The Anomie of the Earth: Philosophy, Politics, and Autonomy in Europe and the Americas
Federico Luisetti is Professor of Italian Studies, Comparative Literature, and Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of
John Pickles is Earl N. Phillips Distinguished Professor of International Studies in the Department of Geography at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of
Wilson Kaiser is Assistant Professor of English at Edward Waters College in Florida.
Federico Luisetti is Professor of Italian Studies, Comparative Literature, and Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of
John Pickles is Earl N. Phillips Distinguished Professor of International Studies in the Department of Geography at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of
Wilson Kaiser is Assistant Professor of English at Edward Waters College in Florida.
Federico Luisetti is Professor of Italian Studies, Comparative Literature, and Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of
John Pickles is Earl N. Phillips Distinguished Professor of International Studies in the Department of Geography at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of
Wilson Kaiser is Assistant Professor of English at Edward Waters College in Florida.
Frans-Willem Korsten, 2015. "Unreasonability, Style, and Pretiosity", The Anomie of the Earth: Philosophy, Politics, and Autonomy in Europe and the Americas, Federico Luisetti, John Pickles, Wilson Kaiser
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This chapter takes up recent theories of “Life” as revolutionary excess, probing the origins of the vitalist turn to a Foucauldian “savage ontology.” According to Noys, both academic theorists and anarchist practitioners of vitalism share a common genesis in their rejection of the Hegelian “synthesis,” and their valorization of the power of a Nietzschean vitalism. Using the work of Mikhail Bakunin, Max Stirner, and Renzo Novatore to situate the development of our contemporary “savage ontology,” Noys then turns to a consideration of Deleuze via Alain Badiou to demonstrate that the classical insurrectionalist models are being resurrected in French philosophy’s re-tooling of a vitalist metaphysics. Similarly, thinkers such as Antonio Negri argue that capital unleashes life as a productive force it cannot finally control. Instead, and in productive contrast to de Bloois and Korsten, Noys argues that “Life” plays a more ambiguous role. Turning back to Marx and Foucault, he observes that both of these foundational thinkers never posited life as exterior to power. Noys concludes that we need a more nuanced, strategic thinking that does not simply repeat the mantra of the “excess” of life. This challenge to redefine vitalism within the emergent framework of a savage anthropology is taken up in the next section, “Indigeneity and Decoloniality,” in which the authors develop the motif of buen vivir (living well) and articulate a vital commitment to decolonial autonomist movements, which are actively reconfiguring the political and social meaning of “Life” brought into question by de Bloois, Korsten, and Noys.
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