Affect and Attention After Deleuze and Whitehead

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell J. Duvernoy
Keyword(s):  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
Alternative Futures ◽  
Radical Empiricism ◽  
Speculative Philosophy ◽  
Recent Philosophy ◽  
Contemporary Context

The book develops a process metaphysical conception of subjectivity from the work of Gilles Deleuze and Alfred North Whitehead. This alters existential orientations towards affect and attention in ways described as ecological attunement. The study is guided by two methodological commitments: (i) demonstrating the importance and relevance of responsible speculative thinking and (ii) translating metaphysical ideas into their existential implications. Both commitments are motivated by a contemporary context of ecological crisis and paradigm transformation. In the course of its argument, the book relates the work of Deleuze and Whitehead to other speculative trends in recent philosophy, particularly posthumanisms and speculative realisms. Deleuze and Whitehead are read in a shared lineage of radical empiricism that emphasizes processes and events as metaphysically primary. A key theme is understanding subjectivity through dynamic processes of individuation at variable scales where feeling/affect and attention acquire metaphysical rather than psychological scope and status. Whitehead’s analysis of “feeling” as metaphysical operation is explored in relation to Deleuze and Guattari's Spinozist-inspired deployment of affect. Attending participates as a crucial bridge between the metaphysical and the existential in processes of consolidation of present real actual occasions. The book develops existential implications of these claims in the context of an expanded philosophical conception of ecology. These implications challenge dominant modes of subjectification under what Guattari calls “Integrated World Capitalism” (IWC). The book concludes with discussion of how speculative philosophy may contribute to alternative futures.

Ralph Ellison, Temporal Technologist

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Germana
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Friedrich Nietzsche ◽  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Ralph Ellison ◽  
Racial Formation ◽  
Henri Bergson ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
Racial History ◽  
The Face

Ralph Ellison, Temporal Technologist examines Ralph Ellison’s body of work as an extended and ever-evolving expression of the author’s philosophy of temporality—a philosophy synthesized from the writings of Henri Bergson and Friedrich Nietzsche that anticipates the work of Gilles Deleuze. Taking the view that time is a multiplicity of dynamic processes, rather than a static container for the events of our lives, and an integral force of becoming, rather than a linear groove in which events take place, Ellison articulates a theory of temporality and social change throughout his corpus that flies in the face of all forms of linear causality and historical determinism. Integral to this theory is Ellison’s observation that the social, cultural, and legal processes constitutive of racial formation are embedded in static temporalities reiterated by historians and sociologists. In other words, Ellison’s critique of US racial history is, at bottom, a matter of time. This book reveals how, in his fiction, criticism, and photography, Ellison reclaims technologies through which static time and linear history are formalized in order to reveal intensities implicit in the present that, if actualized, could help us achieve Nietzsche’s goal of acting un-historically. The result is a wholesale reinterpretation of Ellison’s oeuvre, as well as an extension of Ellison’s ideas about the dynamism of becoming and the open-endedness of the future. It, like Ellison’s texts, affirms the chaos of possibility lurking beneath the patterns of living we mistake for enduring certainties.

scholarly journals DIGRESSÕES ACERCA DA NOÇÃO DE ESTILO: CONTRIBUIÇÕES PARA UMA PERSPECTIVA NÃO MODERNA DO EU

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronald Arendt ◽  
Laura Cristina de Toledo Quadros ◽  
Márcia Oliveira Moraes
Keyword(s):  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Bruno Latour

Resumo O presente artigo pretende discutir a noção de estilo como possibilidade de rever a noção de sujeito numa perspectiva não moderna. A inspiração que nos dá suporte advém da Teoria Ator-rede (TAR), proposta por Bruno Latour e outros autores. O ponto de partida da TAR são as conexões, os laços que articulam humanos a não humanos, tecendo e compondo o mundo em que vivemos. A questão central diz respeito a pensarmos o eu como uma construção relacional e, nesse sentido, recorremos a noção de estilo para desenvolver essa reflexão. Três filósofos contemporâneos - Alfred North Whitehead, Etienne Souriau e Gilles Deleuze - são referências necessárias na compreensão da TAR e nos auxiliam na discussão do conceito de estilo. Discorremos sobre como cada um desses autores aborda esse tema e concluímos indicando os desdobramentos de tais contribuições para pensarmos o eu para além de uma interioridade.

Introduction: Ecological Turbulence and the Adventure of Metaphysics

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Russell J. Duvernoy
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
The Creation

This is a study of metaphysical resonances between two twentieth-century thinkers conducted in a spirit of speculative pragmatism. While it presumes an interest in its main figures (Alfred North Whitehead and Gilles Deleuze), it does not aspire to exhaustively detail all of their conceptual convergences and divergences, but rather to do something with the resonance it studies. As such, with a dose of caution and humility, it follows Deleuze’s conception of philosophy as the creation of concepts. What concept comes out of a mutual reading of Deleuze and Whitehead? More specifically, how does taking seriously the process-inflected metaphysics implicated in their work potentially alter the lived experience of subjectivity?...

Sufism, Spirituality and Sustainability / Rethinking Islamic Mysticism through Contemporary Sociology

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kubilay Akman
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Life Styles ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Contemporary Context ◽  
Modern Sense

People are looking for therapeutic ways to deal with the damaging rhythms and handicaps of modern life styles which threaten the physical, social and psychological endurance of human-beings. Reconsideration of "old" philosophies, ancient wisdom and spiritual/mystical paths in a contemporary context was among the solutions that were launched to overwhelm the modern sense of alienation in the second half of 20th Century and this tendency is still going on nowadays no comma at the first decade of 21st Century. Sufism has been one of the traditions from which modern individuals expected answers to their ontological dilemmas produced in daily life by the society, social relations, media and finally by themselves. The purpose of this paper is to discuss sociologically whether Sufism, the mystical, peaceful and tolerant way of Islam could be an answer to the social problems of modern societies. What is the social alternative of Sufi traditions regarding the contemporary issues such as: social and technological alienation, sustainable development and environmental/ecological crisis? This paper is an attempt to emphasize the possibilities of Sufism beyond spirituality, with a discussion based on the sociological conception of the subject.

