The "Future" of Deleuze: An Unfinished Project (original) (raw)
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Introduction to the Cambridge Companion to Deleuze (Cambridge: CUP, 2012)
Gilles Deleuze belongs to that group of philosophers, often taken to typify the continental approach to philosophy, for whom the difficulty we encounter in reading them is not simply one of the content of their claims and arguments, but also one of penetrating their style of writing itself. This difficulty is exacerbated by the fact that Deleuze not only seemingly employs language in order to destabilize and obfuscate his philosophical arguments, but also revises his basic philosophical terminology between his numerous writings, from the early work of intensive depth, virtuality, and preindividual singularities, to the body without organs, machinic phylum, and plane of immanence of his collaborations with Guattari. 1 This leads us to the problem of how we read Deleuze. Do we see the obfuscation of language, the various appropriations of the sciences, and the experiments in philosophical writing as attempts to cover over a paucity of argumentation? Do we take up this rejection of traditional metaphysical language, seeing it as a rejection of the tradition of metaphysics itself, or do we strip the language away in the hope of finding underneath it a philosophical position that can be distinctly expressed in another, more palatable language? Similarly, we might ask what the reason is for the proliferation of philosophical systems developed by Deleuze, both in his historical monographs and his own philosophical writings. The continual reinvention of basic philosophical concepts might be taken to signal a failure of Deleuze's philosophical enterprise, an inability to formulate a definitive yet consistent philosophical outlook. Finally, Deleuze presents us with the problem of understanding the relation of these various projects. Deleuze's engagements with the history of philosophy, science, aesthetics, and ethics seem reminiscent of the
The Cambridge Companion to Deleuze
Each volume of this series of companions to major philo s o p h e rs co n tains s p ec iall y co mmis s i o n e d es s a y s b y an international team of scholars, together with a substantial bibliography, and will serve as a reference work for students and non-specialists. One aim of the series is to dispel the intimidation such readers feel when faced with the work of a difficult and challenging thinker.
Journal of Philosophy: A Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry, 2012
“My ideal, when I write about an author,” Deleuze once said, “would be to write nothing that would cause him sadness.” Perhaps the highest praise I can offer Essays on Deleuze is my sense Daniel Smith has written nothing that would cause Deleuze sadness or “make him weep in his grave,” as thorough and careful a treatment of his thought as Deleuze’s own dealing with the history of philosophy. Versus the majority of secondary works that refer to and employ Deleuzian terminology without ever explaining it–as though the meaning of “univocity,” “difference,” “flow,” etc. were self-evident–Smith takes nothing for granted. His painstaking enquiries into the sources of Deleuze’s thought and lucid explanations cast light on these stubbornly opaque concepts. Both the breadth of material covered and its close treatment make this work a milestone in Deleuze studies. True to its title, Essays on Deleuze is a collection of 20 essays. These are divided into four sections, dealing with 1. Deleuze and the history of philosophy 2. his philosophical system 3. Deleuze’s concepts and 4. contemporary philosophy. This organizational schema is itself helpful: Smith begins with Deleuze’s thought in relation to the history of philosophy, putting the reader in a position to understand the systematic nature of Deleuze’s thought, which in turn allows one to better comprehend his concepts and their relation to contemporary figures.
Encounters with Deleuze An Interview with Constantin V. Boundas and Daniel W. Smith
This interview, conducted over the span of several months, tracks the respective journeys of Constantin V. Boundas and Daniel W. Smith with the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. Rather than "becoming Deleuzian," which is neither desirable nor possible, these exchanges initial discoveries of Deleuze's writings by Boundas and Smith, inperson meetings between Boundas and Deleuze, and the widecepts produced by both Boundas and Smith. At stake in this discussion are key contributions by Deleuze to continental philosophy, including the distinction between the virtual and the actual and the very nature of a "concept." Also at stake is the formative or pedagogical impact of a philosopher, like Deleuze, on those who engage with his texts, concepts, and project. Cette interview, menée sur plusieurs mois, suit les parcours respectifs de Constantin V. Boundas et Daniel W. Smith avec la philosophie de Gilles Deleuze. Au lieu de « devenir Deleuzien, » ce qui n'est ni vertes des écrits de Deleuze par Boundas et Smith, des rencontres en personne entre Boundas et Deleuze, et du travail philosophique Smith. L'enjeu ici étant les contributions clés de Deleuze à la philosophie continentale, y compris la distinction entre le virtuel et l'actuel, et la nature même d'un « concept. » Mais il y a aussi l'impact formateur ou pédagogique d'un philosophe, comme Deleuze, sur ceux qui trouvent et s'engagent pleinement dans ses textes, ses concepts et ses projets.