Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari and the total system
Philosophy and Social Criticism 26 (1):93-114 (2000)
| Abstract | This paper is concerned with an aspect of Deleuze and Guattari's thought which has not been duly analyzed: systematicity. More specifically, it deals with their conception of the system in three co-authored major works: What is Philosophy?, Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus. These works are of renewed interest because they tease out, each in its own way, a particular type of system. Regardless of whether it has a philosophical import, a botanical reference, a social dimension, or a libidinal investment, the system that Deleuze and Guattari advocate is allegedly a hyper-dynamic system that resists closure. Thus, in an interview with Didier Eribon, Deleuze points out that philosophy is 'an open system' and then, referring to A Thousand Plateaus, he further observes that what he and Guattari 'call a rhizome is also one example of an open system'. The purpose of this essay is not merely to explore how the system in the works of these two prominent poststructuralists is conceived, how it is structured, and how it works, but also to show how it is only superficially open. Paying a special attention to Deleuze and Guattari's exegesis on capitalism, I argue that the proposed system is cynical and ultimately untenable. Key Words: capitalism • Gilles Deleuze • Félix Guattari • open system • philosophy • total system. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,875 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesJeffrey A. Bell (2008). History Undone: Towards a Deleuzo-Guattarian Philosophy of History. [REVIEW] Deleuze Studies 2 (1):109-119.
Kane X. Faucher (2010). McDeleuze: What's More Rhizomal Than the Big Mac? Deleuze Studies 4 (1):42-59.
Craig Lundy (2011). Deleuze and Guattari's Historiophilosophy: Philosophical Thought and its Historical Milieu. Critical Horizons 12 (2):115-135.
Pelagia Goulimari (1999). A Minoritarian Feminism? Things to Do with Deleuze and Guattari. Hypatia 14 (2):97-120.
Stephen Zepke (2009). Eco-Aesthetics : Beyond Structure in the Work of Robert Smithson, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. In Bernd Herzogenrath (ed.), Deleuze/Guattari & Ecology. Palgrave Macmillan.
Simon Choat (2009). Deleuze, Marx and the Politicisation of Philosophy. Deleuze Studies 3 (suppl):8-27.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads17 ( #72,058 of 556,837 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #64,847 of 556,837 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
