Soul-Assemblages

Abstract

This chapter gives a bottom-up cosmology, identifying the component parts of the cosmos: after Leibniz, monads, or embodied souls. Marks defines soul nontranscendentally, as anything that is bounded and therefore alive, and suggests that the cosmos, and all entities, consists of ensouled matter. Marks introduces the concept of soul-assemblage, a group of monads that are joined by what they do, which form their own folds. We confront the challenge of unfolding differently, which requires identifying singularities, monads that connect to enfolded surfaces. Marks shows how Leibniz's cosmology can be “snipped open” in order to allow every monad to thrive. This done, she suggests that some soul-assemblages have the potential to radically deterritorialize the existing order.