Volume V (2022) (2015)
states that ideas developed within women’s studies do not concern women alone but rather “involve the transformation of general values and systems of representation.” 3
In “ Nomadic Ethics, ” Braidotti analyses Deleuze’s nomadic ethics and explains the triple
shift that occurs when implementing nomadic thought. First, it is a radical transformation in
opposition to the normative moral protocols of Kant’s universalism. Nomadic ethics is not based on
morality or confined to the realm of rights but rather ethics as a discourse about “forces, desires, and values that act as empowering modes of becoming.” 4 Second, there is a shift from the unitary and rationality-driven consciousness to a philosophy of process. 5 In other words, nomadic ethics
prefers to focus on the Other — women and minorities — which is not generally sustained and
recognized by social and historical conditions. Third, nomadic ethics attaches to the subjective affirmation of the Other , which destroys the recognition of Sameness . 6 As a result, this triple shift
allows an empowering relationship between the Same and the Other since nomadic theory aims to
generate conditions for transformation.
The relationship between the Same and the Other can be traced back to Emmanuel Levinas,
who in his work, Totality and Infinity , introduces the idea that human beings exist in a world of
others; therefore, the association with the Other is a relationship that invites human beings to visit the unfamiliar and unknown. 7 This realization marks the beginning of ethics for the philosopher.
However, this relationship with the unknown is based on pre-constructed judgments and beliefs
about the Other. Totality is the identification of the self-same; therefore, the body, home, labor, and
social framework, where individuals operate, will influence the judgment on Infinity. The rejection
of Kant’s deontology and destruction of the recognition of Sameness allow these pre-built judgments
to change since it creates an ontology that privileges change over stability - an attack on the self- centered universalism founded upon ulterior motives and vested interests. 8
The dialects of Same and Other and Totality and Infinity lead us to the role of women in the
universal framework. The interconnected nature of social categorization, such as race, class, and
sexual orientation, creates different struggles within the category of women. A white-middle-class
woman is likely to ignore the adversities of life a Black woman experiences, not because she is
3 Rosi Braidotti, “The Subject in Feminism , ” Hypatia 6, no. 2 (1991): 152. 4 Rosi Braidotti, “Nomadic Ethics , ” Deleuze Studies 7, no. 3 (2013): 343.
5 Braidotti, “Nomadic Ethics , ” 343. 6 Braidotti, “Nomadic Ethics , ” 343. 7 Emmanuel Levinas, Totality and Infinity: An Essay on Exteriority, (Indianapolis: Duquesne University Press,1961): 33-35. 8 Rosi Braidotti, Nomadic Theory: The Portable Rosi Braidotti , 211.
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