Although the body has been the focus of much contemporary cultural theory, the models that are typically applied neglect the most salient characteristics of embodied existence—movement, affect, and sensation—in favor of concepts derived from linguistic theory. In _Parables for the Virtual_ Brian Massumi views the body and media such as television, film, and the Internet, as cultural formations that operate on multiple registers of sensation beyond the reach of the reading techniques founded on the standard rhetorical and semiotic models. Renewing (...) and assessing William James’s radical empiricism and Henri Bergson’s philosophy of perception through the filter of the post-war French philosophy of Deleuze, Guattari, and Foucault, Massumi links a cultural logic of variation to questions of movement, affect, and sensation. If such concepts are as fundamental as signs and significations, he argues, then a new set of theoretical issues appear, and with them potential new paths for the wedding of scientific and cultural theory. Replacing the traditional opposition of literal and figural with new distinctions between stasis and motion and between actual and virtual, _Parables for the Virtual _tackles related theoretical issues by applying them to cultural mediums as diverse as architecture, body art, the digital art of Stelarc, and Ronald Reagan’s acting career. The result is an intriguing combination of cultural theory, science, and philosophy that asserts itself in a crystalline and multi-faceted argument. _Parables for the Virtual_ will interest students and scholars of continental and Anglo-American philosophy, cultural studies, cognitive science, electronic art, digital culture, and chaos theory, as well as those concerned with the “science wars” and the relation between the humanities and the sciences in general. (shrink)

For those not yet acquainted with the work of this philosopher, this book provides a point of entry to his complex theories. For those more familiar with Deleuze, this collection should be useful in broadening their understanding of this influential thinker's journey in search of knowledge.

Il faudrait que le dialogue se fasse, non pas entre des personnes, mais entre les lignes, entre des chapitres ou des parties de chapitre. Ce seraient les vrais personnages. Perdre la mémoire : il faudrait plutôt dresser des " blocs ", les faire flotter. Un bloc d'enfance n'est pas un souvenir d'enfant. Un bloc nous accompagne, est toujours anonyme et contemporain, et fonctionne dans le présent - Oublier l'histoire : la question des devenirs, et de leur géographie. Un devenir-révolutionnaire est (...) plus important que l'avenir ou le passé de la révolution. Un devenir-femme, un devenir-animal sont plus importants que la différence des sexes et des règnes - Ne pas " faire le point " : plutôt tracer des lignes. Les lignes n'ont pas d'origine, et poussent par le milieu. On ne fait jamais table rase, on est toujours au milieu de quelque chose, comme l'herbe. Plus on prend le monde là où il est, plus on a de chance de le changer... Se séparer de l'appareil d'Etat et de tout système qui le prend pour modèle ou veut le conquérir : la présence diffuse de machines de guerre irréductibles au modèle d'Etat, toute une histoire populaire qui n'a pas été recueillie, un nomadisme même immobile. Devenir ou re-devenir marxiste : aucune analyse n'est possible si elle ne porte aussi sur les mécanismes industriels et surtout financiers dans un champ social. Non pas suprême instance, mais lignes, et régimes de signes, qui s'enchaînent avec les autres, et dont les flottaisons s'agencent avec d'autres flux. (shrink)

The final work by the author before his death in 1992, Chaosmosis is a radical and challenging work concerned with the reinvention and resingularization of subjectivity. It attempts to embody affective change, the short-circuiting of signification and the proliferation of sense necessary to engage with non-discursive, artistic, poetic and pathic intensities. It includes critical reflections on Lacanian psychoanalysis, structuralism, information theory, postmodernism, and the thought of Heidegger, Bakhtin, Barthes, and others.

A critical examination of the figure of Oedipus in psychoanalysis and Western culture as it relates to the history of society and capitalism.

Language and the birth of "literature." A preface to transgression. Language to infinity. The father's "no." Fantasia of the library.--Counter-memory: the philosophy of difference. What is an author? Nietzsche, genealogy, history. Theatrum philosophicum.--Practice: knowledge and power. History of systems of thought. Intellectuals and power. Revolutionary action: "until now.".

A critique of capitalism and a manifesto for a new way of thinking, this book is also an introduction to the work of one of Europe's most radical thinkers. This edition includes a chronology of Guattari's life and work, introductions to both his general philosophy and to the work itself and extended notes to the original text.

This is the first detailed assessment of the life and work of Felix Guattari--"Mr. Anti" as the French press labelled him--the friend of and collaborator with..

Suggests an open system of psychological exploration to cut through accepted norms of morality, language, and politics.

This book, which presents Spinoza's main ideas in dictionary form, has as its subject the opposition between ethics and morality, and the link between ethical ...

An accessible introduction to the contemporary thought of Deleuze. It makes concepts clear, showing their political and theoretical complexity, elaborating their social and artistic relevance. Australian author (previously at Monash University) now living in Edinburgh.

Discusses how cultural and economic changes around the world have caused a shift in the concepts that shape modern politics and defined the new global order.

This dictionary, the first dedicated to the work of Gilles Deleuze, offers an in-depth and lucid introduction to one of the most influential figures in continental philosophy. It defines and contextualizes more than 150 terms relating to Deleuze's philosophy, including "becoming," "body without organs," "deterritorialization," "difference," "repetition," and "rhizome." The entries also explore Deleuze's intellectual influences and the ways in which his ideas have shaped philosophy, feminism, cinema studies, postcolonial theory, geography, and cultural studies. More than just defining and describing (...) specific terms, the dictionary elaborates on Deleuze's ideas to reveal the varied applications of his philosophy. The contributors, who include some of the most prominent Deleuze scholars, bring their expert knowledge and critical opinion to bear on the entries. Their work provides a range of theoretical, historical, and aesthetic contexts for anyone interested in Deleuzian thought. Contributors include: Ronald Bogue, University of Georgia; Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht University; Claire Colebrook, University of Edinburgh; Tom Conley, Harvard University; Eugene Holland, Ohio State University; Tamsin Lorraine, Swarthmore College; Paul Patton, University of New South Wales; Kenneth Surin, Duke University; Alberto Toscano, Goldsmiths College. (shrink)

This book makes available the broad canvas of Guattari's formidable theoretical and activist writings to provide an indispensable companion to the existing literature.

1.Introduction: Remembering "Information". -- 2. European Documentation: Paul Otlet and Suzanne Briet -- 3. Information Theory, Cybernetics, and the Discourse of "Man" -- 4. Pierre Levy and the "Virtual" -- 5. Heidegger and Benjamin: The Metaphysics and Fetish of Information -- 6. Conclusion: "Information" and the Role of Critical Theory.

This essay addresses Gilles Deleuze's ?pedagogy of the concept? as grounded in the triadic relation between percepts, affects, and concepts. Philosophical thinking based on the ?logic of affects? necessarily leads to the creation of novel concepts in/for experience. Still, new concepts are themselves informed by the physicality of affects thus bridging the dualistic gap of the Cartesian subject. Deleuze's neorealist position considers the objects of real experience to be both actual and virtual. Experience exceeds private sense-data; it is a milieu (...) providing an ability to affect and be affected. The essay presents Deleuze's virtual ontology as an unorthodox ?foundation? for knowledge under the provision that the affective conditions in real experience for the actualization of the virtual will have been fulfilled. Deleuze's practical philosophy is used here to offer a model for solving the ?learning paradox? that has been haunting us since the days of Socrates. (shrink)