Tree
“All tree logic is a logic of tracing and reproduction.” (p. 12) Thousand Plateaus
Contrast: rhizome - intereconnectedness
Tree of Life, The Arborvitae (1905) [middle section] - Gustav Klimt
Deleuze and Guattari’s Rhizomatic Versus Arbolic
| Rhizomatic | Arbolic |
| Non-linear | Linear |
| Anarchic | Hierarchic |
| Nomadic | Sedentary |
| Smooth | Striated |
| Deterritorialized | Territorialized |
| Multiplicitous | Unitary and binary |
| Minor science | Major science |
| Heterogeneity | Homogeneity |
Tree logic
Logic (from ancient Greek logos, meaning reason) is the study of arguments. Its primary task is to set up criteria for distinguishing good from bad arguments. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic [Mar 2005]Evolutionary tree
The evolutionary tree of living things is currently supposed to run something along the lines of that listed below. Most of the tree was based on ideas from cladistics; where more than two groups are shown in a single branch, there is disagreement about how they diverged. Hypothetically taxonomy would follow the tree whenever possible, but in many places it does not at present.The description as a "tree" results from earlier ideas of life as a progression from lower to higher forms. Although such views are discredited now, the imagery is too well established to be readily lost.
The terminology originates with Linnaean taxonomy: living things are classified as belonging to domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and species. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_tree [Mar 2005]
History of logic
The history of logic began in three cultures. While many cultures employ intricate systems of reasoning, it is generally agreed that logic as an explicit analysis of the methods of reasoning was independently developed by only three traditions: China, India and Greece. Although exact dates are uncertain, especially in the case of India, it is possible that logic emerged in all three societies in the 4th century BC.
In China, a contemporary of Confucius, Mo Zi, "Master Mo", is credited with founding the Mohist school, whose canons dealt with issues relating to valid inference and the conditions of correct conclusions. In particular, one of the schools that grew out of Mohism, the Logicians, are credited by some scholars for their early investigation of formal logic. Unfortunately, due to the harsh rule of Legalism in the subsequent Qin Dynasty, this line of investigation disappeared in China until the introduction of Indian philosophy by Buddhists.
The "Nyayasutras" of Gautama (see Nyaya) represent the basic texts of one of the six orthodox schools of Indian philosophy. This realist, one might say materialist, school worked out a rigid five-member schema of inference involving an initial premise, a reason, an example, an application and a conclusion. The idealist Buddhist philosophy became the chief opponent to the Naiyayikas. Nagarjuna, the founder of the Madhyamika "Middle Way" developed an analysis known as the "catuskoti" or tetralemma. This four-cornered argumentation systematically examined and rejected the affirmation of a proposition, its denial, the joint affirmation and denial, and finally, the rejection of its affirmation and denial. But it was with Dignaga and his successor Dharmakirti that Buddhist logic reached its height. Their analysis centered on the definition of necessary logical entailment, "vyapti", also known as invariable concomitance or pervasion. To this end a doctrine known as "apoha" or differentiation was developed. This involved what might be called inclusion and exclusion of defining properties. The difficulties involved in this enterprise, in part, stimulated the neo-scholastic school of Navya-Nyaya.
In Greece, Aristotle's collection of works known as the "Organon" or instrument almost ex nihilo created the discipline known as logic. Aristotle's examination of the syllogism bears interesting comparison with the Indian schema of inference and the less rigid Chinese discussion. Through Latin in Western Europe, and disparate languages more to the East, such as Arabic, Armenian and Georgian, the Aristotelian tradition was considered to pre-eminently codify the laws of reasoning. It was only in the Nineteenth Century that acquaintance with the classical literature of India and deeper knowledge of China brought about a change in this viewpoint. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_logic [Mar 2005]
Towards a Holistic Ontology [...]
This chapter will investigate the degree of analogy between the Internet and the concept of the rhizome, a "style of thought" introduced by Deleuze and Guattari in the opening passage of A Thousand Plateaus (1987).1 To oversimplify, the rhizome functions through lateral proliferation rather than tree-like vertical extension. It was offered as an alternative to the constricting tree structure and dualism dominant in what Deleuze and Guattari call "state philosophy" [...]It is important not to see the rhizome in binary opposition to the tree, as Boundas seems to suggest by the title of his chapter "Rhizome Versus Trees" Deleuze and Guattari themselves caution that "the root-tree and canal-rhizome are not two opposed models" The concept of the rhizome was set up precisely to challenge dichotomous branching; yet by placing rhizome against tree, how can we ignore the self-contradictory dualism? How do Deleuze and Guattari propose to get their rocket — or line of flight, as it were — off the ground? --CHUEN-FERNG KOH http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/VID/jfk/thesis/ch1.htm
Tired of Trees
"We're tired of trees. We should stop believing in trees, roots, and radicles. They've made us suffer too much. All of arborescent culture is founded on them, from biology to linguistics": instead, it's the rhizome, the interconnectedness. --A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia Deleuze and Guattari
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