Monadological Intimacy

Book excerpt: Monadological Intimacy: The Relational Operation of Folds in Leibniz and Deleuze analyzes and explains G.W. Leibniz’s theories of folds and relations to claim there is a common operation of inclusion inherent to both theories, an operation that produces a uniquely monadic form of intimacy. Utilizing key insights from Gilles Deleuze’s The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, Jeff Lambert considers the role of what is “virtual” and “ideal” for Leibniz in his theory of relations. However, Deleuze’s interpretation is not without flaws, and this book proposes an understanding of the operations of inclusion that is quite different from the view given by Deleuze in The Fold. Specifically, Lambert contends that relational inclusion has four primary “orders” that coincide with the four types of relations found across Leibniz’s oeuvre: complexion, comparison, congruence, and concurrence. Throughout each order of relations, different forms of interconnection play out through an intimate and immediate representation of the universe. Monadological Intimacy argues that the intimate and immediate representation of the universe within each monad utilizes the same operation of inclusion at work in how Leibniz describes the ideal continuum in each distinct fold of motion.