Posthuman Affect

Transindividual Affect: Gilbert Simondon's Contribution to a Posthumanist Theory of Emotions

“…The importance of affect theory for critical posthumanism has been highlighted by both Rosi Braidotti (2013Braidotti ( , 2019 and Pieter Vermeulen (2014). According to Braidotti, attention to affect is necessary in any posthumanist project that aims at creating 'transversal, relational, nomadic assemblages of different beings and life-forms ' (2013, p. 193).…”

“…Furthermore, Vermeulen (2014) has pointed out that the distinction made by Massumi between signifying (subjective) emotions and asignifying (non-subjective) affects plays a key role for posthumanist philosophies. Posthumanism, he argues, may be considered as a theory of the subject as an ‘assemblage of affect’, a theory aimed at decentring the old certainties of humanism (Vermeulen, 2014, p. 122).…”

“…Furthermore, Vermeulen (2014) has pointed out that the distinction made by Massumi between signifying (subjective) emotions and asignifying (non-subjective) affects plays a key role for posthumanist philosophies. Posthumanism, he argues, may be considered as a theory of the subject as an ‘assemblage of affect’, a theory aimed at decentring the old certainties of humanism (Vermeulen, 2014, p. 122). By moving away from a strictly anthropocentric perspective that opposes rationality to irrationality (cognitive to non-cognitive intentionality) posthumanism finds in the difference between affect and emotions a crucial ally.…”

“…From Massumi's perspective, emotions appear as a ‘rationalised’ form of affectivity, that is, second-order intensities that depend on a first-order non-human and non-subjective reality. In this sense, posthumanism uses the notion of affect in order to displace ‘humanist sensibilities’ and to suggest that these sensibilities ‘have never been more than an illusion’ (Vermulen, 2014, p. 123). 4…”

Matter Matters: Assembling Life after Post‐Milan

“…This form of affect happens to bodies, not in them, as a form of eventology (Bösel, 2020), which might later be distilled, distorted, and branded by the psychology‐machine. Vermeulen (2014) suggests that the demise of prescribed feelings comes as we give up our own sovereignty, given that our affects are then intra‐active, not our own, tied up in alterity rather than subjectivity (Figure 2).…”