What can a baby do?

Abstract

This essay draws upon concepts from the Philosophy of Difference to explore how infants embody a multitude of potentialities that unfold through encounters, shaping unique life trajectories through their movements. Drawing on Nietzsche’s notion of creative power and the active/reactive forces of space-time, one examined the dynamic nature of infant agency. Inspired by Fernand Deligny’s (2017) distinctions between acting, doing, and inquiring, the concepts of acting and desiring were used as analytical tools to map unpredictable flows of infant movement. Through cartography and observation, influenced by Deligny’s research, forces and assemblages that emerge through affectations in infant life-movements were uncovered.