Triangular relations

Olli Pyyhtinen

pp. 161-182

in: François Dépelteau (ed), The Palgrave handbook of relational sociology, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

The work of the French philosopher Michel Serres amounts to a kind of philosophical geography or navigation, which both traces and forges new and undiscovered paths between science, philosophy, and culture. The chapter maps his oeuvre to tease out what it has to offer for relational sociology. It focuses especially on Serres's manner of conceiving relations. The text begins with a discussion of Serres's conception of communication, since it is largely in terms of communication that Serres considers all relations. From there it proceeds to how Serres fathoms relations as triangular constellations. While relations are typically considered in dyadic terms, as relations between-two, for Serres a relation between three is the basic model of relation. The triangular model lays special emphasis on the figure of the "third", which Serres conceptualizes characteristically with the term parasite. The parasite is someone of something in-between, in the position of the third, interfering and intervening. After discussing the parasite, the chapter explores the question of the possibility of neutral mediation or transmission by taking up Serres's metaphor of the angel, which for him appears as the figure of transparent and faithful mediation. From there the text moves to another key Serresian term, that of the quasi-object. For Serres, human collectivities are constituted in the movements of quasi-objects circulating between subjects. After that the chapter discusses Serres's musings on the virtual and digital communication networks. Finally, the concluding section contextualizes Serres's work in relation to the so-called philosophy of difference and sums up the contribution of his triangular model of relations to relational sociology.

Cited authors

Serres Michel