Clinâmen, eidôlon and the infinitesimal

nomadic science as opposed to data science

Abstract

For the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the nomadic science is a model that runs along the edges of the traditional scientific paradigms, identified by them as state science. We understand the trajectory undertaken by the french thinker Michel Serres and his reading of the work of Lucretius, follower of Epicurean philosophy and considered one of the fathers of physics, as nomadic science. For Serres, it is through the concepts of clinâmen, which explains the principle of whirls and spirals, of eidôlon, on which a reason engendered by perception is drawn, and of infinitesimal calculus, which sketches another model of science. It is in the paths of curves and in the fluidity of water that we can find explanations for the world, as opposed to the modern science, based on the assumption of a static and equilibrium world. In view of this, it is necessary to ask: is it possible to reconcile this nomadic science with the so-called data science, the Big Data, which through the algorithms intends to make predictable and standardized human behaviors, so uncertain and fluid?