Deleuze & Guattari: What is Philosophy?

“The question what is philosophy? can perhaps be posed only late in life, with the arrival of old age and the time for speaking concretely. […] It is a question posed in a moment of quiet restlessness, at midnight, when there is no longer anything to ask.” – Deleuze & Guattari

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Originally published in 1991, What is Philosophy? was the final collaborative work by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Devoid of all polemics, it is perhaps the most mature expression of their revolutionary thinking. Philosophy, they argue, is all about creating concepts, but there also has to be a non-conceptual, absolute horizon on which concepts are inscribed. This absolute horizon is not chaos but the “plane of immanence” which is “like a section of chaos and acts like a sieve.”

Philosophy, moreover, is irreducible to science and art—its sister disciplines—which struggle against chaos with their respective planes and in very different ways. However, all the three must have an “affinity with the enemy” (i.e. chaos) in order to disrupt the status quo and avoid the danger of clichés. Religion and authority have erected an umbrella to protect us from chaos and at last we begin to feel that something is wrong. Philosophy, science and art make a slit in the umbrella in order to reestablish our line of vision to the sun.

In this intensive seminar, we critically engage with one of the major philosophical works of the late 20th century. What is Philosophy? with its idea of an absolute horizon is arguably a precursor of non-philosophy by François Laruelle. It also is a major document of contemporary thought on chaos and this seminar is, thus, combinable with Chaos Research Group.

COURSE MATERIALS

A PDF of What is Philosophy? will be provided on registration. Since the book is huge and very dense, we will focus our readings and discussions on the following topics:

Sessions
1) Introduction: Philosophy and Chaos
2) What is a Concept?
3) The Plane of Immanence
4) The Plane of Immanence²
5) Geophilosophy
6) Geophilosophy²
7) Conclusion: From Chaos to the Brain
8) Non-Philosophy and Chaos

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