Development Within the Chaosmos: a Deleuzian Approach to Pedagogy

This thesis critiques the notion of development based on a philosophy of Being. Development, and learning, can only occur within Becoming. Inspired by Nietzsche and Deleuze’s project of overthrowing Platonism, it is shown that transcendental principles explain the conditioning of reason, not its generation. To explain the process of genesis (of reason) we have to understand the principles that make order out of the chaos of life. My main hypothesis is that development is a process of the embodiment of differences, as a process of becoming. And learning is the process of encountering and internalising differences through involuntary memory and pure thought. Conditioning, on the contrary, is a process that reduces development and thought to functions in service of a final state, an Ideal, and therefore obstructs development. The process of development is a process of individuation where essences of becoming, grounded on an eternal return of difference, become internalised and increase...Show moreThis thesis critiques the notion of development based on a philosophy of Being. Development, and learning, can only occur within Becoming. Inspired by Nietzsche and Deleuze’s project of overthrowing Platonism, it is shown that transcendental principles explain the conditioning of reason, not its generation. To explain the process of genesis (of reason) we have to understand the principles that make order out of the chaos of life. My main hypothesis is that development is a process of the embodiment of differences, as a process of becoming. And learning is the process of encountering and internalising differences through involuntary memory and pure thought. Conditioning, on the contrary, is a process that reduces development and thought to functions in service of a final state, an Ideal, and therefore obstructs development. The process of development is a process of individuation where essences of becoming, grounded on an eternal return of difference, become internalised and increase someone’s power to resonate with the World. The production of a subject, however, is problematic because it is the result of conditioning, the internalisation of general identities (the symbolic order) in reaction to overpowering negative tensions. Development has its spiritual equivalent in learning and pure thought. Conditioning stops thought, it allows access to a desired feeling against the condition that someone accepts a certain state, or fact, without question. Because of this, conditioning always produces the unfortunate side-effect of anxiety, since the assumed truths lack any grounding in univocity.Show less

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Development Within the Chaosmos: a Deleuzian Approach to Pedagogy