PANDEMIC AND THE QUESTION OF LIFE: Towards a Posthuman Ontology

Publications

PANDEMIC AND THE QUESTION OF LIFE: Towards a Posthuman Ontology

PANDEMIC AND THE QUESTION OF LIFE: Towards a Posthuman Ontology

Author : Dr Manoj NY

Year : 2024

Publisher : Taylor and Francis

Source Title : Pandemic, Event, and the Immanence of Life: Critical Reflections on Covid 19

Document Type :

Abstract

This chapter attempts to tackle the politics and commoditization of life by resorting to a posthuman/nonhuman ontology and multispecies ecology. The paper has three sections – the first deals with the imminent politics of life and the consequences of the new inquiries regarding the threshold of life. In the second section this is further corroborated by the critique of anthropocentrism and the implicit revival of anthropos in the guise of species thinking in the discourse of the Anthropocene. This lays the foundation for a posthuman ontology. The third section focuses on the multiplicity of life by exploring the symbiotic relationships that sustain life and thereby challenging the notion of ‘individual’ and ‘species’ as dominant categories of classification. It attempts to look at symbiosis as a Deleuzo-Guattarian assemblage and argues, following Deleuze and Guattari, that symbiotic relations have always been there in history. Finally, the chapter argues for a posthuman ontology that questions the arborescent model of biology and can address the transversal multispecies connections that affirm the immanence of life withstanding the commoditization of it by venture capital.