Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter draws on a wide array of thinkers and intellectual traditions beyond Deleuze and Whitehead. While Félix Guattari is not explicitly a central figure in the book, his ideas resonate with and likely influence Bennett’s framework, especially through his concepts of assemblages and ecosophy. Below are key inspirations for Bennett’s work:
Félix Guattari
• Guattari’s ideas, particularly from The Three Ecologies, align with Bennett’s emphasis on interconnected systems of human and nonhuman entities.
• His concept of “assemblages” is central to Vibrant Matter, though Bennett primarily attributes the term to Deleuze and Guattari together.
• Guattari’s focus on the intersection of environmental, social, and mental ecologies complements Bennett’s political ecology of things.
Bruno Latour
• Latour’s actor-network theory (ANT) significantly informs Bennett’s thinking, especially his emphasis on the agency of nonhuman actors and the flattening of hierarchies between humans and things.
• His work challenges traditional distinctions between subject/object and nature/culture, paralleling Bennett’s critique of these binaries.
Baruch Spinoza
• Spinoza’s Ethics underpins Bennett’s ideas about the interconnectedness of all things and the distributed nature of agency.
• His monistic philosophy—that everything is part of one substance—provides a metaphysical foundation for Bennett’s vital materialism.
Hannah Arendt
• Arendt’s exploration of the vita activa and the relationship between human action, the world, and materiality influences Bennett’s ethical and political considerations.
• Her discussions of how things mediate and structure human relationships resonate with Bennett’s focus on material agency.
Theodor Adorno
• Adorno’s critical theory, particularly his reflections on modernity and his critique of instrumental reason, inspires Bennett’s skepticism of anthropocentrism and reductive views of nature.
• His negative dialectics align with her resistance to rigid categorizations of subject and object.
Donna Haraway
• Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto and later works on multispecies relationships inform Bennett’s posthumanist framework.
• Her emphasis on “making kin” and interconnectedness mirrors Bennett’s ecological concerns.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
• Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of embodiment and his concept of the flesh as a shared ontology between humans and the world influence Bennett’s materialist ontology.
• His work challenges dualistic thinking and emphasizes the agency of the nonhuman.
Michel Serres
• Serres’ exploration of material flows, networks, and the agency of objects, as in The Parasite and The Natural Contract, parallels Bennett’s vital materialism.
• His poetic style and emphasis on the vibrancy of matter find echoes in her work.
Nietzsche
• Nietzsche’s vitalism and his emphasis on life as a dynamic, self-overcoming force inspire Bennett’s notion of vitality in matter.
• His critique of metaphysics and dualistic thinking aligns with her philosophical approach.
Political and Environmental Thinkers
• Bennett engages with ecological and political theorists who emphasize sustainability and the ethics of human-nonhuman interactions, such as Rachel Carson and Val Plumwood.
While Deleuze and Whitehead provide core theoretical tools, Bennett synthesizes insights from these diverse figures to construct her vibrant materialist philosophy. Guattari’s ecosophical thinking is undoubtedly a subtle but present influence within this broader intellectual mosaic.
