Nandita Biswas Mellamphy

The University of Western Ontario, Canadá
Assistant Professor

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and The Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism, University of Western Ontario. Her work focuses on the intersection of continental thought, french poststructuralism, and political theory. She has published articles in Foucault Studies, Symposium, Paideusis and in the recent book Nietzsche, Power and Politics (DeGruyter 2008). Her book Nietzsche and Metamorphosis: The Political Physiology of Eternal Return is forthcoming, and she is currently co-translating Gilbert Simondon’s Du mode d’existence des objets techniques. She is also the coordinator of The Nietzsche Workshop @ Western.

Abstract

Nietzsche’s Experimental Ontology: A Political Physiology of Individuation

One of the most pertinent aspects of Nietzsche’s philosophy of life for contemporary theory is the radical dismantling of the conceptual (moral) apparatus of the individual and of its volitional agent, the subject as the backbone of knowledge production. The task of this paper is to unfold these questions with reference to Nietzsche’s early works on the organic and his early lectures on the pre-Platonic philosophers, in relation to the development of the concept of will to power in the late works. I will argue that Nietzsche’s experimental ontology provides the groundwork for a novel form of political theorizing. The paper will draw connections between Nietzsche’s work on individuation and recent contemporary theories of trans-individuation (Gilbert Simondon, Bernard Stiegler), organology (Georges Canguilhem, Bernard Stiegler) and production (Alberto Toscano).