Single Idea 21852

[catalogued under 1. Philosophy / B. History of Ideas / 1. History of Ideas]

Full Idea

There is no history from the viewpoint of nomads, although everything passes through them, to the point that they are like the noumena or the unknowable of history.

Gist of Idea

Nomads are the basis of history, and yet almost unknowable

Source

Gilles Deleuze (Many Politics [1977], p.107)

Book Reference

Deleuze,Gilles: 'Dialogues II' [Continuum 2006], p.107


A Reaction

Nomads have the same place in society that indeterminate 'stuff' has in an object-orientated metaphysics. Deleuze seems to be romanticising nomads the way the late Victorians romanticised gypsies.