In short, if we are Spinozists we will not define a thing by its form, nor by its organs and its functions, nor as a substance or a subject. Borrowing terms from the Middle Ages, or from geography, we will define it by longitude and latitude. A body can be anything; it can be an animal, a body of sounds, a mind or an idea; it can be a linguistic corpus, a social body, a collectivity. We call longitude of a body the set of relations of speed and slowness, of motion and rest, between particles that compose it from this point of view, that is, between unformed elements. g We call latitude the set
of affects that occupy a body at each moment, that is, the intenive states of an anonymous force (force for existing, capacity for being affected).
In this way we construct the map of a body. The longitudes and latitudes together constitute Nature, the plane of
immanence or consistency, which is always variable and is constantly being altered, composed and recomposed, by individuals and collectivities.