HARMONY OF THE ECOSYSTEM FROM THE LENS OF DELEUZIAN ASSEMBLAGE THEORY

Abstract

In the 21st century, crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and global warming require us to radically change our visions with respect to the ecological world. This paper reveals a new horizon of harmony, heralds a non-anthropocentric vision where harmony may be perceived to be a process of the combination, connection, and detachment of various elements of the ecosystem, through the lens of Deleuzian assemblage theory. My arguments re-establish a new ontological framework that is based on the new materialism proposed by Deleuze, Guattari, and DeLanda. First, we will refute the mechanical and organic notion of the harmony of the ecosystem through the concept of ‘machinic arrangement’ proposed by Deleuze and Guattari. This will allow the traditional notion of harmonious world to be seen as an anthropocentric projection. Next, we will examine the notion of the world and that of harmony through complexity theory and chaos theory, which have guided the arguments of Deleuze, demonstrating the forces of dynamic interactions of elements which produce a fundamental change in the perspective of the ecological horizon. This revises the anthropocentric perspective, which distributes a finality to the world, to direct us toward a non-anthropocentric perspective, and a new materialist vision which consists in changing our ontological framework as well as our relationship with the ecological world.