Plasticity is ontological combustion that both births and annihilates presence

Evidence

Presented, in the Introduction to the same work, as the ‘pure act of looking on (das reine Zusehen)’, philosophy, for Hegel, can in a certain sense be defined as this attention brought to the newborn, who is the most vivid and sensuous image of the future. Birth combines blossoming (éclosion) and explosion. A process of formation and of the dissolution of form, plasticity, where all birth takes place, should be imagined fundamentally as an ontological combustion (déflagration) which liberates the twofold possibility of the appearance and the annihilation of presence. It is a process which functions on its own, automatically. As such, it comes out of nothing; as such, it is the bearer of the future, if it is true that the future, by definition, comes from nowhere. I have tried to bring into view the chance which, in Hegel’s thought, constitutes the explosive side of subjectivity, forgotten by recent readers. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1254

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gives the culminating definition of plasticity as ‘ontological combustion’ — formation and dissolution of form in a single process — exactly the foundational concept the reader wants to export.
• QUESTION: The claim that the future comes from nowhere and plasticity ‘comes out of nothing’ deserves chasing — does Malabou ground this against Hegel’s own account of emergence from the prior state?
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Destructive plasticity creates new identity precisely through annihilation of the old — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 1495; Plasticity spans both the creation and the explosive annihilation of form. — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 231; Plasticity names the dialectical union of form-seizure and form-annihilation. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 247 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Plasticity spans both the creation and the explosive annihilation of form. #corroborates (0.85) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 231
• Plasticity names the dialectical union of form-seizure and form-annihilation. #corroborates (0.82) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 247
• The word plasticity etymologically spans both sculpting and explosion #expands (0.80)
• Plasticity holds origin and self-abandonment together in one capacity #corroborates (0.78)
• Plasticity names the negativity that is time’s gift of form #corroborates (0.76) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 169
• Destructive plasticity forms identity through deconstitution, not preservation #exemplifies (0.75) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 202
• Plasticity means both receiving and giving form, unlike mere malleability #expands (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 39
• Plasticity names the unity of spontaneity and receptivity in giving and receiving form #expands (0.72)
• Brain plasticity includes a capacity to destroy form, not only create it #exemplifies (0.72)