Plasticity names both malleability and the power to give form
Evidence
32 In one of its synonyms, plasticity signifies ‘malleability’ (Bildsamkeit), meaning ‘flexibility’, ‘docility’. Its second meaning – ‘the power to give form’ – finds illustration in the Hegelian vocabulary of in-formation; one can think in particular of the substantives ‘Einund Durchbildung’. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1310
Categorization
- DEFINE: The exact double meaning of plasticity — receiving form (Bildsamkeit, docility) and giving form (in-formation, Ein-und Durchbildung) — is the load-bearing definitional core of the whole book and of Malabou’s later neuroscience work.
- XREF: Connects directly to modern neuroscience’s use of ‘plasticity’ — the ambiguity she later exploits (brain plastic both as malleable and as explosive/promiscuous). — connects to: Plasticity is the self-energizing medium where form and content share one law. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1252; A closed system’s openness to modification while transforming itself is plasticity — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1283; Plasticity spans a spectrum from fixed form to total malleability — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 109 (+14 more)
Broader Connections
- Plasticity names the double capacity to receive and produce form
#corroborates(0.90) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 228 - Plasticity designates at once the capacity to receive and to bestow form.
#corroborates(0.90) - Plasticity spans a spectrum from fixed form to total malleability
#expands(0.85) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 109 - Plasticity holds original form and full self-transformation together
#corroborates(0.85) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 259 - Plasticity names the unity of spontaneity and receptivity in giving and receiving form
#corroborates(0.85) - Plasticity means both receiving and giving form, unlike mere malleability
#corroborates(0.85) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 39 - Plasticity spans from rigid determination of form to total freedom from form
#expands(0.80) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 67 - Plasticity frames a challenge between giving form and exploding form
#expands(0.80) - Flexibility is plasticity stripped of its power to give and erase form
#exemplifies(0.80) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 56 - The word plasticity spans crystallization of form and annihilation of form
#expands(0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 227 - Plasticity spans both taking on form and annihilating it
#expands(0.80) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 231 - Plasticity names the dialectical union of form-seizure and form-annihilation.
#expands(0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 247 - Plasticity names the concept’s reflexive power to both give and receive its own figures
#expands(0.80) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 68 - Plasticity spans a graded range from determination to freedom
#expands(0.80) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 67 - Plasticity names the union of universal substance with individual form
#expands(0.75) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 583