Connection 5

Ecosophy Part Two

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Felix Guattari

In 1989, Felix Guattari put forth his views of what an ecosophy might entail in his book, The Three Ecologies.

Guattari rejects a dualistic man vs nature view of reality, but instead posits a monism and pluralism that permeates all of the biosphere.

For Guattari, eco-philosophy is the study of complex phenomena that are heterogeneous and intimately interconnected. The biosphere is informed by a concept of pure difference: assemblages and multiplicities that arise in rhizomatic form in a process of pure difference.

Guattari identifies three ecologies that must be addressed in order to come to a new understanding of the reality of the ecosphere: the ecology of mind or subjectivity, the ecology of societies, and the ecology of the environment. He asserts that we must change the way we think, the way we socially interact and the way we relate to the environment in order to live more in accordance with the reality of our place within the biosphere.

Constructivist Approach

Guattari asserts that environmental problems result from a human subjectivity that in turn is informed by the economic, political, social and educational aspects of society. He takes a constructivist approach to ecosophy:

In order to create a social and political environment that preserves the environment, we must reconstruct our subjectivity and social relations such that human beings see themselves as immanently embedded in the environment, not ruling over it or exploiting it.

Guattari suggests that in order to change views and beliefs, micropolitical and microsocial practices must deterritorialize old social forms and replace them over time with new singularities and assemblages, which will also entail “a new gentleness, together with a new aesthetic and new analytic practices regarding the formation of the unconscious.”

Naess and Guattari

Naess’ and Guattari’s views on ecosophy dovetail at many junctures. While Naess has a holistic vision of the environment, whereas Guattari has a heterogeneous vision, both firmly subscribe to a vision of all life having intrinsic value, and an ability for human beings to value the life of other beings.

Naess asserts: “One can, without hypocrisy, desire something which is for the benefit of other living beings” and “one normally obtains great, rich satisfaction from it.”

This ethical stance is the key to self-realization at the biospheric level. Similarly, Guattari posits the production of a subjectivity that creates assemblages of shared meaning relating to the sustainability of our relationship with the ecosphere that we are all embedded within.

Enter Deleuze

Deep ecology and ecosophy have much in common with a Deleuzian philosophy of difference.

First and foremost, as a naturalist, Deleuze clearly subscribes to the value of all life, and the affirmation of the forces of life, widely construed as both organic and inorganic.

Deleuze’s starting point is of a reality that is not human centered, but is instead based on a process of becoming in which humanity is a contingent result; an actuality that is but one perspective in an overall vision of change.

Deleuze adopts a continuous view of life and nature, organic and inorganic, that is heterogeneous, decentralized, open and interconnected, but is also driven by a force of pure difference that permeates all of diversity.

Change vs Identity

Deleuzian environmentalism then, is aimed at the affirmation of evolution and change in the biosphere and is opposed to any characterization of the environment on identitarian or essentialist terms.

The environment is a dynamic process in which all things interact; but it is only the active forces of life that inform a Deleuzian environmental ethic, not the reactive forces that would deny life.

The metaphysical view of the environment as pure change, combined with the ethical view of the affirmation of all forms of life, informs an epistemological naturalism in which consciousness of nature must be transformed such that we see ourselves within the same field as everything else in the biosphere.

We are all actualizations of the same process, and life as a process in the open whole must be affirmed.

Diversity

Diversity in the ecosystem is the natural result of a process of pure difference. What will always return, what the eternal return will always select, is pure difference.

While the ecosystem will continue to evolve irrespective of how we as human beings relate to it, this is not a license to exploit.

We separate ourselves from our own source of life and change once we consider ourselves separate and apart from the environmental field, and reduce it to an instrumental resource. The return of difference is life itself. Static systems die, evolving systems flourish.

If we can begin to see the environment and our place within it as evolving on a plane of immanence, we will flow with the forces of change and continue to participate in the flourishing of nature. If not, we will become extinct.

Climate Change

The promotion of biodiversity is the affirmation of life widely construed. But deep ecology and ecosophy subscribe to more than the objective of biodiversity, and the directly related issues of population control and sustainability. Climate change is an issue that affects the entire biosphere and all forms of life that arise within it.

Deep ecology and ecosophy adhere to a subjective, social and environmental vision that affirms the biosphere as a whole.

Any non-vital interference with the ability of the biosphere to continue to evolve, as a result of man-made climate change, flies in the face of an eco-ethic that promotes all life.

The challenge of climate change presents us collectively with the opportunity to participate in the immanent deterritorialization of the anthropocentric growth and progress paradigm.

Climate change forces us to reconsider our interrelatedness with the ecosystem as a whole. It forces us to understand our immanent relationship with the earth, the biosphere as our home in need of nurturing.

A vibrant and mutually revitalizing relationship with our environment is not only indispensable to living a life fulfilled; it enhances our ability to do so.

I hope you enjoyed this article. Thanks for reading!

Tomas

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Excerpt from my forthcoming book, Becoming: A Life of Pure Difference (Gilles Deleuze and the Philosophy of the New) Copyright © 2023 by Tomas Byrne. Learn more here.