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Single Idea 21908

[filed under theme 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / a. Nature of Being ]

Full Idea

Ontology can be an ontology of difference ....where what is there is not the same old things but a process of continual creation, an ontology that does not seek to reduce being to the knowable, but widens thought to palpate the unknowable.

Gist of Idea

Ontology can be continual creation, not to know being, but to probe the unknowable

Source

Gilles Deleuze (Difference and Repetition [1968]), quoted by Todd May - Gilles Deleuze 5.05

Book Ref

May,Todd: 'Gilles Deleuze' [CUP 2006], p.171


A Reaction

I'm inclined to think that the first duty of ontology is to face up to the knowable. I'm not sure that probing the unknowable, with no success or prospect of it, is a good way to spend a life. Probing ('palpating') can sometimes discover things.

Related Idea

Idea 6870 I say (contrary to Wittgenstein) that philosophy expresses what we thought we must be silent about [Ansell Pearson on Wittgenstein]


The 5 ideas from 'Difference and Repetition'

'Difference' refers to that which eludes capture [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]
'Being' is univocal, but its subject matter is actually 'difference' [Deleuze]