A "Vitalist-Nihilism"? The Action of Joining Bergson With Nietzsche Through Deleuze for the Contemporary Educational Moment

• In Event: Ontology and Becoming: The Challenge of New Theory to Educational Research and Practice

Abstract

Objective

To think through and apply the consequences of Deleuze’s ‘new materialism’ for educational research and practice.

Theoretical Framework

Applying and using Deleuzian theory for educational research and practice has become an increasingly popular activity. However, as this presentation will argue, there are many contradictions, assumptions and perhaps ungrounded theoretical aspects to the straightforward application and use of Deleuze in the educational context. For example, the ‘new materialism’ that Deleuze refers to in the 1960s takes its inspiration from Spinoza, which is an emancipatory (and very human) project. Contrariwise, the new materialism of the present moment, which has been largely derived from contemporary feminist sources and is applied to educational research and practice as a way out of the anthropomorphic limits and enclosure (or the domination of the male subject). This presentation will explore the combined forces of humanism and naturalism which are at work and present in Deleuze’s ‘new materialism’, and work out how they apply to educational research and practice. This important intellectual project includes an analysis about what Deleuze took from Foucault’s anti-humanism and suggests that the way out of the contradictions of Spinoza’s emancipatory project as new materialism lies in the unlikely conjunction between Bergson and Nietzsche. The vitalism that we may derive from Bergson drives the argument into nature and to the chaotic forces beyond human control. Nietzsche’s nihilism pours scorn and questions human assumptions and normative beliefs about and in the world. As such, as type of non-human emancipation may be derived from Bergson and Nietzsche, it is a mode of overcoming of human limits, which fully takes into account the non-human world and the ecological consequences of human action, defined, for example, as the Anthropocene. This presentation will draw out the specific consequences for educational research and practice of the vitalist-nihilism we may derive from Bergson and Nietzsche.

Modes of Inquiry

This presentation will work primarily as a philosophical investigation. The ideas, principles and arguments about vitalist-nihilism will be drawn out and explained. Deleuze’s new materialism will be explicated and differentiated from other modes of new materialism that are currently prevalent. Practical implications of these ideas in education will be assessed.

Scholarly Significance

The ubiquity of the application of Deleuzian theory to education requires a careful reassessment and understanding of what this means. This presentation is a scholarly attempt to address many of the misunderstandings and assumptions that are present in the field of Deleuzian scholarship in education.

Author

• David R Cole, Western Sydney University