Editors’ Introduction

Abstract

This special volume explores the transition from the multiplier turn towards ontological anarchy. This transition constitutes neither a sidestepping nor a refocusing of thought from one subject to another, but rather a de-centered movement of «reflection into itself». Western European metaphysics, transformed notably by Heidegger and subsequently through post-structuralism and post-phenomenology towards Viveiros de Castro, Goddard, and Descola, reveals modes of being-plural. The irreducibility of ontologies actualized by beings in a world where actual place is perpetually insufficient addresses the problem of coexistence without a single — dogmatic — foundation. Prevailing tendencies towards the pluralization of existence necessitate the inclusion of the stranger-native within self-referential discourse. Amazonian tribes demonstrate a multiplicity of ways of drawing distinctions, wherein the natural is no longer homogeneous — to be incorporated into a collective means sharing a commonality of modes and practices of existence; «an animal of one species may transform into an animal of another species or into a human, and a human may transform into an animal». The diversity of life-actualized ontological forms opens the possibility not only to learn more coherent models for resolving the impasses of contemporary Western European metaphysics, but also to begin recalibrating the constants of thought and action — constants that establish constraints while simultaneously opening new possibilities for the transcendental.