2. Volumes, Part I

Politics is always stabilized by an implicit notion of space that gives it power. This chapter attends to the specifically modern notion of space as characterized through an operation of bifurcation. This operation, which separates primary and secondary qualities, is a descriptive simplification of space that requires a literal simplification of countless territories. This is shown through a discussion of the actual life of Descartes, as well as cartography. But actual spaces are resistant to modern bifurcation and simplification. This is argued through a discussion of geological history and critical anthropology.