Critical Introductions and Guides – serie

In their final collaborative work, Deleuze and Guattari set out to address the question, 'what is philosophy?' Their answer is simple enough: philosophy ‘is the art of forming, inventing and fabricating concepts’. In this book, Jeffrey A. Bell explores what that involves. Crucial to Deleuze and Guattari’s understanding of this task, Bell argues, is the assumption that philosophy is integral to a life well lived. Bell shows that a concept of learning is created through the course of the text, composed of three inseparable components: philosophy, science and art. Ultimately, What is Philosophy? can be understood as a meditation on a life well lived, with this concept of learning at its core.

This book offers the first critical study of The Logic of Sense, Gilles Deleuze’s most important work on language and ethics, as well as the main source for his vital philosophy of the event. Deleuze’s philosophy has always promised a revolution in ethical theories and in our understanding of the relation between language, thought and action. This book develops a critical reading of Deleuze’s work in order to convey the potential and risks of his new approaches to questions of how to live an intense life in response to the excitement and danger of events. This interpretation covers all aspects of Deleuze’s book, including engagements with phenomenology, with analytic philosophy of language, with stoicism, with literary theory and with psychoanalysis. Its aim is to open new debates and develop current ones around Deleuze’s work in philosophy, politics, literature, linguistics and sociology.

Throughout his career, Deleuze developed a series of original philosophies of time and applied them successfully to many different fields. Now James Williams presents Deleuze's philosophy of time as the central concept that connects his philosophy as a whole. Through this conceptual approach, the book covers all the main periods of Deleuze's philosophy: the early studies of Hume, Nietzsche, Kant, Bergson and Spinoza, the two great philosophical works, Difference and Repetition and Logic of Sense, the Capitalism and Schizophrenia works with Guattari, and the late influential studies of literature, film and painting. The result is an important reading of Deleuze and the first full interpretation of his philosophy of time.

One of the most innovative and brilliant philosophers of his generation, but largely neglected until he was brought to public attention by Gilles Deleuze, Gilbert Simondon presents a challenge to nearly every category and method of traditional philosophy. 'Psychic and Collective Individuation' is undoubtedly his most important work and its influence, clearly felt in Stiegler and DeLanda, has continued to grow. David Scott provides the first full introduction to this work, which will inspire as well as instruct philosophers working in Continental thought, philosophy of science, social theory and political philosophy. He introduces Simondon’s challenging text by clarifying its complex terminology and structure through a chapter-by-chapter commentary. By placing Simondon and the book in their historical context, Scott invites a dialogue with thinkers including Bergson, Deleuze, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty and Negri, and explains Simondon's relevance to current discussions about biopolitics and post-Nietzschean ethics.

Gilles Deleuze described Laruelle's thought as 'one of the most interesting undertakings of contemporary philosophy'. Now, Rocco Gangle – who translated Laruelle's philosophy into English – takes you through Laruelle's trailblazing book 'Philosophies of Difference', helping you to understand both Laruelle's critique of Difference and his project of non-philosophy, which has become one of the most intriguing avenues in contemporary thought. He explains the context within which Laruelle's thought developed and takes you through the challenging argument and conceptual scaffolding of 'Philosophies of Difference'.

By critically analysing Deleuze's methods, principles and arguments, James Williams helps readers to engage with the revolutionary core of Deleuze's philosophy and take up positions for or against its most innovative and controversial ideas. This second edition includes a new chapter on questions of method around important concepts such as intensity, anarchic distribution, transcendental illusion and distinctness. Here, Williams reflects on the place of judgement and action in Deleuze’s work in order to explain its ethical and political dimensions.  He also engages with the foremost recent interpretations of Deleuze by Bryant, Sauvagnargues, Smith, Somers-Hall, Hughes and de Beistegui, introducing you to the key debates and oppositions.

In Principles of Non-Philosophy, Laruelle develops the concepts and method of a more democratic form of thought where neither science nor philosophy is subjected to one another, but brought together in a more productive theoretical and practical relationship. While the potential importance of this project is clear, Laruelle remains famously difficult. Anthony Paul Smith provides an introduction and guide to the text that situates you amongst the figures and concepts Laruelle engaged with, provides a foothold for your own understanding and, more importantly, potential use of the project of non-philosophy.

The sheer volume and complexity of Deleuze and Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus can be daunting. What is an assemblage? What is a rhizome? What is a war machine? What is a body without organs? What is becoming-animal? Using clear language and numerous examples, each chapter of this guide analyses an individual plateau and examines the tendencies toward both stasis and change for each assemblage found there – be it social, political, psychological, musical, biological or linguistic.

Jon Roffe shows how Empiricism and Subjectivity is the precursor for some of Deleuze’s most well-known philosophical innovations. For those already familiar with Deleuze, he emphasises its novelty within his corpus. And, for all readers, he shows how it outlines Deleuze's powerful and striking theory of subjectivity, and of philosophy itself.Empiricism and Subjectivity is Gilles Deleuze’s first book, and yet it is infrequently read and poorly understood. In fact, it constitutes a unique project in its own right, deserving of the same close study that is now widely given to other, more well-known works.

Jon Roffe shows how Empiricism and Subjectivity is the precursor for some of Deleuze’s most well-known philosophical innovations. For those already familiar with Deleuze, he emphasises its novelty within his corpus. And, for all readers, he shows how it outlines Deleuze's powerful and striking theory of subjectivity, and of philosophy itself.Empiricism and Subjectivity is Gilles Deleuze’s first book, and yet it is infrequently read and poorly understood. In fact, it constitutes a unique project in its own right, deserving of the same close study that is now widely given to other, more well-known works.

Henri-Louis Bergson (1859–1941) was a French philosopher who is widely and rightly regarded to be amongst the most significant thinkers for Gilles Deleuze’s work. In turn, Deleuze is largely responsible for reviving and contouring the prevailing interest in Bergson’s work through his 1988 book Bergsonism. This critical introduction and guide to Bergsonism gives readers of both Deleuze and Bergson an opportunity to discover and fully connect with the philosophical encounter between these two great thinkers.