
incommensurability. It is the forcc of the unequal. Noncommunication and
incommensurability are distances,but they are distancesthat are affirmed. "Time
is precisely the transversal of all possible spaces,including the space of time"
(115). It circumvents the whole.
This idea of transversality allows the affirmation of distance in heterogeneitV.
Rather than effecting a unifying operation, viewpoints communicate but "remain
noncommunicating according to their own dimension" (149). The bumblebee is a
profane transversal creature that causes "partitioned sexes to communicatc"
(149). Difference is no longer suppressedwith this idea of transversality, and the
distance of unnatural couplings is affirmed. This understanding of the
'disparateness' and distance of differences allows difference to be grasped as
difference.
V.x.
swimming
and thinking
Something in the world forces us to think. This something is an object not of
but
fundamental
recognition
of a
encounter.
Gilles Deleuze, Differenceand Repetition.(1968a: 139).
Often when a speaker poses a problem, she already has the answer. Similarly an
desired
(and
to
agreeable)response on the part of
a
objection raised seeks elicit
because
discussions
Deleuze
Indeed
thinks that
the thinker.
k-here
never go any-,
different
things trying to reconcile others to their
talking
about
everyone is always
"Questions
discussions.
he
for
It
al-C
this reason
was acutely warý-of
views. was
If
like
invented,
anything else. you aren't allowed to invent ý-ourquestions \\-itli
'1)()sc'
from
from
to
them
if
people
the
mind
where,
never
place,
all over
elements
1).
Indeed
19,
-,:
Parnet,
(Deleuze
havcii't
and
strong
much to say"
VOU)VOU
lie
"Fxciýhis
found
or
pl-fflosopher runs awaý-',\-Ilcn
in
assertion that
advice is
18').
199
1
Guattarl,
"
(I)eleuze
discuss
"Let's
hears
a:
this"
and
someone say
she
The act of interrogation relies on both good sciise and commoii sciisc.
194
A \'O-NLýDIC
EýLkGE OF THOUGHT
Problems need to be invented-, they do not exist ready-made.A problem is
not
from
traced
Deleuze
a proposition. In IFI)at 1'SPbilosophy,
just
-,
and Guattari
underline that propositions always refer to a state of affairs, i. e. they are
"The
reallN
referential.
7 great problems are posed only once they are soIved"
(1968a: 159). The disparity that the problematic encapsulatcs is an immanent
disparity engendered by the tension of material conditions. Bergson's question
how
do
was always
we invent good problems and distinguish true problems from
those that are peripheral and insignificant: for example, 'whNýis there something
rather than nothingý184
While crediting Kant With inventing the problematic of the Idea, Deleuze
maintains that the Kantian critique did not escapefrom the dogmatic image of
thought (161). Ideas or problems are the differential elements in thought. The
example Deleuze gives of this is swimming. Taking the Leibnlzlan description of
the idea of the sea,Deleuze explains that it is "a systemof liaisons or differential
between
degrees
to
the
relations
particulars and singularities corresponding
of
\-anation among these relations
(165). To learn to swim MN-oh-csconjugating
"the distinctive points of our bodies with the singular points of the objective Idea
learning
field"
This
Deleuze
form
(165).
that
is why
says
in order to
a problematic
takesplace in and through the unconscious.
Let us recall the example of swimming presented in chapter 3. Deleuze, this time
Spinoza,
suggestedthat swimming was the art of composition of
speaking about
relations. It involves a graduated and continuous alteration of the relations of
field
differential
This
body
is a problematic
one's
with those of the waves.
becausethere is a disparity, eN-erythingis not, nothing staN-still. It is a turbulent
'model' of continuous disequilibrium, or a continuity of the discontinuous. \()t
but
differential
into
the
enters
indwidual
relations,
the
of
a
sct
individual
only is
different sets of differential relations that are transformed by the threshold points
of pre-individual sinoarities.
84Deleuze discusses this in his first chapter of Bci-gsotiism ( 1966a).
195
A NO'\L-ýDIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
Similarlv, "[,,v]e never know in advance how someone x-vil-llearn: by means of
love
becomes
someone
what
good at Latin, what encounters make them
a
dictionaries
learn to think" (165). We learn through
theNT
philosopher, or in what
signs; not through copying someone else doing something, but through a
heterogeneity of relation (1964: 22). This art of experimentation does not discoivr
but inventsthe potentials of the body and mind. However, if individuals arc
by
ical
prevented
rigid pedago91 models or strict disciplinary apparatusesfrom even
beginning this venture, thought slides back into a ruminating model of
between
Bergson's
recognition, something
cows and a memorýToperating through
recognition. Our Conclusion wil-l investigate another processual subjectivity that
by
is not captured these models.
In some ways Deleuze's work could be read as a radicalisation of the Aristotelian
knowledge
pbronesi's,
concept of
an improvisational, practical
required in situations
like sea-faring where chance could not be eliminated or mastered. Tet-hlie,the
discusses,
knowledge
Aristotle
is
for
that
the
concerned with
name
other practical
domination,
"sensitivity
and
mastery and
while phronesis is concerned with
Joseph
256).
1993:
Detienne
Vernant,
(Dunne,
to
according
and
attunement"
Dunne, develop this theme of cunning intelligence or metisin their work, arguing
that "this whole field of intelligence was systematicallysuppressedin the official
Because
(257).
by
[
]"
Greek
philosophers ...
picture of the
mind which was painted
fall
do
heterogeneity
these
under
not
of materials and circumstancesat play
of the
knowledge
body
(259)
of
and indeed no systematic
any techne or set of percepts
It
by
bound
These
this
is
in
rules.
general
them.
instances
are
not
encompass
can
kind
"a
be
likened
of activjty
to a praxis in other words,
way that phronesis can
bem-ccil
(262).
85With
its
there
split
is
no
phronesis
it"
is
outside
whose end not
'possession' and its capplication'. It is becausephronesis does not refer to an end
that
(good)
ethics
the
that
immanent
its
is
end,
action
external to itself, and its
85Unfortunately it is not within the scope of this thesis to explore in more detail tile links
I
Deleuze's
image*.
*thought
between these ideas of phronesis and praxis and
without
own
for
GI-olold
Rough
book
Back
a
the
to
Dunne's
Joseph
to
the
excellent
refer
reader
does
Dunne
not.
both
discussion of these ideas that is
scholarl-, and thought provoking.
lio\\ e\ er, suggest the connections I am making.
196
A NOMADIC
IMAGE
OF THM-'GHT
be
forth
Reading
SI.
Simondon's critique of
to
seen echo with it.
pinoza sets
may
hylomorphism and atomism in the context of Deleuze's image of thought helpsbrief
discussion
This
this
to clarify
position.
of phronesis as a knowledge that
helps
the
situation
modulates in accordance with
us to understand one instance,
Aristotle,
'thought
in
of a
without Image'.
In Proust and S':'gns,Deleuze called the model of recogntion an 'objectivism',
least
habitual
(1964: 26). He saN-s,
that
this
tendency
is
natural, or at
suggesting
"We recogi-11'se
things, but we never know them" (26). The art of experimentation
that explores encounters falls prey to the easy facility of recognitions - it is easier
to respond through chch6. 'Objectivism'
by
operates
grouping tendencies
together, and it also relies on voluntary memory that "recalls things and not
(28).
Voluntary
memory is a reconstitution of a present past. It is "relatiNc
signs"
to the present which it has been, but also to the present with regard to which it is
(56).
Voluntary
memory is a mediated memory proceeding through
now past"
These
Bergson's
Nietzsche's
ideas
resemble
idea of intelligence as
snapshots.
and
an operation which strives to possess and control things. Through intelligence
"we discover only what we have given ourselves,
derive
from
things only
we
that wl-iich we have alread)Tput there" (1964: 94). It verifies our prejudices. On
the other hand, a sign is pre-objective and pre-subjective.
