10.03.2024 Hands as multiplicities

Hands are multiplicities. Multiplicities of bones, veins, joints, appearances, nerves, (dys)functions, skin, information, cells, sensations, keratin, … when one thinks about it, the statement that hands are multiplicities is quite self-evident. But this fact is not always apparent or paid attention to. The multiple natures of hands are constantly totalized by singular (molar) interpretations and functions, e.g. the hands as extensions and instruments of the cognitively led body, having the function of interacting with the physical world in the desired ways. While these ways can and are multiple (molecular) in themselves, the function and the sequence (hierarchy) of brain to hand(s) is not. The hands are totalized by their function, here they are not allowed to be multiplicities in themselves.

But this was only an example, what I want to focus on now is a specific way that the multiplicity of hands and their components can be made apparent in (everyday) life: Nail growth.

First an elaboration on the method: I have been letting my nails grow unhindered for multiple months now, at a certain point of growth they start to bend and break. When this starts to happen, I let the deterioration take its course until it becomes a noticeable disturbance in my activities, then I manually rip only the fragmented nail off, starting at the original point of rupture. This leads to my nails having very different lengths, textures, feelings, appearances and even functions at any point in time.

One important function is their appearances and the interpretations and feelings they illicit from myself and others. Here is a site where multiplicity becomes intensely visible. My nails as parts of my fingers as parts of my hands as parts of my body do not present a homogenous, easily totalizable picture/existence (becoming). Looking at them, a dividual* may have quite different interpretations from nail to nail, finger to finger, hand to hand. Where is their common function, where is their expected commonality? It has been fragmented, shattered, re-moved many times and keratin proteins over. By something as “simple” as the passing of time and the growth and deterioration of biophysical matter that comes with it. One can still find/create a commonality if one wanted to, they are all still made of keratin, they are all still attached to their respective fingers, they are all still parts of the body. But with one hand I pose the question: why?, and with the other I ascertain that a shift has already taken place. A movement, immediately a multiplicity, has been created. The shift from one molar, totalizing structure to another requires traveling on the paths of molecularity, deciding which of the endless and endlessly mobile parts of reality (nails, fingers, hands, bodies, proteins, thoughts, cells, feelings, …) one wants to graft onto a stable, molar whole once again. This act of travel radiates opportunities, none of which must be acted upon in any intense way (and very often they aren’t), but they become new parts of the field of experience for a time nonetheless. New parts = new experiences = new opportunities = new concepts = new ways of living. What is philosophy? The art of concept creation. What is its task? To create new, interesting concepts that make (new) ways of living (more) possible. What do hands, nails and multiplicities have to do with any of this? Multiplicities are excellent sources of interest, intensity and concepts and as we have established: hands and nails can be multiplicities if one makes them so, if one lets themselves make one so. … (To be continued)

*dividual: as opposed to the individual. A dividual is a subject that can be divided, that does not have unity/existence that transcends its connections. A dividual is a relative subject, an e.g. person that is created by their connections at the same time that they themself enter into them.