Gilles Deleuze (Paris, 1925-1995)
The earliest works of philosopher Gilles Deleuze were introductions to the major thinkers or histories of philosophy focusing on figures such as Nietsche, Kant, Spinoza, Hume, and Bergson. With Empiricism and Subjectivity (1953), he developed a critical position toward Kantian philosophy. His 1962 Nietsche and Philosophy remains one of his key works. Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, which he published with Felix Guattari in 1972, gave rise to a polemic because of its attack on classical psychoanalysis and reactive Lacano-Freudian thought. Deleuze's own preoccupations lay rather with positive thought, the idea of an anti-dialectics, the praise of multiple desires, experience versus interpretation, affirmation versus resentment, the figure of the rhizome versus rationality. In addition to classical philosophy, Deleuze's interests included politics, literature (Proust, Kafka, Lewis Carroll), painting (Francis Bacon), and film. In 1983 and 1985 he published two fundamental works on the cinema: The Movement-Image and The Time-Image. Considering the cinema as a totality, these two volumes trace a picture of all the possible images to come. Deleuze reflects on the movement and time of images, from the "perception-image," which is the elementary form of the movement-image, to the "cinema, body, brain, thought," which is one of the culminations of the time-image.
Bibliography of works available in English translation: Empiricism and Subjectivity (1953, tr. 1991). Nietsche and Philosophy (1962, tr. 1983). Kant's Critical Philosophy (1963, tr. 1984). Proust and Signs (1964, tr. 1972). Bergsonism (1966, tr. 1988). Masochism: An Interpretation of Coldness and Cruelty (1967, tr. 1971). Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza (1968, tr. 1990). Difference and Repetition (1969, tr. 1994). The Logic of Sense (1969, tr. 1990). Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, with Felix Guattari (1972, tr. 1977). Kafka, Toward a Minor Literature, with Felix Guattari (1975, tr. 1986). On the Line (Rhizome), with Felix Guattari (1976, tr. 1983). Dialogues, with Claire Parnet (1977, tr. 1987). A Thousand Plateaus, with Felix Guattari (1980, tr. 1987). Spinoza, Practical Philosophy (1981, tr. 1988). Cinema: The Movement-Image and The Time-Image (1983, tr. 1986-1989). The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque (1988, tr. 1993). Negotiations (1990, tr. 1995). What Is Philosophy? with Felix Guattari (1991, tr. 1994).