Affirmation, Difference, and Repetition: Fifty Years Later

The years 1968–1969 were a remarkable period in the philosophical thought of Gilles Deleuze. During these years he published three tomes that mark the culmination of his early philosophical itinerary before his decade-long collaboration with Guattari in their Capitalism and Schizophrenia project. The three works—Difference and Repetition, Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza, and The Logic of Sense—display the affirmative power of Deleuze’s philosophy: the affirmation of difference, the presentation of Spinoza as an exemplary philosopher of affirmation, and the affirmation of the power of language. The Spinoza Center at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, in collaboration with the S.H. Bergman Center for Philosophical Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is organizing an international conference devoted to these three works and the vast range of topics discussed in them. The conference aims to explore Deleuze’s philosophy and its relation to the philosophical tradition as well as its relation to other areas of knowledge such as the natural sciences, mathematics, psychoanalysis, and the philosophy of language. We invite proposals on any of these and related topics. 

Confirmed speakers:

Paul Patton (UNSW, Sydney)

Daniel Smith (Purdue University)

Jeffrey Bell (Southeastern Louisiana University)   

Daniela Voss (Universität Hildesheim)

Anne Sauvagnargues (Université Paris Nanterre)

Miguel de Beistegui (Warwick University)

The conference will take place on December 10–12, 2018, at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Israel.

Please send a 750-word abstract on any aspect of Deleuze’s philosophy related to the works mentioned above. Each speaker will have 30 minutes. 

Abstracts should be sent to [email protected]

The deadline for submissions is Thursday, May 31, 2018.

The academic committee: Prof. Paul Patton, Prof. Daniel Smith, Dr. Michael Roubach, Dr. Pini Ifergan, Dr. Dror Yinon.