Affect and Attention After Deleuze and Whitehead - (New Perspectives in Ontology) by Russell J Duvernoy (Paperback)

About the Book

Drawing on recent work by Massumi, Stengers, Debaise and Williams, the book explores their work in relation to other speculative trends in recent philosophy, including new materialisms, posthumanisms, speculative realism and object-oriented-ontology.

Book Synopsis

Russell Duvernoy develops 'resonances' between the metaphysics of Whitehead and Deleuze with regard to effects on attention and affect. The implications of these lead to an altered existential orientation, described by Duvernoy as ecological attunement.
This original concept suggests that attention is ontologically creative, not just passively receptive, and feeling and affect are ontologically prior to the consolidation of lived subjectivity. The combined effects of these speculative claims cut deeply against the grain of prevailing habits with regard to subjectivity.
Though these results are resolutely speculative, they unfold amidst intensifying ecological crisis and accompanying social, political and existential turbulence. What does it mean to pursue speculative thinking in this context? How do metaphysical concepts inform our lives and how might different concepts lead to different ways of life?
Drawing on recent work by Massumi, Stengers, Debaise and Williams, this study explores their work in relation to other speculative trends in recent philosophy, including new materialisms, posthumanisms, speculative realism and object-oriented-ontology.

From the Back Cover

Argues for value of responsible speculative thinking in the context of crisis. Russell Duvernoy develops 'resonances' between the metaphysics of Whitehead and Deleuze with regard to effects on attention and affect. The implications of these lead to an altered existential orientation, described by Duvernoy as ecological attunement. This original concept suggests that attention is ontologically creative, not just passively receptive, and feeling and affect are ontologically prior to the consolidation of lived subjectivity. The combined effects of these speculative claims cut deeply against the grain of prevailing habits with regard to subjectivity. Though these results are resolutely speculative, they unfold amidst intensifying ecological crisis and accompanying social, political and existential turbulence. What does it mean to pursue speculative thinking in this context? How do metaphysical concepts inform our lives and how might different concepts lead to different ways of life? Drawing on recent work by Massumi, Stengers, Debaise and Williams, Russel Duvernoy explores their work in relation to other speculative trends in recent philosophy, including new materialisms, posthumanisms, speculative realism and object-oriented-ontology. Russell Duvernoy is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at King's University College at Western University of Ontario.

Review Quotes

Duvernoy deploys the process metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead and Gilles Deleuze to develop a speculative concept of "ecological attunement" that speaks to both environmental and political climate. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.---D. A. Forbes, West Chester University of Pennsylvania "CHOICE"

Duvernoy's remarkable book marshals his detailed analyses of the metaphysics of Deleuze and Whitehead to develop an environmental philosophy of ecological attunement that is grounded in conviction that the style and quality of our existential "attention" to the world has profound ontological consequences. Duvernoy remains focused throughout on the question of what it means to live ethically and affirmatively in the face of our ecological crisis, forging a highly original philosophy that combines metaphysical speculation with a deep-seated existential engagement. Highly recommended.-- "Daniel W. Smith, Purdue University"

About the Author

Russell Duvernoy is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at King's University College at Western University of Ontario. His work draws on continental philosophy and process philosophies to engage with environmental questions and climate crisis. His articles have appeared in Southern Journal of Philosophy, Transactions of Charles S. Peirce Society, Journal of Speculative Philosophy, Metaphilosophy, Deleuze and Guattari Studies, Radical Philosophy Review, and others.