The something that gives rise to thought is "the being of the sensible.It is not the
140).
It
(1968a:
but
by
is imperceptible,
that
the
given is given"
given
which
This
eluding the grasp of recognition and the operations of natural perception.
limit,
found
be
and this engendersa
at its
sensed is
sensibility which can only
Joint.
Thinking
problem.
is out of
Plato's Repblit- distingw*shedbetween that which is an encounter, and that ,vhich
Certain
as
Deleuze
such
obicas,
through
examples.
of
is recognised.
a
series
runs
Ho-wever,
finger,
be
at what stage is solilcoma
identified, and recognised.
can
bald, or when does something turn from hot to cold? It seems to me that the
foriii
found
becoming
Deleuze's
in seedling
is
genesis of
complex concept of
V)-I
.A
NO. MADIC LMAGE OF THOUGHT
here. Becoming is a coexistence of contraries, it is not delimited but "the
less
i
becoming" (141).
M an unhmi ted qualitative
coexistence of more and
Something soft is harder than something softer. Recognition tries to contain this
4madbecoming' by measuring and limiting its quahtý-,relating it to something else
(141).
Nonetheless, Deleuze questions whether this qualitative becoming is less a being
becoming.
He also doubts that
the
than
of
sensible
simply a sensible
reminiscence, something enveloped in the object (You are the image of ..) could
be the object of a true encounter. Finally, the instance of a pure thought that can
be
form
The
thought
is
only
also criticised.
of real Identity or the Same informs
this thought of 'Smallness that is nothing but small' and so on (142). In this Nx-aý,
Plato paved the way for philosophies of representation and the dogmatic image
of thought.
This being qj'the sensible or that by which the giv
i en is
1 bOliven is intensity, or pure
difference in itself This is a difference that is not subordinate to the demandsof
opposition, resemblance, identity and analogy, which remain only effects
by
difference.
CommunIcation
this
produced
is not then geared toward common
differences
disparates,
but
towards
senseand consensus
or
a communication of
differences,
Simondon
'dark
through
called a
precursor', or what
of
effected
a
Antonin
Artaud
here
crystalline germ.
is given
as an example of an attempt to
think somelIVIlgo,
rather than striving to orient thought in accordancewith a model.
"He knows that thinking is not innate, but must be engenderedin thought. He
knows that the problem is riot to direct or methodically apply a thought wl-Lich
does
that
being
bring
but
not
to
which
into
pre-exists in principle and in nature,
first
but
To
to createis
think is to create - there is no other creation yet exist [...]
(147).
'thinking'in
thought"
to
of all engender
Nietzsche told us that concepts do not fall ftom the sky, purified arid polished
The idea that phflosophy is the creation of concepts is, as wc havc seen, one of
learned
4
3
In
Pbilosqpbyý
11"kil
is
()f
we
chapters and
the main themes of
198
A NO-NIADIC 1.\LAGE OF THOUGHT
Spinoza's m-imanent ethics and Simondon's conception of transduction, both
attempts to create new, more adequate, vvavsof thinking and acting. DeIcLizc's
dogmatic
image of thought is another attempt to open up other
critique of a
Breaking
thinking
and existing.
possibilities of
with a model of recognition is
because
dictates
the
than
thought
philosophical
problem
a
image of
more
what
be
bolstering
(at
By
time
thought
the set of values
ai giv en
and place).
can
has
thought
the
the
image
statits quo
of
ramifications beyond
associated with
immediate philosophical concerns.
Remember how Tully critiques the main constitutional traditions for their
conservatism, and their refusal to even think
about inventing another
longer
difference,
diversity
that
assimilate
and
constitutionalism
would no
and
from
dissensus.
Imagining
too
is
possibilities
often a simple extrapolation
quell
the conditions of the present, constituting a supplement to that present through a
been
have
been
illusion
(had
things
otherwise).
retrospective
of what might
Creating the possible is, for Deleuze, gathering the forces of the unforeseeable
future by opening up the possibility of things being otherwise. This is an ethics
of the pre-individual.
In IF"I)w I'SPhilosophy?,Deleuze and Guattan call the plane of immanence the
bý"What
They
thought claims
right, what it selects, is
image of thought.
say,
infinite
movement
or
the
movement
of
the
infinite"
(37). However,
The
have
by
due
plane
to thought
right
vaned greatlý-.
understandings of what is
is
pre-philosophical
of inunanence
because concepts refer to a non-conceptual
These
are the internal conditions of philosophy since philosophý
understanding.
does not exist outside them (41). Creating concepts and constructing a plane of
immanence is always an experimentation.
It is vvith Sartre's impersonal transcendental field that the rights of immanciice, an
Subject
a
to
longer
which
to
a
or
immanence that is no
an immanence something
field of immanence is attributed, are restored. This idea of an impei-ý()nal
hillmiliellic:
S'ense
L,
The
and recurs in
ýgit,ql,
transcendcntal field crops up initial-ly in
199
A NOMADIC
1'\L-ýGE OF THOUGHT
last
The
L#L.
(Deleuze's
idea that immanence is no longer
piece of writing).
a
found
Deleuze
to
that
intriguing, combining as it
something was one
immanent
did with his theses on ufnvocity. This field is, as -ý-csa\,,- in the last chapter, both
,
It
He
is
thinks
is
pre-individual.
pre-ob'ect.
it a radical empiricis'ni
pre-sub'ect and
According
Deleuze
Guattarl,
to
and
since it presents only events.
only one
has
philosopher
understood that immanence is only immanent to itself. Spinoza
(48).
BecauseSpinoza did not compromise with transcendence,Deleuze and Guattan
discovered
freedom
him
"[h]e
the
prince of philosophers saying,
exists only
call
Our
beset
by
(1991:
48).
is
path
constantly
obstacles
within immanence"
from
Maybe
this.
preventing us
our propensity to simphýTreality
understanding
follow
dom-inant
Or
thwarts
this
opinions
maybe this thought is
enterprise.
and
They
(infirnte)
that
there
number of illusions
suggest
are an
simply intolerable.
difficult
from
Four
this
thought.
that prevent us
of these illusions are
grasping
Spinoza.
These
last
three
them
the
are;
in
chapter on
of
named; we came across
illusion
illusion
illusion
the
the
of the eternal,
of universals,
of transcendence,the
finally
discursiveness
(where
illusion
the
propositions are confused with
of
and
difficulties
Given
(49-50).
it sometimesit seemsas though we can
such
concepts)
(51).
between
transcendence
and chaos
only choose
I have alluded to a number of the silent postulates at the heart of the dogmatic
"crush
the
These
that
of
is
thought
image
which
thought.
an
under
image of
Same and the Similar in representation, but profoundly betrays what it means to
1
(167).
]"
[
difference
waiit
and repetition ...
think and alienatesthe two powers of
to return now to some of the ideas expressedin previous chapters.
V.xi.
culpable, complicit,
co-opted?:
In chapter 1,1 traced a series of
philosophy versus capital
difference
as
the
in
which
vay
-,
examples of
be
to
divcnsitý) was assimilated to a model of the Same; a model that claimed
liow
'ruuýjames
showed
by
but
postulates.
silent
a series of
neutral
was riven
Diffcrcncc
and
Canadian
constitutional-ism.
these operated in the context of
,)(I()
.\
NOMADIC
IMAGE
OFTHOUGHT
diversitý-had been silenced by the 'neutral' idealised model of the homogeneou'S,
Fanon
He
how
to
spoke
of
colonialism.
us
explained
nation-state.
the colonial
dialectics,
African
manichean
a
whereby
enterprise engendered
colonial sublccts
differing
from
the ideal-tý-pemodel of humanin-, but
were not only presented as
difference-fi-ovi
(and
the
portrayed
as
absolute
negative)
tl-ýsmodel. The
also were
formed
level
postulates
a subterranean
series of
of presuppositions that
'legitimised' a set of horrific practices.
