Causality and Meaning in the New Materialism

Abstract

Though at first glance antithetical, these two concepts can be brought together by making changes to their traditional usage. Causality must cease to be thought as being linear, so that the same cause always produces the same effect and conceived as nonlinear and catalytic, hence, unable to bring novelty about. This, according to Manuel DeLanda, the author of the chapter, involves considering not only the capacity to affect the entity acting as a cause, but also the capacity to be affected by the one in which the effect is produced. Meaning also needs reconceptualisation. Specifically, two different senses of the word must be distinguished: semantic content or signification, and relevance or significance. Once these distinctions are made, the two concepts are connected using the ecological theory of perception: animals and humans perceive the opportunities and risks afforded by the environment, that is, the capacities to affect and be affected that are significant to them.