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Rhizome is a philosophical concept developed by Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosophy of the late 20th century. From the early 1960s until his death, Deleuze wrote many influential works on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art....
 and Félix Guattari
Félix Guattari

Pierre-F?lix Guattari was a France militant, institutional psychotherapist and philosopher, a founder of both schizoanalysis and ecosophy. Guattari is best known for his intellectual collaborations with Gilles Deleuze, most notably Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus ....
 in their Capitalism and Schizophrenia
Capitalism and Schizophrenia

Capitalism and Schizophrenia is a two-volume theoretical work by the French authors Gilles Deleuze and F?lix Guattari. Its two volumes, published eight years apart, are Anti-?dipus and A Thousand Plateaus ....
 (1972-1980) project. It is what Deleuze calls an "image of thought," based on the botanical rhizome
Rhizome

In botany, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal plant stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes....
, that apprehends multiplicities
Multiplicity (philosophy)

Multiplicity is a philosophical concept that Edmund Husserl and Henri Bergson developed from Bernhard Riemann's Multiplicity . It forms an important part of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, particularly in his collaboration with F?lix Guattari, Capitalism and Schizophrenia ....
.

lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m6485180",this)' onMouseout='hide("m6485180")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Gilles_Deleuze">Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosophy of the late 20th century. From the early 1960s until his death, Deleuze wrote many influential works on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art....
 and Félix Guattari
Félix Guattari

Pierre-F?lix Guattari was a France militant, institutional psychotherapist and philosopher, a founder of both schizoanalysis and ecosophy. Guattari is best known for his intellectual collaborations with Gilles Deleuze, most notably Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus ....
 used the term "rhizome" to describe theory and research that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in data representation and interpretation.






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Rhizome is a philosophical concept developed by Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosophy of the late 20th century. From the early 1960s until his death, Deleuze wrote many influential works on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art....
 and Félix Guattari
Félix Guattari

Pierre-F?lix Guattari was a France militant, institutional psychotherapist and philosopher, a founder of both schizoanalysis and ecosophy. Guattari is best known for his intellectual collaborations with Gilles Deleuze, most notably Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus ....
 in their Capitalism and Schizophrenia
Capitalism and Schizophrenia

Capitalism and Schizophrenia is a two-volume theoretical work by the French authors Gilles Deleuze and F?lix Guattari. Its two volumes, published eight years apart, are Anti-?dipus and A Thousand Plateaus ....
 (1972-1980) project. It is what Deleuze calls an "image of thought," based on the botanical rhizome
Rhizome

In botany, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal plant stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes....
, that apprehends multiplicities
Multiplicity (philosophy)

Multiplicity is a philosophical concept that Edmund Husserl and Henri Bergson developed from Bernhard Riemann's Multiplicity . It forms an important part of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, particularly in his collaboration with F?lix Guattari, Capitalism and Schizophrenia ....
.

Rhizome as a mode of knowledge

Gilles Deleuze
Gilles Deleuze

Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosophy of the late 20th century. From the early 1960s until his death, Deleuze wrote many influential works on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art....
 and Félix Guattari
Félix Guattari

Pierre-F?lix Guattari was a France militant, institutional psychotherapist and philosopher, a founder of both schizoanalysis and ecosophy. Guattari is best known for his intellectual collaborations with Gilles Deleuze, most notably Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus ....
 used the term "rhizome" to describe theory and research that allows for multiple, non-hierarchical entry and exit points in data representation and interpretation. In A Thousand Plateaus
A Thousand Plateaus

A Thousand Plateaus is a book by the France philosophy Gilles Deleuze and the psychoanalysis F?lix Guattari. It forms the second part of their Capitalism and Schizophrenia project ....
, they opposed it to an arborescent
Arborescent

Arborescent is a term used by the French thinkers Deleuze and Guattari to characterize thinking marked by insistence on totality principles, binarism and dualism....
 conception of knowledge, which worked with dualist
Dualism

Dualism denotes a state of two parts. The word's origin is the Latin duo, "two" . The term 'dualism' was originally coined to denote co-eternal binary opposition, a meaning that is preserved in metaphysical and philosophical duality discourse but has been diluted in general usage....
 categories and binary choices. A rhizome works with horizontal and trans-species connections, while an arborescent model works with vertical and linear connections. Their use of the "orchid and the wasp" was taken from the biological concept of mutualism
Mutualism

Mutualism is a biological interaction between two organisms, where each individual derives a fitness benefit, for example increased survivorship....
, in which two different species interact together to form a multiplicity
Multiplicity (philosophy)

Multiplicity is a philosophical concept that Edmund Husserl and Henri Bergson developed from Bernhard Riemann's Multiplicity . It forms an important part of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, particularly in his collaboration with F?lix Guattari, Capitalism and Schizophrenia ....
 (i.e. a unity that is multiple in itself). Horizontal gene transfer
Horizontal gene transfer

Horizontal gene transfer , also Lateral gene transfer , is any process in which an organism incorporates genetic material from another organism without being the Reproduction of that organism....
 would also be a good illustration.