In response, Gatens and Lloyd called for the invention of better collective
do
homogeneous
that
imaginings
not presuppose an
and self-identical nationThey
be
Spinoza
taken.
that
responsibility must
argue
state.
engagedin a critique
heart
he
how
the
the
to
postulates
at
of
of
abstract universals, as sought show
an
He
(41omorpbit)
irnmanent ethics might operate.
image of
opposed a moralistic
thought to an ethics of experimentation. By interrogating the pre-erninencegiven
to the individuated individual, Simondon opened a space for us to think of the
dimensions
human,
trans-individual
the
in other words, the
pre-individual and
of
becorMngs
human.
Finally,
the
in this chapter we explored the
non-human
of
dogmatic
the
the
image of thought, and
ramifications of
postulates underlying
difference
disparity,
dissensus
to proffer a new
and
ventured into a realm of
have
I
Does
the
the
reiterated a number of
possible.
question
understanding of
falls
Does
prcý-to
times throughout this thesis still overshadow us?
philosophy
the clutches of capital, legitimating its expansion?We can conclude that a thought
without image, a rhizomatic, acentered, nomadic thought is not just a superb
description of the mechanisms of global capitalism in the era of 'societies of
but
control',
constitutes a transformation of modes of acting and thinking.
kind
that
is
the
link
as
therefore,
Modern philosophy's
same
of
with capitalism,
(ýf
plane
Greece:
the
absolute
an
of
connection
with
of ancient philosophy
immanence with a relative social milieu that also fiunctions through
immanence.
98).
'(1991:
Philosoph),,
11'"bal
Gilles Deleuze and Fclix Guattarl,
I's
The immanent realisation of the axiomatic
State
forni
the
the
of
in
of capitahsm
,)() I
A NOMADIC
IMAGE
OF THOUGHT
A
2.
discussed
books
plethora of
in chapter
and articles examining the poNver
was
of multinational corporations over governments, and the close relations-hip
different
by
these
organisations, seems to empirically validate this
enjoyed
However,
just
"an
philosophy
is
not
contention.
agreeable commerce of the
have
the
concept, would
its own commodity, or rather its
mind, which with
from
hvel\disinterested
the
point
which,
of
value
exchange
view of a
sociability
democratic
Western
conversation is able to 9enerate a consensusof opinion
of
(99). We do not need any more
and provide communication With an ethic
Societies
filling
of control centre upon
communication.
intensive space ,vith the
do,
however,
We
(108).
of
communication.
crackles
need resistance
Earlier I discussed Spinoza's concept of beatitudo,suggesting that it relates to
Deleuze
and
Guattari's
conception
of
philosophy
as
an
absolute
deterritonalisation. They say that it is philosophy that takes the relativc
deterritorialisation of capital to the absolute (99). They argue that it is like
] philosophy becomcs
....
Absolute
highest
(99).
point"
political and takes the criticism of its own time to its
Adorno's NegativeDialeai(ýs
"[
this
and at
utopian moment
deterritorialisation corresponds to a critical point which connects it with a
"present relative milieu and especiallywith the forces stifled by this milieu" (100).
Zourabichvih's article names this critical point as the creation of the possible. A
The
Spinozistic
ethics.
correlative transformation of powers of activity relates to a
begin
over, as earlier strugglesare
strugglesagainst capitalism must continuously
betrayed (100). The
reterritoriahsation
that
accompanies this absolute
deterritorialisation is the reterritorialisation of philosophy on the concept.
from
Transformation
Affirming the signs of the present is not sufficient.
comes
(the
history
diiparate.
"Thought
future:
past),
thinks its own
the
the signs of the
fiiially
be
(the
to
but in order to free itself from what it thinks
able
present) and
The philosophcl- cannot
'think otherwise' (the future)" (Deleuze, 1986: 119).81ý
86 Resistance to the spatialisatiOn of time is eýident in Bergson's work which seeks to
to
If
relation
III
on]\
time
duration
is understood
and qualitative change.
imestigate tirne as
ho\ý
tirne
pav-ý
difficult
can
is
to
understand
the present as present-past and present-future, it
be
captured in
Moreover, as Deleuze will repeatedly tell us the time of the event cannot
A NML-MIC
BLkGE
OF THOUGHT
A
people is created through intolerable circumstances.At this
create a people.
moment, a critical point is passed.This idea of a disparity or tension that leads to
transformation was the central theme of the previous two chapters. TI-nsis- the
'problematic'.
SIpinoza's immanent ethics demonstrated a way of thinking about relationahtý-that
between
discourses
liberalism
the
slipped
of
and communitarianism. By
Spinoza with
Simondon, we
sought to
reading
understand the processes of
hoatransformation that could lead to qualitative changesin existence.I shoN-,
-cd
the centrality of the individual human is displaced in favour of the conception of
the human as a part of nature, a singular point in a nexus of forces. I also
demonstrated through Simondon why we cannot presuppose an individual
but
subject
must trace the complex lines of prot-esses
of subjectification and
individuation. One is always more and less than oneself Doubtless, there NN-.
is all
anthropocentrism in these accounts; this is inevitable. Let us now trý- to
becomings
human,
the
more
the
understand
of
non-human
of
exploring some of
the traits of an ecosophy.
these categories. It is always already/not yet. The event of a battle cannot be located either
spatially or temporally. Deleuze sometimes calls this time a dead or sterile time, pure
reserve. This complication of the conceptions of time is key to understanding the concepts
Deleuze's
difference-in-itself
This
antiof
of
is part
as a pre-individual singularity.
phenomenology that seeks to undermine the centrality placed on processes of natural
its
locus.
does
have
This
the
as
perception.
natural subject
not
new subjectivity
20
\N ETHICS OFTHE
PRE-INDIVIDUAL
VIA. lily-livered liberals
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes. )
W-altWhitm,,in, 'Song of Myself', Leatesof Grass.(18-55:1223),
I resist anything better than my own diversity
Walt Whitman, 'Song of Myself', Leavesof Grass.(1855: 63).
Liberals often fall prey to the allegation that according to them 'anything goes.
Rawls, for example, tries to subvert this by proposing a theory of JusticepreMi
deliberate
the
that
to
proposition
upon
were reasonable persons
under a x-ell of
better
how
they
to
to weigh up
ignorance,
could arrive
at an agreement as
lifferent
have
Throughout
I
this
thesis
goods.
sought to show that claims to
(:
by
tainted
neutrality and objective universality are always
an initial set of (moral)
key
But
that
the
postulates.
maný-Might maintain
question continues to remain
label
different
how
them
cultural practices, and
can we evaluate
unanswered liberal
A
bad,
tolerance is that it often
good or
moral or immoral? problem with
deprives itself of a position to condemn atrocious practices, as it is sucked into
be
We
to
able to resist
the sceptics' quagmire of cultural relativism.
need
develop
be
We
forms
able to
need to
patriarchal and racist
of social organisation.
denying
the
without
that
altenty,
embrace
and
affirm
processesof sIngularisation
possibility of an ethical evaluation of immanent modes of existence.
Spinoza.
I
difficult
It was this
on
chapter
my
in
that
addressed
question
ethical
An immanent ethics sounds like an oxymoron to many. Wliat kind of 'an ethic',
dcontolo,
cal
91
be
stringent
a
without
could it
without principles and rules, or
for
iteria
have
ic
cvaluýitiiig
Spinoza's
nI
immanent
that
can
1
-\N-e
conviction
appr(),tch?
