RIS ID

59600

Publication Details

Svirsky, M. 2009, 'A stirring alphabet of thought: review essay', Deleuze Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 311-324.

Abstract

José Gil (2008) O Imperceptível Devir da Imanência – Sobre a Filosofia de Deleuze, Lisbon: Relógio D’Água.

One might interpret and explain the great philosophers as one pleases, but an honest interpretation must not smother the soul of their oeuvres, however much one may admire or criticise them.Many would agree that Deleuze’s writing is often obscure and difficult, and therefore the attempt to introduce some clarity through interpretation must be welcomed. However, too much order can compromise the delicate mechanism of his work and literally freeze its internal dynamics when, for example, concepts and planes of thought are arranged without regard for their links and junctures. In the case of Deleuze, it seems that if anything must be respected, it is the sense of constant movement through the connections that he was able to forge for the benefit of philosophy. This movement is related first and foremost to his critical dwelling on the dogmatic image of thought, which Nietzsche was undoubtedly instrumental in fostering, as Deleuze himself describes in the preface to the English translation of Nietzsche and Philosophy:

And without doubt this is the most important point of Nietzsche’s philosophy: the radical transformation of the image of thought that we create for ourselves. Nietzsche snatches thought from the element of truth and falsity. He turns it into an interpretation and an evaluation, interpretation of forces, evaluation of power. It is a thought-movement, not merely in the sense that Nietzsche wants to reconcile thought and concrete movements, but in the sense that thought itself must produce movements, bursts of extraordinary speed and slowness. (Deleuze 1986: xii; emphasis mine)

Link to publisher version (URL)

Deleuze Studies

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/E175022410900066X