Commentary on Jean Wahl

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 797-807
Author(s):  
Russell J. Duvernoy ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
World War Two ◽  
World War ◽  
Radical Empiricism ◽  
Spiritual Exercise ◽  
Process Metaphysics

This commentary considers Wahl’s 1942 “Poetry as Spiritual Exercise” in the context of his interests in radical empiricism and process metaphysics. In doing so, it raises appreciation for the complexity of his thought, identifies specific notes of influence on Gilles Deleuze, and responds to worries that Wahl’s notion of spiritual exercise is predominantly a form of withdrawal, quietism, or retreat from the horrors of World War Two. For Wahl, rather than passive contemplation of a determinate artifact, poetry is a mode of experience that, to speak with Whitehead and James, is a making. This experience of poetry develops affordances of thought that strengthen existential capacity for remaining open to uncertainty, fragility, and vulnerability.

scholarly journals Creativity and God In Whitehead's Process Philosophy

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-159
Author(s):  
Thomas Hidya Tjaya
Keyword(s):  
Modern Science ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Central Position ◽  
Speculative Philosophy ◽  
Fine Line

Abstract: The category of creativity unquestionably occupies a central position in Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy of organism. Its employment is hardly surprising given his project to establish a speculative philosophy that is compatible with modern science. This article examines the use of such a category in this project and argues that the separation between creativity and God causes several problems, including the absence of an ontological principle that may ground the interaction of the various elements in this metaphysical scheme. A more fundamental question is also raised concerning the nature of this project, which walks a fine line between philosophy and science. Keywords: Whitehead, creativity, the Category of the Ultimate, metaphysics, Aristotle, organism, God. Abstrak: Kategori kreativitas jelas memperoleh tempat sentral dalam filsafat organisme Alfred North Whitehead. Kehadiran kategori ini tidaklah mengherankan mengingat usahanya untuk membangun sebuah filsafat spekulatif yang selaras dengan sains modern. Artikel ini hendak mengevaluasi penggunaan kategori ini dan menyampaikan argumen bahwa pemisahan antara kreativitas dan Tuhan memuat sejumlah masalah, termasuk ketiadaan sebuah prinsip ontologis yang dapat menyatukan interaksi berbagai unsur dalam skema metafisika ini. Sebuah pertanyaan lebih mendasar juga diajukan terkait dengan hakikat proyek ini sendiri yang memperlihatkan tipisnya batas antara filsafat dan sains. Kata-kata Kunci: Whitehead, kreativitas, Kategori Pokok, metafisika, Aristoteles, organisme, Tuhan.

Speculative cuteness. Adventures of ideas in Adventure Time

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grzegorz Czemiel
Keyword(s):  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Television Series ◽  
Speculative Philosophy ◽  
Adequate Response ◽  
Social Anxieties ◽  
Popular Television

The article examines Cartoon Network’s popular television series "Adventure Time," attempting to demonstrate that the show’s use of cuteness is highly subversive and can be interpreted as an attempt to problematize accepted notions of childishness and maturity. Its cute design may be viewed as a way in which social anxieties of so-called millennials find proper expression. At the same time, it could announce the necessity to develop new sensibilities that would form an adequate response to the challenges of the Anthropocene. To conceptualize these issues, the article utilizes the philosophical theories of Alfred North Whitehead (speculative philosophy) and Catherine Malabou (brain plasticity).

Poetry as Spiritual Exercise

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 793-796
Author(s):  
Jean Wahl ◽  
Russell J. Duvernoy ◽  
Christopher Lura ◽  
Anna-Marie Hansen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Radical Empiricism ◽  
Spiritual Exercise ◽  
Process Metaphysics

“La Poésie Comme Exercice Spirituel” first appeared in a 1942 issue of Revue Fontaine edited by Jacques and Raissa Maritain and was subsequently republished in Wah’s 1948 text Poésie, Pensée, Perception, published by Calmann-Lévy. The following is a translation of the Fontaine version. I have noted all of the variations from the latter version in the notes. As I emphasize in my commentary, the piece is a notable display of Wahl’s eclectic range of influences. Most importantly, it shows the extent to which his interest in radical empiricism and process metaphysics informs his creative approach to the intersection of poetics and metaphysics. These interests are not explicitly named in the essay, and yet their influence is pervasive. The essay also includes several moments of substantial resonance with the work of Gilles Deleuze, as noted in the commentary.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendelin Kuepers
Keyword(s):  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Organizational Practice ◽  
Intellectual Life ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Living Body ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Philosophical Phenomenology

Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology highlights the bodily, embodied dimensions and forms of non- or post-representational knowing for understanding organizational phenomena and realties as processes. In addition, it focuses on a re-embodied organization and a corresponding sense-based organizational practice. This chapter first considers Merleau-Ponty’s biography and intellectual life before discussing the significance of his ideas for process philosophy as well as organizational theory and practice. In particular, it examines some key concepts such as the living body and dynamic embodiment beyond empiricism and idealism, reversible flesh as elemental carnality and formative medium and chiasm, as well as wild being and be(com)ing. It also looks at Merleau-Ponty’s connections with two other process thinkers, Alfred North Whitehead and Gilles Deleuze. Finally, it assesses the significance of his process-philosophical phenomenology and ontology for organization studies.

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