The Politics of Orientation: Deleuze Meets Luhmann (Contemporary Continental Philosophy)

__The Politics of Orientation__ provides the first substantial exploration of a surprising theoretical kinship and its rich political implications, between Gilles Deleuze's philosophy and the sociological systems theory of Niklas Luhmann. Through their shared theories of sense, Hannah Richter draws out how the works of Luhmann and Deleuze complement each other in creating worlds where chaos is the norm and order the unlikely and yet remarkably stable exception. From the encounter between Deleuze and Luhmann, Richter develops a novel take on postfoundational ontology where subjects and societies unfold in self-productive relations of sense against a background of complexity. The Politics of Orientation breaks and rebuilds theoretical alliances by reading core concepts and thinkers of Continental Philosophy, from Leibniz to Whitehead and Marx, through this encounter. Most importantly, the book puts Luhmann and Deleuze to work to offer urgently needed insight into the rise of post-truth populism. In our complex democratic societies, Richter argues, orientation against complexity has become the ground of political power, privileging the simplistic narratives of the populist right. Dedication 6 Epigraph 7 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 12 1 The Immanent Creativity of Sense 30 2 Nomadic Monads at the Autopoietic Fold 62 3 The Circle of Time Must Be Decentered 86 4 Bifurcating the Political Event 110 5 The Politics of Orientation 136 6 Post-truth Populism as a Politics of Orientation 162 Conclusion 184 Notes 192 References 202 Index 224