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A Whiteheadian chaosmos?

Tim Clark

pp. 181-199

Abstrakt

The main purpose of this chapter is to establish a fundamental difference between the speculative systems of Deleuze and Whitehead by way of the distinction between a cosmology and a chaosmology. At its most simplistic, the difference in play is that between a cosmos in which order is imposed on a primordial chaos "from outside", or transcendently (as when Form is imposed on matter by the Platonic demiurge, or harmony established a priori by the Leibnizean deity), and a chaosmos in which order is generated "from within", by a wholly immanent process of self-organization. In these very general terms, perhaps the closest approximation to a chaosmology among Whiteheadian thinkers is to be found in Donald Sherburne's vision of "a Whitehead decentered … a Whitehead without God ... a neo-Whiteheadian naturalism". From this perspective, as from Deleuze's, "there is no one overarching center of value, meaning and order"; rather, "patterns of meaning and order emerge gradually, fitfully, and unevenly from [a] churning multiplicity of value centers' (Sherburne, 1986, pp. 83, 92). Thus — or so it would seem — the term "chaosmology" is simply a fancy neologism for speculative naturalism, for a cosmological system which lacks a God.

Publication details

Published in:

Robinson Keith (2009) Deleuze, Whitehead, Bergson: rhizomatic connections. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Seiten: 181-199

DOI: 10.1057/9780230280731_11

Referenz:

Clark Tim (2009) „A Whiteheadian chaosmos?“, In: Robinson (ed.), Deleuze, Whitehead, Bergson, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 181–199.