{ Monthly Archives }
April 2012
thigein & conatus
What is important is that this
contemplation without knowledge, which at times recalls the Greek con-
ception of theory as not knowledge but touching [thigein], here functions to
define life. As absolute immanence, a life . . . is pure contemplation beyond
every subject and object of knowledge; it is pure potentiality that preserves
without acting.
– Giorgio Agamben, “Absolute Immanence,” p. 164
Spinoza’s theory of ‘striving’ (conatus) as the desire to persevere in one’s
own Being, whose importance Deleuze often underlines, contains a possible
answer to these questions. Whatever the ancient and medieval sources of
Spinoza’s idea (Harry A. Wolfson lists a number of them, from the Stoics to
Dante), it is certain that in each case, its paradoxical formulation perfectly
expresses the idea of an immanent movement, a striving that obstinately
remains in itself. All beings not only persevere in their own Being (vis
inertiae) but desire to do so (vis immanentiae). The movement of conatus thus
coincides with that of Spinoza’s immanent cause, in which agent and patient
cannot be told apart. And since conatus is identical to the Being of the thing,
to desire to persevere in one’s own Being is to desire one’s own desire, to
constitute oneself as desiring. In conatus, desire and Being thus coincide without
residue.
– Ibid., p. 166
Long Live The Pirate Party!
the following images came from a Ggl find similar search:
apart from this, which is to be placed in parentheses – sheer frivolity:
& I don’t remember what it was I was searching for …
non-d’hors-nom
Drawing upon the set-theoretical ontology of Alain Badiou, the computational theory of Stephen Wolfram, the physics of Frank Tipler, the psychoanalytical theory of Jacques Lacan, and the genius of Georg Cantor, the author works to demonstrate that the universe is a computer processing the divine Name and that all existence is made of information (the bit). As a result of this ontic pan-computationalism, it is shown that the future resurrection of the dead can take place and how it may in fact occur. Along the way, the book also offers compelling critiques of several significant theories of reality, including the phenomenological theologies of Emmanuel Levinas and Jean-Luc Marion, Process Theology, and Object-Oriented Ontology.
Reality in the Name of God explores how the concepts of Jewish mysticism can be articulated and deployed…
– from here