Deleuze, A Stoic

Ryan J. Johnson is Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Elon University, in North Carolina. Ryan’s early books include The Deleuze-Lucretius Encounter (Edinburgh UP 2016) and Deleuze, A Stoic (Edinburgh UP 2020), as well as the co-edited collections Contemporary Encounters with Ancient Metaphysics (Edinburgh UP 2018) and Nietzsche and Epicurus (Bloomsbury 2020). His recent work includes the co-written Phenomenology of Black Spirit (Edinburgh UP 2023) and the monograph Three American Hegels (Rowman & Littlefield 2024). His future work is on the radical abolitionist John Brown, Spinoza, and John Coltrane.

Johnson has produced a profound and erudite study of the stoic roots of Deleuze’s philosophy. This work is of vital importance for those interested in Deleuze, the continuing relevance of the stoic tradition, and, more fundamentally, the ethics of materialism.

• INTRODUCTIONWhat Comes before the Study of DeleuzeStoic PerversionThe Three Parts of PhilosophyThe Sage and the EggThe Yolk, The Shell, and The Albumen French StoicismPART I: PHYSICSThe Yolk A: Stoic Metaphysics IntroductionSomethingThe GiantsSubsistenceThe System and the SurfaceIntensive and Extensive FacesIntegration and DifferenceConclusionThe Yolk B: IncorporealsIntroductionCorporeal Causes and Incorporeal EffectsClement of Alexandria and the Quasi-CauseStatic GenesisDouble Causality Twisting the Table of JudgmentsTranscendental LogicFormal Logic of BodiesTranscendental Logic of IncorporealsConclusionThe Yolk C: SpaceIntroduction: The Canonical IncorporealsA Heterodox Reading: Three Reasons and Three Advantages The Whole, the All, and Infinite DivisibilityPlaceAtomic VoidStoic VoidSomething UnnamedSpace: The First FrontierIntensive and Extensive SpaceCounter-ActualisationConclusion: The Structure of the Three IncorporealsPART II: LOGICThe Shell A: ΛεκταIntroduction: Cracking Open the ShellOrigin of ΛεκταThe VoiceThree stages of the Genesis of LanguageDynamic and Static GenesesPhases of Dynamic and Static GenesesEpicurean and Stoic Philosophies of LanguageThe Two Faces of Λεκτα The Shell B: The ParadoxesIntroductionA Forgotten LogicPerverting Good and Common Sense A New Logic in Antiquity Why Propositional Logic?Genesis of the ContradictoryThree Dimensions of AbsurdityStructure and Purpose of ParadoxesThe Paradoxes1. The Heap 2. The Liar3. The Master 4. The Nobody Structure of Ambiguity The Aleatory PointErgo and IgiturStanding on the Shore The Shell C: Living LogicIntroductionHandbooks For Thinking Constructing Concepts for LivingPreparing our HandbookHandbook of Paradoxes1. Infinite Act 2. Singular Act 3. Disjunctive Act 4. Problematic Act Conclusion: A Profound LinkPART III: ETHICSThe Albumen A: Time Introduction: Goldschmidt and the Idea of TimeThree Ancient Theories of TimeThe Adventures of the PresentThe Present of Aion The Present of Chronos The Now and the Instant A Twisted GenealogyChronos and Aion in StoicismThe Greatness of Stoic ThoughtIntensive Aion and Extensive ChronosThe Third IncorporealConclusion: The Instant of the ActThe Albumen B: The ActIntroduction: ‘The Event of Death’DivinationCosmological PerspectiveUse of RepresentationsSingular Perspective Stoic SageThe ActCounter-ActualizationHow to Make Yourself a StoicConclusion: Amor FatiThe Albumen C: Eternal ReturnIntroductionFriedrich Nietzsche, Author of the Eternal RecurrenceDeath and the CompassParadox of ActionProvidence without TeleologyFitzgerald’s Crack-UpConclusion: A Laughing StoicismCONCLUSION Four Forms of Philosophical ComedyPre-Socratic SlapstickSocratic IronyCynic SarcasmAristotelian WitStoic Humor