Irfly
11cce,;
asthe
Ind,
vjdUal
of
modes of existence rested upon an understanding
he
Against
thought
degree
imperialistic
an
of power -a conatus.
relational, wid as a
AN ETHICS OF THE PRE-INDIA'IDUAL
local
and singular solutions to problems. Ethics is not just
sought
a process of
deliberating about actions. It is a process of becoming-active. Eflucs, that
is,
ontology.
I contend that the most fruitful way to develop an immanent ethics is to
dimensions
the
transindividual
pre-individual
and
understand
of the midiN-idual,
does
Spinoza
he
if
nothing else,
certainly emphasisesthis point when lie
and
human
Shifting
debate
from the individual
that
the
is
part
the
a
of nature.
asserts
does
this
in
manner
not constitute semantic slippage,but engendersa critique of
the postulates that provided a ground for that individual of ethics. Both
deontological ethics and morality employ a conception of the human that is
alreadyindividuated-87
Can embracing the complexity of humans, including their non-human becorrungs,
for
be
the
postmodern prochN-ity
really
considered another example of
haN,
learned
differential
by
We
that
the
individual is constituted
abstraction?
e
degree
Cotiatits
to
these.
is essenceas
relations and a
of power corresponds
fact,
In
Deleuze
Before
and
activity.
subject and object, we are all multiplicities.
Guattari introduced the concept of multiplicity in an attempt to escape from
A
"alreadj
to
omposedq1'
multiplicity is
either subject or object.
allegiances
249)
betero
[
]"(1980:
thresholds
it
is
terms
it
passes
and
as
geneous
1/1gmblOSI*S
...
,
transformed. We cannot understand individual identities if we presupposethem.
Rather than presupposing sub'ect and object, we must trv to understand theiideveloping
do
We
this through
a theon- of affectwity.
processesof emergence.
Affects are pre-personal: they are becomings - passagesthat have a 1-c',
ility that is
becormng-actN-c
The
former
inv()IN-cs
process of
irreducible to their
or end states.
fLil
1()\
active
to
maxinuse
as
so
relations
organising encounters and composing
87Peter Singer's large edited volume on Ethics does not. as far as I can see, contain so much
Spinoza's
of'
thinking
out
is
indicates
that
believe
the
I
Spinoza.
this
waý
as one reference to
be
to
interesting
would
An
project
joint NNIththe dominant traditions on ethics.
and useful
it
to
makes
\ýhat
sho\\
to
dominant
and
ethics
approaches
compare Spinoza's work with the
do
to
I
irnplicitlý
often
largely
refer
not
incompatible ýNiththem. To some extent (and
since
do
thesis.
ha\e
I
this
to
tried
mN
in
theorists)
specific ethical
-ýN
ETHICS OF THE pRE-INDIVIDUAL
Since
being,
the
is
individual
a
necessarily
relational
affects.
an cthics pren-ýiscd
upon a strictly autonomous and independent individual is inoperable in this
being
Instead
of classiý'ing a
in advance and attributing
context.
properties
to it, a symbiotic
approach promotes
Ethics
involves multiplying
unexpected couplings.
humans.
An
ethics of the pre-individual
other
a set ()f
alliances, contagions and
relations, and not just with
rails against the values of the
dominant image of thought. It creates new values and new modes of valonsatioll,
heterogenesis
homogenesis.
tendency
toward
resisting a
a
Spinoza shows us that an ethics need not employ abstract principles that compare
definition
Seedlings
human
Marx's
of
modes of existence.
of
essenceas ac6-,-ltN,,
his
be
found
E//VCS.
That
the
text
corresponding critique of alienation, can
in
and
human,
humans
potentials
to
the
the
tearing
of
aspires create and cultivate
aNN-,
iNfrom abstract essences,and those inflated towering images of themseIN-csthat
dream of Man occupying a site somewhere between profane nature and sacred
God. Through loving and accepting our finitude, we find eternity on earth.
Ethics involves developing inimanent criteria to evaluate different modes of
does
by
It
this
examining whether an action Involves a relative
existence.
decomposition of relations, where a composition of relations might have been
be
This
one of experimentation; it is a process
is why an ethics must
constructed.
becoMIng-active.
of
The shame of being human... For Deleuze and Guattarl, "we also experience[this
before
the meannessand vulgarity of existence
shame] in insignificant conditions,
that haunts democracies, before the propagation of thesemodes of existenceand
before
our
()f
opinions
and
the
ideals,
values,
thought-for-the
market, and
of
from
life
that \,,-c are offered appears
time. The ignominy of the possibilities of
but
to
undergo
feel
do
We
time
continue
our
of
ourselves outside
not
within.
hax,
I
Throughout
108).
thesis
c
this
(1991a:
shameful compromises with it"
but
ItN.
the
ncccs,,,
the
to
present,
-e
emphasisedthe importance not only of a re,q'slall,
to engage in a positivc endeavour to construct
As
In-ing.
other possibilities ()f
"m
AN ETHICS OF THE PRE-1-NDIVIDUAL
Guattari,
Deleuze
from
this
and
motivation
with
stems
etl-ýico-pohticalconcerns
-
the possibility of things bet-omi'ii otherwise. My account of processe's of
,g
individuation challengesthe neo-liberal conception of the individual. Not ()IIIN-are
Guattari
Deleuze
tell us, contemplations
and
we, as
- contractions of air, ,vater
disparateness
the
that is a part of our becoming means that no
and minerals how
idified,
ri 91
matter
ossified and absolute our existencesbecome, a singularitV
may qualitatively transform these modes of existence.
VI.H. a critical freedom
Haecceities are simply degrees of power which combine, to which correspond a
power to affect and be affected, active or passive affects, intensities.
Gilles Deleuze and Claire Parnet, Dialooues.(1977.92).
It was SiMondon
(inadvertently
who
drew
key
the
themes
perhaps)
out some of
Etbics
d-irough
his
Spinoza's
theory of processes of individuation.
in
he neither began with the individual
a philosophy
or with a principle of individuation,
force,
Although
potentia.
of
of
something
Deleuze
but With
Spinoza did not articulate a theory of
develop
being,
he
did
metastable
a conception
that make it relatively
Like Spinoza
differential
of
draw
his
to
philosophy
easy
force
relations and
Simondon,
that
to
of
close
becoming
do
his
Parado.
xicaHN-,
in
seminars.
seemed to
becomes the model of being.
13ýhis
Deleuze always professed
allegiance to a philosophy of immanence.
being
than
more
itself,
with
that
incompatible
as
presented
positing an ontology
Delcuze's
SiMondon's
work profoundly influenced
unity and more than identity,
develop
him
of
difference,
conception
to
a
to
continue
philosophy of
allowing
dispantýý
disparateness
If
(potentia).
arc
being
and
terms
of power
in
univocal
s\'stcm,
any
of
part
then
is
a
constitutive
to
alterinidentity,
primary in relation
The
lack.
is
the
possible
being
possible
()f
through
with
shot
without that system
Dclcuzc
identity
By
dimension
secondan-,
as
thus a
understanding
of aiiv systern.
and
transforming
developed
Guattari
identities,
ways, of circumventing
and
If
bccorrungs.
the
disrupting them through the unnatural couplings theý-called
-AN
FTMCS
OF THE PRE-INDIVIDUAL
pre-individual and the transindividualare key dimcnsionsof tilc individual (a term
but
an abstraction xvithout the invocation of these aspects) the
which is
for
the production of the new can be activatedbv constructing a
conditions
by t-reafiqa possibleto issuea transformation.
disparateness,
In the critical literature terms like 'pre-individual singularities' and 'difference-inithout
being
introduced
itself' are often
11 explained. It -\xwi
as important to me to
situate these concepts rather than relying on tautologies such as 'difference-indifferendates
itself
itself It was also crucial to show that the pre-individual is not
'pre-'
relative to the individual (like the cells in our bodies, or our ancestors)
Just
but expresses the reality of the potential energy of a metastable being. Predisparateness
the
that is resolved through the inventive
individual concerns
process of individuation, a process that is itself alwaN-s
relative. Deleuze calls this
process - the actualisation of the 617tual.Singularities are intensive and are not
localisable. The pre-individual and the transindividual are dimensions of humans
that reveal the non-human beconUngsof the human. The human spills over into
other worlds.
