more on this theme     |     more from this text


Single Idea 21903

[filed under theme 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / i. Deflating being ]

Full Idea

In Deleuze's hands ontology is not a matter of telling us what there is, but of taking us on strange adventures.

Gist of Idea

Ontology does not tell what there is; it is just a strange adventure

Source

report of Gilles Deleuze (Difference and Repetition [1968]) by Todd May - Gilles Deleuze 3.03

Book Ref

May,Todd: 'Gilles Deleuze' [CUP 2006], p.86


A Reaction

Presumably you only indulge in the strange adventure because you have no idea how to specify what there is. This sounds like the essence of post-modernism, in which life is just a game.


The 22 ideas from Gilles Deleuze

The history of philosophy is an agent of power: how can you think if you haven't read the great names? [Deleuze]
Philosophy aims to become the official language, supporting orthodoxy and the state [Deleuze]
When I meet objections I just move on; they never contribute anything [Deleuze]
We must create new words, and treat them as normal, and as if designating real things. [Deleuze]
Don't assess ideas for truth or justice; look for another idea, and establish a relationship with it [Deleuze]
Before we seek solutions, it is important to invent problems [Deleuze]
Before Being there is politics [Deleuze]
A meeting of man and animal can be deterritorialization (like a wasp with an orchid) [Deleuze]
People consist of many undetermined lines, some rigid, some supple, some 'lines of flight' [Deleuze]
Thought should be thrown like a stone from a war-machine [Deleuze]
Dualisms can be undone from within, by tracing connections, and drawing them to a new path [Deleuze]
Some lines (of flight) are becomings which escape the system [Deleuze]
We don't want another new set of categories; we want a variety of flexible categories [Deleuze, by May]
Ontology can be continual creation, not to know being, but to probe the unknowable [Deleuze]
Ontology does not tell what there is; it is just a strange adventure [Deleuze, by May]
Being is a problem to be engaged, not solved, and needs a new mode of thinking [Deleuze, by May]
'Difference' refers to that which eludes capture [Deleuze, by May]
'Being' is univocal, but its subject matter is actually 'difference' [Deleuze]
The State requires self-preservation, but the war-machine desires destruction [Deleuze]
Nomads are the basis of history, and yet almost unknowable [Deleuze]
We are currently extending capitalism to the whole of society [Deleuze]
There is no being beyond becoming [Deleuze]