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Immanence and Anarchist Ethics

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Immanence and Anarchist Ethics Immanence and anarchist ethics by Elizabeth Vasileva A Doctoral Thesis Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy Loughborough University April 2018 © Elizabeth Vasileva 2018 1 Abstract This thesis engages with the problem of meta-ethics in postanarchist theory. In their rejection of ‘classical’ anarchism, various postanarchist thinkers adopt a position of epistemological critique and reduce their metaphysics to a minimal conception of the self and broad, common knowledge statements about politics. Morality in the form of coercive rules or obedience to norms is rejected, whilst ethics in the form of guidelines or suggestions is taken to be desirable, and even necessary, for anarchist politics. The main argument of the thesis takes up the postanarchist critique of morality, taking seriously the concerns that essentialism, universals and representation are contestable and open to fallibility, and suggests that a further contradiction exists between anarchist principles and transcendent ethical systems. As long as postanarchist metaphysics appeal to transcendence, there is a possibility for anarchist ethics to become coercive. This work’s original contribution to knowledge is the introduction of immanent metaphysics as a foundation for anarchist ethics. This is done primarily through the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and his critique of transcendence. The argument begins by outlining Deleuze’s metaphysics of difference which are to underpin the rest of the discussion on anarchist ethics. Following this, the thesis draws on the work of Deleuze and Guattari and others to explore the ‘political’ and active aspects of immanent ethics. The final part sketches anarchist ethics in immanent modes of existence. 2 3 Contents CHAPTER ONE 1.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 1 1.1.1 Setting and characters .................................................................................... 1 1.1.2. My aim and content ...................................................................................... 7 1.1.3 Notes on methodology ................................................................................ 11 Reading Deleuze ................................................................................................ 16 Terminology ....................................................................................................... 19 1.2 Defining anarchism ........................................................................................... 21 1.2.1 An anarchist canon? ..................................................................................... 21 1.3 (Post)anarchist ethics ......................................................................................... 25 1.3.1 Stage 1: Postanarchist epistemology ......................................................... 26 The context of postanarchism .......................................................................... 26 The postanarchist meta-ethical critique ......................................................... 39 Non-essentialist ethical subjectivity ............................................................... 40 Rejecting universalism ...................................................................................... 49 The anti-representation principle .................................................................... 55 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 59 1.3.2 Stage 2: Strong ontologies ........................................................................... 61 Prefiguration ...................................................................................................... 62 4 Multi-value consequentialism ......................................................................... 67 Difference as lack ............................................................................................... 71 1.3.3 Stage 3: Transcendence ............................................................................... 79 CHAPTER TWO 2.1 Introduction to immanent metaphysics ......................................................... 88 2.1.1 Reading Deleuze (and Guattari) ................................................................ 88 2.1.2 Ethics versus morality ................................................................................. 92 2.2 Constructing immanence .................................................................................. 98 2.2.1 The dogmatic image of thought ................................................................. 98 2.2.2 Transcendental empiricism ....................................................................... 105 2.2.3 The role of critique ..................................................................................... 108 2.2.4 Difference .................................................................................................... 116 2.2.5 Repetition .................................................................................................... 127 2.2.6 The theory of individuation ...................................................................... 136 2.3 Events and series .............................................................................................. 139 2.3.1 Singularities and morphogenesis ............................................................. 139 2.3.2 Willing the Event ........................................................................................ 142 2.4 Theory of the unconscious ............................................................................. 148 2.4.1 Critique of psychoanalysis ........................................................................ 150 2.4.2 Desiring-production .................................................................................. 155 5 2.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 166 CHAPTER THREE Introduction to Immanent Anarchist Ethics ..................................................... 168 3.1 Immanent normativity ................................................................................. 173 3.2 Ethical Knowledge ........................................................................................ 188 Truth .................................................................................................................. 199 Smooth and striated ........................................................................................ 201 3.3 Virtuous Machines ........................................................................................ 206 3.4 The Event ........................................................................................................ 223 3.5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 232 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 235 6 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Ruth Kinna, without whom this project would have never happened. Her knowledge, support and encouragement have been invaluable for initially embarking on, pressing on with, and finishing this thesis. This work would have never happened in the form and intensity it has if it hadn’t been for Matt Lee. Our conversations have always been a source of inspiration and seeds for thought, many (hopefully) ripening in the current work. I would also like to express my gratitude towards everyone who has supported me in this journey, read and commented on my messy ideas and helped me make sense of them. A special thank you to Ebba, Chris, Mark and Gian, for always being my home. Искам да благодаря и на родителите си за тяхното търпение, любов и подкрепа през този дълъг процес. Вие първи ми повярвахте, че някой ден ще напиша книга. Finally, to Sam, who doesn’t believe in acknowledgements. 7 CHAPTER ONE 1.1 Introduction In the beginning there was a wall.1 Practice is a set of relays from one theoretical point to another, and theory is a relay from one practice to another. No theory can develop without eventually encountering a wall, and practice is necessary for piercing this wall.2 This dissertation is a story, and the question of how a story is to be told is of utmost importance. The purpose of this introduction is, therefore, to explain the choices I have made about how to tell this story, to introduce the main characters and the setting, as well as the main ideas in each chapter. As Deleuze suggests, “[p]hilosophy is like a novel: you have to ask ‘What's going to happen?’ ‘What's happened?’ Except the characters are concepts, and the settings, the scenes, are spacetimes.”3 1.1.1 Setting and characters Gone are the times when ‘other worlds, other values’4 seemed possible. The Battle of Seattle is a distant memory of the anarchist collective imagination. 1 U. Le Guin, The Dispossessed, 2nd edn., Golancz, Great Britain, 2002, p. 5. 2 M. Foucault and G. Deleuze, ‘Intellectuals and Power’, in D. F. Bouchard (ed.), Language, Counter- Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1980, p. 206. 3 G. Deleuze, Negotiations, 2nd edn., Columbia University Press, New York, 1995, p. 140. 4 T. Muller, ‘Other Worlds, Other Values’, PhD Thesis, University of Sussex, 1998. 1 We are not winning. There
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