Letting nothing do itself

Abstract

Western thought emphasizes rival philosophical schools, engaged in winning or losing debates. Canonical references to thinkers as midwives, nurses, or mothers of ideas are rare. Such metaphors would imply not an enemy but rather a co-creator, and an intimate co-operation. Attempts to vanquish the canonical masculine-dominator style of thought with some version of a non-wounding, compassionate mode of thinking readily mimic the power-structures and gender-binaries they seek to oppose. Such is the problem this chapter addressed. During the last three years, the authors have collaboratively explored philosophical, theological, and aesthetic issues via a praxis-led ornamentation method. Starting from NOTHING, they allow elements which seem meaningless in themselves to entangle through intra-action. Neither author has any territory or position to attack, judge, or defend. The chapter is not a dialogue, not a dialectic, nor even two-persons-making-something-together. It is a trans-human performance that allows the space and material between the contributors to become a/live environment—an ecology in which the world can create itself