Active/reactive Body in Deleuze and Foucault

Abstract

Deleuze's Nietzsche and Philosophy may be considered as one of the earliest studies that presents Nietzsche as a philosopher rather than a poetic thinker by foregrounding the systematic element of his legacy. As a result, Deleuze's Nietzsche turns out to be impersonally objective and rigorously scientific/mathematical: his science is the concrete physics of forces that studies the formation of bodies as the effects of the dynamic relations of forces. As I'll attempt to show, it is Nietzsche's physics of forces that lays the foundation for the divergent yet complimentary methodologies of Deleuze and Foulcault. 1. Deleuze's Reading of Nietzsche's Theory of Active and Reactive Forces Active and reactive forces are the basic functions of Nietzsche's calculus where one force is necessarily viewed in relation to its opposite. According to Nietzsche's hierarchy of forces, active forces are those of domination and form-giving; while reactive ones are those of obedience and form-receiving. In reality, however, the interpretation of what kinds of forces are involved in the formation of the body is complicated by the fact that reactive forces prevail over active ones and thereby shape a reactive body. In history, the original hierarchy of forces is therefore inverted: reactive forces are dominant, while active ones are dominated. To illuminate the dynamic of force struggles, Deleuze-Nietzsche introduces the concept of the will to power, an inner motive force whose more primordial qualities of affirmation and negation determine the qualities of forces in a given relation. The affirming will to power expresses itself through active forces (by affirming itself); while the negating will to power, or the will to nothingness, through reactive forces (by negating the other). Furthermore, "affirmation and negation extend beyond action and reaction because they are the immediate qualities of becoming itself. Affirmation is ... the power of becoming active ... Negation is ... a becoming reactive." (1) Therefore, depending on what quality constitutes the nature of the will to power (which, in turn, determines the qualities of forces), the becoming of forces can be either reactive or active: through the will to nothingness, all forces become reactive; through the affirmative will to power, all forces become active. However, the becoming-reactive of all forces is, according to Deleuze-Nietzsche, the only becoming of forces we know; and it is this becoming that constitutes the essence of man and universal history. How do reactive forces triumph over active ones? As Deleuze emphasizes, reactive forces do not triumph by forming a superior force; they always remain inferior in quantity and reactive in quality. The root of their triumph lies in the inversion of the differential genetic element, from which both active and reactive forces emerge. The differential origin of forces is seen differently from both sides of active and reactive forces: for active forces, the difference at the origin is the source of affirmation and enjoyment; for reactive forces, it is that of negation and frustration. For the former, it is a difference in itself to be expressed regardless of the other; for the latter, it is an opposition, or contradiction, to be repressed/neutralized. Therefore, in the mirror of reactive forces, the genealogical element of forces (i.e. difference as such) appears upside down; the affirmation of the self is inverted as the negation of the other. The career of reactive forces depends on the development of this reactive image, or fiction, of the origin, which is projected onto active forces and thereby separate them from what they can do. As a result, active force is turned back against itself and thereby deprived of its manifestation; separated from what it can do, active force becomes reactive. In this ultimate inversion of force relations, reactive force ceases to be acted and becomes only felt (i.e. re-acted); i. …