Introduction: Contemporary Conditions and Diagrammatic Trajectory

Abstract

At the same time as a turn to the object, there has, in some recent continental philosophy, been a concomitant turn to, and renewal of interest in, the question of the subject.¹ A return to philosophy as a speculative realm of enquiry (that is, to metaphysics), and a return to philosophy as a way of life. In fact, this is not necessarily a subject that is opposed to the object. It is not a subject that is barred from what Quentin Meillassoux calls the ‘great outdoors’ (Meillassoux 2008b, p. 7). Rather, it is a subject that is itself part of that object, a finitude that is woven from the very fabric of the infinite. This is to suggest a continuum of sorts between the finite and infinite, and also to foreground the heterogeneity of forms (and times) that such a subject might take. In fact, it is to foreground subjectivity over and above a subject, when the latter is understood as a single homogenized entity. It is also to emphasize the processual nature of this subjectivity as always a work in progress: an ethical and aesthetic programme aimed at producing a certain autonomy contra the dominant technologies and logics of subjection of our present moment. We might say then that this subjectivity is both pragmatic and speculative in the sense that its production must be carried out in our contemporary world, but that it is not reducible to those lifestyle options that are typically on offer.

‘The only acceptable finality of human activity is the production of a subjectivity that is auto-enriching its relation to the world in a continuous fashion.’ (Guattari, Chaosmosis, 1995)