VI. iii. pragmatics
and incorporeals
In order to addressthe implications of an ethics of the pre-mdividual, I took issue
difference
and
with an identitarian image of thought that could not affirm
disparity. Here I tried to show that the image we have of what it is to think and to
be may stifle the creation of other potential modes of existing and thinking. A
hierarchical order that seeksto fit singularities into categoriesmaý-be toying with
devcloping
By
for
baggy
an image of thought,
their content.
concepts that are too
disparateness
difference,
singularitý-,
or a thought without image, that could affirm
force
dissensus
%ve
concepts,
uniform
these
ill-fitting
into
to
ttying
and
without
further our idea of an ethics of the pre-individual. Rather than an imperialistic
local
deal
knowledges
develop
and siligular
to
with
thinking, -\ve need to
Deleuze's
iilligc
thought
SiMondon's
without
problems.
idei of transduction and
prcor
how
the
non-human
ot
this approach involves an in,,-cstigation
show
-,()S
\X ETI IICS OF THE PRE-INDIVIDUAL
human world.
An example of how we might go about this is given in
'I Uolo-aild Plateaus.
-,,
Arguably, Deleuze and Guattari's conception of an image of thought is extendcd
to their observations on the pragmatics of language.According to them, it is a
language
to
the
rniistake
reduce
economy
to signifying linguistics. The
grave
of
dominance of the signifier means that other serruotic fluxes have been silenced.
-kU
'sign
manner of a-signifying
machines' are at play in the construction of
from
subjectivities
genetic codes to sporting activities. Rather than concentrating
formalistic
language,
Deleuze and Guattari draw out the nonaccount of
on a
discursive and implicit presuppositions that provide a ground for the functioning
language.
For
'I
the
of
example
words
swear' undergo a continuous variation
depending on whether they are spoken in the courtroom, bN-a teenager to her
lover,
boss.
face?
Are
What
Are
to
to
too
parents, a
a
about your
earnest?
N-ou
ý-ou
fidgeting? Do you gaze at the floor? All of these signs transform the statement
made.
The incorporeal transformations effected by the speech act depend on the
collectiN-e assemblage of enunciation and the concrete machinic assemblage.
Language is an anonymous murmur that speaks through us; this is wliýýthere is
but
only ever a collective assemblage of
never an individual statement
does
This
not just refer to a xvider social group
enunciation.
collective assemblage
but to a multiphcity including technological, economic, social and cultural
belies
'onlýý
language
dismissing
Hence,
\,.-()rds'
as
racist and sexist
components.
the sedimentation of practices and non-discursive presuppositions that giN-cs
these words a real transformational power. Different traits such as the timbre of a
from
di-\-ergence
a standardiscd
N-oice,or the shape of a nose may indicate a
in
Guattan
nhercnt
1
I
racism
there
that
is
a
universal
thinks
model of normality.
face
too
Someone
old,
faciality
91).
is
(1979:
too
a
xldelY,
smiles
white capitalist
(Guattari
the
immediate
features
notes
()Ience
unleashesN-,
or a particular set of
Jew,
'it's
a
arab,
face
an
hostile
a
of
the
exclamations
in
response to a
and often
Rather than affiriTiing a multitude of difference,,, pre-personal singular
2)
AN ETHICS OF THE PRE-INDIVIDUAL
forced
traits are
into categoriesof recognition. To remedy such prejudice, it
1s11
ot
linguistic
but
to
terms,
simply
alter
sufficient
one needs to explore those hiddci,
factors that pervade the social practices and the image of thought of a socien-,
bringing them to visibility. On the one hand, this involves a struggle on the level
for
'molar'
identities which seek
recognition and this goes some way to ahcniig,
of
dominant
On
the way in which a
the other hand, a disparateness
order operates.
be
to
created to effect a quahtative transformation in modes of existence.I
needs
5.
In
this
tl-iis way the capacity that an image of
in
operation
chapter
outhned
thought has to impose identities regardless of context is weakened.The ctl-iicopolitical task is to invent creative instances that transgress pre-established
schemas.
Those kinds of statements indicate the sedimentations of practices that
oftentimes rest upon unspoken prejudices and assumptions about the groups ()f
This
is
Deleuze's
to.
they
idea of the linage of thought is so
refer
people
why
dra\\but
It
to
to
never accept statementsat surface value
important.
exhorts us
out the postulates that they rest on, especiallywhen those people \N-homake them
for
Our
acting and existing are
possibilities
profess their neutrality and objectivity.
limited by the image of thought of a given soclety. We need to develop iic\\Perhaps
the acentred
thought
without linage.
images of thought, or even a
networks of the rhizome can provide ways of escapingan arborescentimage of
thought by bringing new connections into play, providing instead an image of
thought that can cope with differences and singularities.
his
Spinoza
Simondon
in
Guattari reveals himself to be close to
and
fie
transindlN-idual.
the
the
and
individual
the
pre-individual,
understanding of
did,
Simondon
that the
develops these themes in a concrete way emphasising,as
"non-human pre-personal
frorn
that
this
its
is
it
since
part of subjectwitý-is crucial
by
Subjectivity
the confluctice
9).
heterogenesiscan develop" (1992a:
is produced
be
psycho-gclictic
of
forces,
series
to
successlN-c
a
reduced
and cannot
of manN,
idiial
just
the
pre-IndIN
know
do
-,
()f
We
ethic,,
an
as
what we are.
not
stages.
does
thought
ot
another
it
enl(rendcr
too
the
so
individual,
the
of
capsize,,
stabihty
-111)
AN ETHICS OF THE PRE-INDIA'IDUAL
in
Heidegger's
Unlike
work, the singularit:y of A Life is not revc,,
subjectivity.
iled
in the moment of dying. By thinking singularity aside from individuality in the
lived
becoming,
be
I
of
existence
can
process
also
affirmed. want to sho\x-no\vhow Guattari brings together these concerns as he develops his concept otprot,essualsubjectivity.
VI.iv. subjectivity before the subject
I prefer a sense of progress that says 'what are the possibilities we can develop
out of the presentT
bell hooks in conversation with Paul Gilroy in Paul Gilroy, Small Ias. (1993b: 218).
Subjectivity does not fall from the sky; it is not written in chromosomes that
knowledge
and work must end up with the atrocious segregations
sectors of
that humanity knows today.
F6hx Guattari, Cartoura
* analyliques.(1989a:
phiessch1ý0
,,
A retrospective appraisal of F6hx Guattan's life leads R6n6 Sch6rer to concludc
that his thought is dominated by one constant - býýprocesses of subjcctification.
His molecular revolution consisted of an appeal for a triple ecology that extended
from the natural, to the social and the mental. This is called an ecosophý, (1994:
63).
Guattari's logic is one of becornIngsand multiplicities. Indeed, Sch6rerclaims that
been
has
A
(63).
to
mistake
primary
subjectification and multiplicity are a pair
in
the
enclosed
to
subjectivity
of
an instance
reduce a process of subjectification
the
Guattari
Simondon,
Like
in
exploring
interested
more
is
unity of the subject.
t11:
involves
the
111
to
-orld,
ý,
transductive
relation
that
a
,
process of subjectification
iN-ity
Developing
that
ti
I
subjec
I
a
viewing the subject in a static and identitarian way.
his
is
philosopliy.
does not rest on the ground of subject and substance the aim of
Ratliet'minot'.
