ABSTRACT
Lively agency is the vessel through which the law emerges, since each body is responsible for its position in relation to the wider assemblage. The law, in the form of channeling of responsibility toward facing the particular situations in which it emerges, offers part of the answer to the question of what life is. This chapter attempts to show that every body is fleshed out by the singularity of a life and, as such, flourishes into the position of a lively agent, whether animate or inanimate. It draws on Deleuze's notion of a life, Spinozan ethics, and current postfeminist and posthuman material ontologies to explore what lively singularities are. The chapter constructs an ontological continuum onto which the positions of the various agents can be conceptualized, both connected and withdrawn, both indistinguishable from other bodies and singular. It considers the juridical responsibility of the human in the face of the Anthropocene.
