Transcript Neuropolitics

Neuropolitics: Thinking, Culture, Speed
William E. Connolly
Presentation by Katrina Newsom
Neuropolitics:
The politics through which cultural life mixes into the
composition of body/brain process (vice versa).
Overview:
Thus, this book explores the ubiquity of the
brain/body/culture dynamics within the processes of
thinking. Connolly furthers the discourse of this
dynamic by intersecting it with judgment and ethics,
various dimensions of culture, and the concept of speed
as it relates to democracy and cosmopolitanism.
My engagement of this text:
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Connolly wrestles with the idea of reducibility and
reason as the formulation in which thinking, culture
and ethics are engaged. By challenging the concepts of
being and transcendentalism, Connolly brings a new
texture to thinking , culture and ethics – through the
politics of becoming.
The Body/Brain Culture Network:
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Connolly cites several authors and researchers such as V.S.
Ramachandran and Antonio Damasio to develop his argument of
the body/brain/culture dynamics of thinking . He disputes the idea
of the brain as analogous to the computer. "Many cognitive
scientists are moving away from the calculative, information
processing, and representational models of the mind (computer
like image) to the understanding that the processes of the mind are
influence by and thus influence culture. "
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The brain possesses different nodules of different speed and
capacity of cultural organizations that are linked together to
several bodily zones creating series of relays and feedback loops
operating together to give texture to memory, perception, thinking
and judgment.
Visual Memory and Culture
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Perception is set in action contexts and organized through complex
mixtures of sensory encounter, virtual memory and bodily affect.
Citing Henri Bergson and Antonio Damasio (dispositional rather
than action), Connolly distinguished virtual memory from explicit
memory recall. Explicit memory recall is a process too slow for
action, therefore virtual memory is employed. Virtual memory is
not the memory that is recalled, but a memory that resides under
the threshold of deliberative thought. It is comprised of sheets of
past that allow the action-oriented perception beneath the
threshold of thought to chose the appropriate action of a given
circumstance.
Visual Memory and Culture
cont.
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The action that is taken is influence by somatic markers that mixes
nature and perception into the element of decision making. Once
again, this maker is not deliberative but resides beneath the
threshold of thought as it rapidly estimate the needed action in any
given situation. Also, somatic marks taps into memories creating a
visceral affect.
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The definition of culture which has played a vital role in the
physical markers that effects the body and perception are defined
by Connolly as not just concepts, beliefs and practices (Walter
Benn Michaels), but also multi-layers of distinctions and speeds,
capacities and levels of linguistic complexity. Culture is textured
with perception, memory, and judgment.
Connolly’s Politics of Becoming

Connolly explores Nietzsche and Kant's view of science and nature. Siding
with Nietzsche, Connolly dispels the concept of the nature as something
that can be possessed (theo-teleological) or explained (lawlike models). He
agrees with Nietzsche and other immanent naturalist (Prigogine and
Stengers) who accepts the element of unpredictability in the history of
nature. Evolution is unstable as a historical and future determinant.
According to Prigogine the evolution of the universe is yet becoming.
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He further argues that nature itself is not complete.
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Natural beings are also in the process of becoming cultures through
language, ethics and artistic achievements.
Techniques of Thought
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In several chapters, Connolly draws distinctions between Kant and Nietzche’s
concept of thought and morals, nature and culture. He capitalizes on the
(immanent naturalist’s) definition of thought and morals, nature and culture as a
way to challenge the tools of reduction and reason that positions the concept of
being in which one is to ascend.

Thinking and ethics are not always deliberative, but are part of the
body/brain/cultural dynamics. Because of this there are techniques that can be
employed to change the thinking process and ethic sensibility. “Techniques and
tactics applied to regions below direct intellectual control can sometimes
reorganize dispositions to perception, feeling and judgment.” This argument
challenges cultural and political theorist who “on some degree or another believe
that ethics and politics are reducible to deliberative rational, modes of
manipulation or behavior management.”

Cultural rituals, discipline and arts of self-cultivation play a pivotal role in the
techniques of thinking. These processes “infiltrate into the patterns of thinking,
identity and ethic sensibility.”
Time and Democracy
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Sheldon Wolin’s article “What Time is It?
Slow-pace of time
o
o
o
o
Political time is slow and deliberative and thus, is unable to keep up
with cultural and economic time.
It is a breeding ground for undemocratic thoughts and practices.
It gives individual time to think about where they are in the world in
position to others with can create.
It festers in injuries, injustices, and hegemonies that have reigned
under a singular ethos that marginalizes many.
Time and Democracy
cont.
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Connolly opposes the idea of slowing down
time. He believes that speed compresses
distance and because of this…
Fast-Pace Time
 Allows a more productive movement of
democracy
 Allows generous engagement of ethics
 It welcomes pluralism
Time: The Idea of Becoming
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Time is ambiguous - time is neither linear nor cyclical.
The past at one point was fugitive to the present, therefore
he is concern with the idea of nostalgia of the past.
Time is not fully determined by the past.
Moments of rifts in time helps to foster the idea of an
unpredictable future.
He believes that like culture, thinking and ethics, time is
becoming.
“For the future is never what it used to be neither is the
past.