This is integral]\- bound up with an ethics which privilel,,cs the
he
sulýe(-1ý11'ý-xlwi,
of
'subject'
to
of
speak
t-oniponews
prefers
than speaking of the
less
on its
each working more or
do
These
36).
not
(1989b:
components
211
AN ETHICS OF THE PRE-INDIVIDUAL
even necessarilypass through the inchvidual.
Nicolas Bourriaud also claims that the notion of subjectivity is centril to
Guattari's enterprises. He says that
the ultimate finaht\- of subjectivity is
none other than an individuation that always remains to be conquered" (1994:
79). Guattan's work is a massive attempt to denaturalise subjec
ivity.
__\othing
ti
I
i
is
less natural than subjectivity, nothing is more produced. "Subjectivity is the set of
relations that are created between individuals and vectors of subjectification, be
they individual or collective, human or non-human" (82).
In chapter 2 we looked at some of the Nx-ays
in which subjectivities were produced
Our
and modelled.
ethical choice now is to either reiýy, reduce and scientise
subjectivity, or to try to grasp its processualnature. Guattari describesthis choice
"There
faN-our
terms;
in clear
is an ethical choice in
of the richness of the
possible, an ethics and politics of the virtual that decorporeatises and
deterritorialises contingency, linear causality and the pressure of circumstanccs
besiege
for
It
processuality,irreversibility
and significations which
us. is a choice
29).
(1991a:
and resing-ularisation"
Guattarl wants to create a conception of a subjectivity that traversesand connects
different domains. The identity of this subjectivity can only be understood as
boundaries
know
does
that theories of identity
the
traditional
partial, and it
not
have been prone to adopt. Donna Haraway's figure of the cyborg communicates
Western
features.
Writing
the
cyborg
of
myths
umity,
origin
against
its
some of
kinship
is
machines
and
animals
with
place,
where
ironic
occupies a partial and
bct-%ý-ccii
borderland
feared.
be
Haraway
the
tries
to
a
occupy
to
not something
One,
as
illusion
the
she
sees
other,
\-hich
the
and
autonomous
,
of
self, an
fcNx-,
but
One
frayed,
t,
boundap-,
too
\N-()
"mu-Itiple, \x-ithout clear
is
insubstantial.
have
boundary
tried
Negotiating
1
1:
(199
\x-c
is
something
this
are too many"
for
Hara\N-,
danger
call',
do
ty
by
identity.
of
purity
of
the
myths
to
of
showing
partial
translations,
and
Deleuze
and
Guattari
trcileratc
trans\,crsJ
have
abm-c
Relations
and
becomings.
over
their
reality
()\\-ii
communications, or
?I -)
AN ETHICS OF THE PREANDIVIDUAL
their individuated terms.
But how is subjectivity produce& Guattari says this has
do
to
nothing
\x-Ith a
return to traditional systemsof binary opposition like base-superstructuremodels.
There is no fixed hierarchy of the sermotic re91
isters that come to produce
1
subjectivity. He points out that stock markets are very sensitive to changes in
opinion, something made clear bNTthe recent col-lapsein the stocks of new
technology and web companies. Subjectivities are susceptible to consen-atlN-c,
reterritoriahsations which can have a massiveimpact on the subjectn,c economies
of mflhons of people. Given archaismsand technological innovation can happflýhand
hand,
Guattari
in
thinks it is time "to forge a more transvcrsahst
go
conception of subjectivity, one which permits us to understand both its
idiosyncratic territoriahsed couplings (Existential Territories) and its opening onto
value systems ýncorporeal Universes) with their social and cultural implications"
(1992a: 4).
For instance, the impact of the sennotic productions of the mass media on
be
Unfortunately,
the
to
subjectivities is enormous.
moment people appear
at
deadening
does
This
(5).
to
the
influence
condemned a
mass media
of
not mean
however.
believes
Guattan
technological
that
innovations,
we should reject
be
for
for
better
The
to
remedia need
subjectivities can work
or
worse.
bring
be
Other
to
possibles need to
Lis
created
appropriated and re-singularised.
toward a post-media era.
In an interview with Olivier Zahm, Guattan stateshis belief that all societiesalm
from
"I
He
the idea that subjectivity is ak-ays
to produce subjectivity.
says start
the result of collective assemblages,which also imph- not only a mulfiphcln- of
but
individuals,
also a multiplicity of technological, machinic, economic Ictol's...
49(19921):
factors
which Nvecould call pre-personal sensations"
'i multipliciti, of
50). For Guattarl, processes of subjectification
delimited
to thc
are not just
bcconling'sbecomings
ical
-animal,
anthropolo 91 sphere, since the), extend into
field
field,
to
and
rich
otheiand
technological
the
vegetable, the social
I21
AN ETHICS OF THE PRE-INDIVIDUAL
heterogeneous domains. To try to contain these processes
of subjectification
field
the
social
is alreadv reductionist.
wltl-dn
with
this approach he explicates a number of Simondon's intuitions. 'ITie
both
individual involves
pre-individual and trans-individual dimensions NX-1,11ch
modify and constitute it as they are modified in return. The human is not cut off
from the mammals or microbes, from plants and minerals and rays of sunshine,
from the technolo 91
'cal formations that shape her possibilities of beino,,fr()m the
11)
incorporeal universes of music and poetry, from the workplace, from media
Subjectivitýbe
from
these and many
stereotypes.
cannot
understood in isolation
factors.
other
Guattari emphasises the potential zones of resistance corresponding to a
heterogenesisof subjectivitý-in contradistinction to the homogenesis()t capitalist
find
"can
He
asks,
subjectivity, a subjectivity of generalisedequivalence.
we not
heterogenesis
bet-ween
the
transversal connections
practices of
of the itidIN-IdLial
life,
undertaking an ethico-political
subjectivity and a recomposition of social
for
political objectives, including planetary and ecological ones"
responsibility
(1992a: 153). We can recompose subjectiN-ityin matiy xx-ays;looking at the
but
television is important,
also gazing at the stars at night, accepting one's
finitude, through poetn- and music, and in a million and one other ways (154).
Guattarl thinks that poetry is just as important as N-itaminC.
Vim. processes of emergence
do,
It's
do
to
little
has
to
rather,
Indeed, I think subjectivation
with any subject.
through
individuation
field,
taking
place
an
with an electric or magnetic
fields,
individuated
do
it's
to
not
with
intensities (weak as well as strong ones),
identities.
persons or
9')).
(199(),,
Gilles Deleuze, "ýeoolialions.
1-.
(199-1v
Witkiewic/
Guattari
quoting,
'strangeness of being' eludes us, muses
lic
Stern,
Daniel
proposcs- ail
a psychologist,
19). Drawing mi the xork of
" 14
AN ETHICS OF THE PRE-INDIVIDUAL
Psychoanalytic
subjectivity.
emergent
approaches tended to centre on the effect
family
Obviously
figures
i
the
the
on
individual.
of
parental
are IMPortant in the
but
the
child,
she is not positioned solely in relation to them. Initially
world of
her world is a pre-personal, pre-individual one rich in vibrations, deep reds, gasps
laughter,
bitter
tastes,,and the child weavesthese elements
rough
surfaces
of
and
herself
herself
together and into
tapestries
creating
and patterning
and the world
feedback
Rather
transformation.
than a unified self,
in an ongoing
of qualitative
there is a multiplicity of larval selvescontracting sensationslike habits. This is an
fit
does
Prior
to the age of about two the emergent self
not
autopoletic creation.
female.
Its
relation Nvith
prepared
categories
such
male
or
into
as self and other,
likened
fusional.
(Bergson
the world
the world is more complex, pathic and
once
to more or less contracted vibrations that connected the infra-cosrruc to the
)
cosn-uc.
