What is Philosophy? (Deleuze and Guattari)

What is Philosophy

Cover of the first edition
Authors Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari
Original title Qu'est-ce que la philosophie?
Translator Hugh Tomlinson, Graham Burchell
Country France
Language French
Subject Philosophy, science
Published
  • 1991 (Les éditions de Minuit, in French)
  • 1994 (Columbia University Press, in English)
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 256 (1996 Columbia University Press edition)
ISBN 978-0231079891

What is Philosophy? (French: Qu'est-ce que la philosophie?) is a 1991 book by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, respectively a philosopher and a psychoanalyst.

Background

Deleuze commented in a letter to one of his translators that in What is Philosophy? he was trying to return to "the problem of absolute immanence" and to say why for him Baruch Spinoza is the "prince of philosophers."[1]

Summary

Deleuze and Guattari deal with the distinction between philosophy and science, arguing that the former deals with concepts and the latter with functions. They discuss the philosophy of science and the philosophy of mathematics.[2]

Reception

The book became a best-seller in France in 1991. Physicists Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont write in Fashionable Nonsense (1997) that in attempting to show how philosophy and science are distinct, Deleuze and Guattari use scientific terms such as "chaos" in incorrect or misleading ways. They argue that while in some passages of the book, the authors seem to discuss serious problems in the philosophy of science and mathematics, these passages prove to be largely meaningless on close inspection.[2]

See also

References

Further reading

Books
  • Deleuze, Gilles; Joughin, Martin (1990). Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza. New York: Zone Books. ISBN 0-942299-51-5. 
  • Sokal, Alan; Bricmont, Jean (1999). Fashionable Nonsense: Postmodern Intellectuals' Abuse of Science. New York: Picador. ISBN 0-312-20407-8. 
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