Rhizome theory is also gaining currency in the educational field, as a means of framing knowledge creation and validation in the online era. Glynis Cousin applies the concept when critiquing existing VLEs (virtual learning environments) in her 2005 paper "Learning from Cyberspace". Dave Cormier (2008) criticizes the limitations of the expert-centered pedagogical planning and publishing cycle and posits instead a rhizomatic model of learning. In this rhizomatic model, knowledge is negotiated, and the learning experience is a social as well as a personal knowledge creation process with mutable goals and constantly negotiated premises. The rhizome metaphor, which represents a critical leap in coping with the loss of a canon against which to compare, judge, and value knowledge, may be particularly apt as a model for disciplines on the bleeding edge where the canon is fluid and knowledge is a moving target.

See also

  • Mutualism
    Mutualism

    Mutualism is a biological interaction between two organisms, where each individual derives a fitness benefit, for example increased survivorship....
  • Plane of immanence
    Plane of immanence

    Plane of immanence is a founding concept in the metaphysics or ontology of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Immanence, meaning "existing or remaining within" generally offers a relative opposition to Transcendence , a divine or empirical beyond ....
  • Contextualism
    Contextualism

    Contextualism describes a collection of views in philosophy which emphasize the context in which an action, utterance, or expression occurs, and argues that, in some important respect, the action, utterance, or expression can only be understood relative to that context....
  • Perspectivism
    Perspectivism

    Perspectivism is the philosophy view developed by Friedrich Nietzsche that all ideations take place from particular Perspective s. This means that there are many possible conceptual schemes, or perspectives which determine any possible judgment of truth or value that we may make; this implies that no way of seeing the world can be taken as de...
  • Multiplicity


Sources

  • Cousin, G. 2005. "Learning in Cyberspace." In Land, R. and Bayne, S. (eds.), Education in Cyberspace (London: RoutledgeFalmer), pp. 117-129.
  • Deleuze, Gilles
    Gilles Deleuze

    Gilles Deleuze , was a French philosophy of the late 20th century. From the early 1960s until his death, Deleuze wrote many influential works on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art....
     and Félix Guattari
    Félix Guattari

    Pierre-F?lix Guattari was a France militant, institutional psychotherapist and philosopher, a founder of both schizoanalysis and ecosophy. Guattari is best known for his intellectual collaborations with Gilles Deleuze, most notably Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus ....
    . 1980. A Thousand Plateaus
    A Thousand Plateaus

    A Thousand Plateaus is a book by the France philosophy Gilles Deleuze and the psychoanalysis F?lix Guattari. It forms the second part of their Capitalism and Schizophrenia project ....
    . Trans. Brian Massumi
    Brian Massumi

    Brian Massumi is a philosopher, writer and political theorist. His work focuses on perception, affect and the virtual. Massumi's research spans the fields of art, architecture, political theory, cultural studies and philosophy....
    . London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 2 of Capitalism and Schizophrenia
    Capitalism and Schizophrenia

    Capitalism and Schizophrenia is a two-volume theoretical work by the French authors Gilles Deleuze and F?lix Guattari. Its two volumes, published eight years apart, are Anti-?dipus and A Thousand Plateaus ....
    . 2 vols. 1972-1980. Trans. of Mille Plateaux. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. ISBN 0826476945.
  • Guattari, Félix
    Félix Guattari

    Pierre-F?lix Guattari was a France militant, institutional psychotherapist and philosopher, a founder of both schizoanalysis and ecosophy. Guattari is best known for his intellectual collaborations with Gilles Deleuze, most notably Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus ....
    . 1995. Chaosophy. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN 1570270198.
  • ---. 1996. Soft Subversions. Ed. Sylvère Lotringer. Trans. David L. Sweet and Chet Wiener. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Ser. New York: Semiotext(e). ISBN 1570270309.


External links

  • Entry in the capitalismandschizophrenia.org wiki.
  • a reflection on art,death and the rhizome by the artist Joseph Nechvatal
    Joseph Nechvatal

    Joseph Nechvatal is a post-conceptual art digital artist and Aesthetics who creates computer-assisted paintings and computer animations, often using custom-created computer viruses....
  • "" - Article in the June/July 2008 issue of Innovate - Journal of Online Education.