Spinoza did not envisage Nature to be a pure, pristine wilderness; a prelapsarian
Eden. Naturing Nature named an ontology of becoming, a process of production
be
human
but
Nature,
Man
did
to
a part of
to
that
understood the
not oppose
does
An
in
spheres
individuated
out
the
map
not
pre-individual
of
ethics
nature.
advance; constructing
between
nature, culture and technology is
oppositions
Indeed
to
and
complexity
the
is
grasp
problem
to
analyses.
our
anathema
fit
them into preto
heterogeneity in their movements rather than always trying
This
is the aim of a transcendental empiricism.
existing categories.
Guattan developed an ecosophy that comprehends the psyche, the socIUS,and
for
on
draws
the
singularisation
He
to
struggles
our attention
the environment.
to
from
to
movements,
the
women's
retired,
the part of a wide variety of groups
oppressedworkers
In
the
ecologies
virtual
addition,
world.
the
in
underdeveloped
by
destroyed
being
danger
capitahst
of
in
of aesthetic practices are also
have
movements
social
death
of
his
the
prohferation
Since
seen
we
subjectivity.
creative
and
concerns
environmental
with
that combine social justice issues
differences
in
acting
xvhile
to
affirm
These
emblematise a capacity
enterprises.
for
themselves.
These
speak
grassroots movements
concert.
-'15
AN ETHICS OF TI IF PRE-INDIVIDUAL
Political, environmental and mental ecologies are not opposed to one another
becausein order to address an environmental problem a nexý-universe of values
be
invented, and this means a new ediico-pohtical engagement.A -\vholc
must
be
to
incarnated, in order to support this uni'verse
system of modehsation'8needs
different
(Guattan,
1996:
20).
social and analytic practices
of values, comprised of
Rather than a totalitarian approach to identities, we need to affirm and respect
heterogeneity and singularity. He says "Let's get out of consensual politics and
from
her
difference;
this ethical movement that
the
the
alterity of
other,
accept
Simondon
(23).
When
the
argued that Nve
revives
other something may emerge"
need to comprehend the process of individuation rather than conceiving of a
he
discrete
identities,
made an ethico-pohtical
reality comprised of individual and
logic
difference.
favour
dissensus
Instead
of exclusive
of a
of
and
move in
disJunctions that can tell immediately who belongs in what categories,boundaries
different
fuzzy,
"comprehend
the
articulation of
allowing us to
are made
(26).
biological,
neurological, ecological, etc. strata"
machinic, social,
Symbiosesof different fluxes may be permitted to flourish once the individual is
As
Spinoza
dehtnited,
said - we
classified, segregatedand isolated in advance.
not
do not even know what a body can do. "Furthermore, if we consider the plane of
disparate
the
of things and signs move upon it: a
most
consistency we note that
fragment
rubs shoulders with a chemical interaction, an electron crashes
semiotic
hole
black
language,
captures a genetic message,a crystallisation produces
a
into a
69).
1980:
Guattarl,
letter...
"
(Deleuze
and
a passion, the wasp and orchid cross a
field
forms
beginning
Instead of
and contents, a pre-individual
with individuated
field
is a
of singularities.
The conjunction AND brings together diverse fluxes like the ray of sunlight and
docs
Guattarl's
forms.
that
processual
subjectivltýthe
soil inventing new
n-nneralsin
88See Guattari (1989a) and (1992a) for an account of his concept of modelisation. Rather
he
to
more
a
suggest
dominant
wants
reality,
modeling
of
than using a single
manner
or
- depending
tý
different
features
draw
models
the
of
that
pertinent
upon
can
pragmatic approach
thesis.
See
be
ofthis
to
pl-36
also
addressed.
uponthe problematic
210
AN ETHICS OF THE pRE-INDIVIDUAL
have
bý,
Sitnondon'spro6,
the
its
is
mirrored
not
subject as end
esses
of individuation
that view the unitý- and identity of the individual as but a limited phase in an
from
ongoing process of singularisation
which individual and milieu emerge, but
becoming
What
is realis the
onl)- relativelý,.
and not the "supposedly fixed terms
through which that which becomes passes" (Deleuze and Guattarl, 1980: 2138).
An inclusive disjunction makes a relation of the non-relation. It preserves
heterogeneity. We create mutating existential territories that create cartographies
dimensions.
these
of
In the final chapter of his book CbaosmoS1*S
Guattari turns to the idea of the
ecosophic
object.
Through
telecommunications out
the
media,
biology,
computers
and
mental coordinates are being destabilised. The
being
to
the
underdeveloped world continues
suffer,
environment is
steadilý
contaminated, and as President Bush made so clear recently when he rejected the
IZ-yoto Protocol, the system is incapable and unwilling to construct a "social
economy adapted to the new technologies" (Guattarl, 1991a: 119). Publicised
"traced
to a more general crisis of the social, political and
ecological crises are
do
(119).
image
"[Hlow
How
thought?
existential"
can we invent another
we
of
back
how
do
to
that
change mentalities,
would give
we reinvent social practices
humanity - if it ever had it
for
its own
sense of responsibility, not only
-a
for
but
for
future
life
the
animal and
of all
on the planet,
survival,
equally
likewise
for
incorporeal speciessuch as music, the arts, cinema,
vegetable species,
fusion
feeling
for
love
the
the relation with time,
at the
of
others,
and compassion
heart of the cosmos?" (119-20).
Theories of ideology often ran up against the following objection - if the masses
know
do
from
'false
their own interests,
thq
not
consciousness',if
are suffering
differently?
Invoking
they
a revolutionary vanguard, or even
act any
why should
kno,,
to
that
N-what is
claims
an organic intelligentsia, imposes a top-down order
best for the masses. Like Spinoza, Deleuze and Guattari think that desirc is
\Ve
primary.
are attracted to certain modes of existencc, and this shapes our
Guattari
interests.
saysthat we need to understand the modelisations of existence
217
AN ETHICS OF THE PRE-INDIVIDUAL
that different people invest in. We need to be able to affirm dissensusin order,
'rhizomatise'
that other modelisation, such as the support for the
to
perhaps,
BNP or Le Pen. If we engagein an ideological standoff each position becomes
id
By
incommunicado.
ossified3ri 91 and
no means am I suggestingthat support for
1
the BNP is equally as valid as anti-racist action groups; however, the factors that
lead people to support such groups are usually complex and often contradictory.
Sometimes it is becausepeople feel alienated that they are attracted to these kinds
What
organisations.
of
causecan it serve to exacerbatethat alienation by isolating
those supporters? Instead, we should try to understand, and potentially transform,
those conditions that have led them to take such a position. As Lenny Bruce once
liberals
don't
said,
understand everything except people who
understand them.
VIM. an ethics of the pre-individual
In the midst of this state of affairs, a shaft of meaning must be discovered, that
impatience
for
through
the other to adopt my point of view, and
cuts
my
through the lack of good will in the attempt to bend the other to my desires.
Not only must I accept this adversity, I must love it for its own sake: I must seek
it out, communicate with it, delve into it, increase it.
With it, responsibility
emerges from the self in order to pass to the other.
F6hx Guattari, 'Remaking Social Practices'. (1992d: 271-2)
An ethics of the pre-individual provides a different way of seeing,being in, and
blind
does
It
turn
the
a
eye to oppressive practices, social
making
not
world.
formation, and the exercise of Power, but seeksto critique the manner in which
these factors stifle potentia, the power to create transversal relations, and to
enhance one's power of thinking and existing through multiplying relations and
forming commonalities of singularities.
ia by Deleuze and Guattarl.
