ABSTRACT
Does the intensive part of a finite existing mode remain unchanged? The mechanism by means of which joyful passive affections are implicated in the dynamic changes or transformations of the characteristic relations of modal existence, is determined according to the logic of different/ciation. According to the ethical view developed by Deleuze in Expressionism in Philosophy,1 these transformations implicate a finite existing mode’s, or human being’s, capacity to be affected, which is constituted by its active affections, while the passive affections it is subject to function only to limit this capacity. The limitative effect of passive affections operates within the ‘general limits’ of the range of singular modal, or human, essence, that is, between a maximum and minimum. The minimum would be the least point determinative of the global integration of a finite existing mode, or individual human being, below which it would cease to exist. The maximum would be the actually infinitely composite assemblage of multipli-differenciated global integrations in which a finite existing mode, or individual human being, can be further differenciated; which would be the body of the whole universe, or Nature (Substance) as a whole. The ‘limit’ denotes the extent to which the global integration of a finite existing mode, or individual human being, is further differenciated at any given moment as a component local integration in the more composite global integrations constitutive of the actually infinitely composite assemblage of multipli-differenciated global integrations, or Nature (Substance) as a whole. The ‘limit’ of a finite existing mode’s, or individual human being’s, capacity to be affected is therefore open to variation within the ‘general limits’ of this range. A mode’s capacity to be affected, which is affirmed by its conatus as the expression of its power to act, is therefore determined both by the composite multipli-differenciated assemblage of local integrations of which it is composed, and by the more composite global integrations in which it is further differenciated.2
