Space and Measure: The Appropriation of Space in Husserl, Deleuze & Guattari and Sepp

OSSWALD, ANDRÉS MIGUEL

CABA

Congreso; IV Jornadas Deleuze: Ontología Práctica / VI Jornadas de la Red de Estudios Latinoamericanos Deleuze y Guattari; 2024

UBA-CONICET

The problem of the appropriation of space has been addressed in a central way by the tradition of thought that can be broadly called "Marxist" or, at least, that has been strongly inspired by Marx. In this context, the reference work for thinking about the commoditization of space is, without a doubt, Henri Lefebvre's Production de l´espace (1974). However, I do not intend here to delve directly into this line of analysis but rather to focus on certain processes that, I understand, are presupposed by the mercantile appropriation of space but which, nevertheless, have been largely overlooked by the economic approach to space. In particular, I will be concerned with presenting the way in which the measure of space generates the conditions for its appropriation. In order to do that, I propose to approach the subject from a perspective that combines the contributions of H.R. Sepp's oikological philosophy, its antecedents in the phenomenological tradition –represented, above all, by Husserl– and the theory of space proposed by Deleuze & Guattari in Mille Plateaux. These approaches highlight, from different points of view, the fact that the act of measure has profound implications for the ontology of space. In particular, I will try to show how the measure constitutes an essential first step in the commodification of the dwelling space. That is, by the act of measure – a type of praxis rooted in the lifeworld– the originary space in which we dwell can be transformed into private property and consequently exchanged like any other commodity. However, the idealization of the world begins long before capitalism, with the furrow drawn on the soil with the plough, and culminates with the homogenization of space by virtue of the mathematization of nature operated by modern science. The dwelling space taken concretely as a territory is characterized by qualitative differences that "mark" the space following the traces of its materiality –the course of a river, the edge of a forest, the height of the mountains, etc. These "events" or "haecceities" immanently delimit space and establish differential relations among themselves –which, as we shall see, express intensive "distances" between the terms. Now, the act of measuring implies superimposing on this intuitive spatiality a “transcendent dimension” that makes use of mathematical notions in order to operate. Consequently, the spatiality defined by intensive distances is covered by an abstract system of coordinates, by virtue of which the space is homogenized and the “distances” converted into extensive differences that can be quantitatively determined. This process of the quantification and homogenization of space, together with the emergence of private property, allows space to be assigned a monetary value (a price) and thus establishes the conditions for the general commodification of the world. The argument will be organized as follows. First, I will present the central ideas of Sepp's interpretation of measure, with special emphasis on the relation of measure to the development of property. Next, we will study how measure makes possible the objectification of the world by virtue of the quantification of the primary and secondary qualities of material things. Finally, we will see how objectified space interacts with territory through the distinction between smooth and striated space.