Old social formations are not viewed with nostal91
Their negative appraisal of capitalism does not mean they cannot see the
'reterritoriahses'
by
the
nuclear
on
it
as
even
its movements,
potentials unleashed
family and ethnic nation-state. The undecidability inherent to the capitalist
for
desire
due
to its unquenchable
axiomatics,
innovation, means that
-)I Q,
AN ETHICS OF THE PRE-INDIVIDUAL
crevolutionary fluxes' are both encouraged and contained. Opposing a capitalist
homogenesis need not take place through a romantic mý-th of the local, or an
family
An
to
patriarchal
system.
a
ethics of the pre-individual does not
appeal
fetishise the human but thinks before and beyond it to invent new possibilities of
dimensions
It
human,
through
the
impersonal
the
those preexistence. is
of
dimensions,
transindividual
that new singularities can be liberated,
individual and
rupturing the melancholia of the 'one-dimensional man.
By understanding the human to be a part of nature we can affirm the non-human
dimensions
human.
longer
human.
We
the
the
of
and pre-human
no
presuppose
Different spacesand rhythms are no longer dimensions that the individual moves
through but they constitute the non-human becon-ungsof the human, modifying
be
diminishing
to
abilities
affect and
affected,
or increasing powers of existing
An
thinking.
and
liberation
ethics of
comprehends these pre-individual
dimensions of the human, these components and factors that constitute the
feelings
dampen
ill-designed
just
of
individual.
one's
as an
architectural spacecan
for
aesthetic pleasure and
safety, one's contact with a community, a capacity
like
factors
find
the media,
that many other
possibilities of movement, we
family
biologies,
financial
technologies,
music,
markets, cultural practices,
If
we are
relationships also serve as pre-individual vectors of subjectification.
human-human
develop
relationships
trying to
an ethics it cannot just concern
because humans involve so many other dimensions. The ontology developed
from
be
throughout this thesis cannot
an ethics.
separated
N4 first chapters concentrated heavily on the idea of Potestas;
the \vays in which
from
to
their
capacities
expanding
relations
and
multiplying
people are prevented
think and exist, prohibiting
A
commonality of
their rights to singularity.
distributive
like
the
commons.
of
the
space
smooth
operates
singularities
Countering the allegation that philosophy is enthralled to capitalism, I tried to
blocks,
fashion,
despite
how
co-opts
operating in an immanent
capitalism,
show
fundamental
becomings
threaten
its
that
those
and
potentials
and circumvents
Value
the
than
for
other
systems
production's sake.
premise of production
219
AN ETHICS OF THE pRE-INDB'11)U-AL
ic
i
11
pursuit of profit and economi efficiency
need to regulate human social actiiviities
(Guattari, 1989b: 64). "What condemns the capitalist value system is that it is
by
flattens
general equivalence, which
characterized
out all other forms of value,
hegemony"
(65).
Patton
them
in
its
alienating
argues that implicit in the
Deleuzian ethic is a concept of critical freedom. This is characterisedby its focus
"the
conditions of change or transformation in the subject, and by its
on
indifference to the individual or collective nature of the subject" (2000: 83).
Guattari wonders how we can speak of liberty in universes that do not know
deliberating subjects. He asks what a machinic liberty might beý Like Spinoza, he
thinks it is always a question of degree. First of all we need to accept that
different assemblages,be they material, social or biological, are capable of
'machining' their own fate and creating complex and heterogeneous universes.
We then need to nurture more unnatural couplings, since the subject and the
from
By
longer
165-6).
(1979:
putting
machine are no
separable
one another
different codings from images and gestures to the social and political field into
SIMondon
just
the
emphasised
real.
as
play, we embark on an experimentation on
he
de-individuated
dimensions
tried to explain the
as
our non-individuated or
force
of the concepts of the pre-individual and transindividual,
ethico-political
Guattarl contends that an ethics based on the individual ignores complexity and
heterogeneity. Qualitative transformations in modes of existence and social
does
be
that
effected if we take a schizoanalytic approach
organisation can only
favour
one theoretical approach, or system of modelisation, above all others.
not
This is why he strives to develop an ecosophy.
Deleuze and Parnet tell us that there was never any question of opposing the
State-form with a spontaneous dynarmc. A logic of multiplicities develops
different ways of organismg or composing relations, creating symbioses and
A
There
No
are no external referenccs.
identities are preserved.
sympathies.
There
intrusion
of an overarching solution to our ills.
pragmatics precludes the
Whitman's
beyond
democracy
This
even
stretches
radical
are no eternal truths.
honzons.
2-10
AN ETHICS OF THE PRE-INIAVIDUAL
I celebrate myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
Walt Whitman, cSongof Myself' Learesof Greiss.(1855: 6').
I.
We need to love, and not fear, the unknown. We need an ethics and politics of
singularity, an ethics and politics of the pre-individual. Through dissensusand
disparatenesswe can create other possibles; we can precipitate a sý-steminto a
disequilibrium;
state of
we can challenge the statusq1to- the dominant image of
thought. Philosophy involves both critique and construction. We cannot tear
down edifices to be left standing amongst the ruins. When asked about ethics in a
declared
Jacques
Dernda
'we are all Abrahams'. Rather than hovering
seminar,
have
I
that
tried to engage the undecidability and risk involved in
over
abyss,
ethics in a positive way. Instead of concentrating upon the aporetic deliberation
involved in making ethical decision, I have argued that ethics concerns practices
living.
However,
of
an immanent ethics means that we need to develop different
human.
Undoubtedly
has
been
the
conceptions of
my account
anthropocentric,
but I have removed the human from its pedestal.I ha%,
c not argued that Microbes
have as much a right to life as humans as radical ecologists sometimes do nature
both
destructions:
involves
symbiosesand
our ethics is alwaysrelative to what is
for
Anything
be
good
elsewould
us.
untenable.
But this by no means constitutes an implicit recommendation of neo-hberahsm;
the individual is not autonomous or independent but relational. Spinoza's ethics
he
be
functional
he
would not
if
presupposed the individuality of the individual;
limits,
our
emphasisesprocesses of emergence and creation, our thresholds and
powers of existing and acting. Our ethics involves multiplying relations therebNfocus
has
been
My
increasing our joyous affects.
centred upon the 1*1IdiI)idIIa1i_0,
not
human,
but
the
of
on the non-human, pre-indi6dual and transindiN-idual,
Býfion.
to
of
make
those
refusing
a
gulan*s
processes
of
fi'ti
,
the human an abstraction, I sought to sho\-,- how an ethics of the pre-indwidual is
beconlings of humans
Our
but
anti-human
a necessaryone.
not onIN-an interesting and novel approach
humanism brings the human back down to earth.
-) -) I
BIBLIOGRAPHY
In this bibliography the first date enclosedis the original publication date
both
have
language
I
If
the
the
text.
consulted
original
of
and the English
texts, both are cited with the dates of the publications I have consulted.
Pagereferencesare for the English version. For all texts that have not ý-et
been translated, or if I do not cite the translation, quotations from them
throughout the thesis should be understood to be my own translations. If
have
I
modified the English translation this is also
at any other stage
date
In-text
the
quote
references
original
noted.
of publication in the
language,
and the page number of the English translation where
original
existent. Referencesto Spinoza refer to the time texts were written. Intext quotations are from the Ethics and from the letters. I refer the reader
to the relevant part of the Ethics by naming the part (eg. II). I then
following:
(pr.
), scholium (sch.), corrollary
the
abbreviate
proposition
(corr. ), axiom (ax.), appendix (app.) and definition (d.). Page references
for
the Ethics. For example (17V.ax) refers to the axiom in
are not given
Part 4 of the Ethics. Referencesto the letters are given as Ep, the number
letter,
(eg.
Ep. 27: 154).
the
the
of
and
page reference
Deleuze published a number of articles in journals which were then
incorporated into his books. I do not quote the original publication dates
for most of these individually, nor do I for any other collections of essays
issued as a book rather than an edited collection. Any reference of the
following sample format (21/1/74) refers to one of Deleuze's seminars
is
Vincennes.
No
given at
page reference given since these seminars are at
find
list
The
a
of all seminars
present only available online.
reader can
hitherto transcribed at www. imagineL.
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