Gilles Deleuze: biography and creativity. "The logic of meaning": a summary

Gilles Deleuze refers to the representatives of continental philosophy, sometimes his work is attributed to poststructuralism. His philosophy occupies an important place in matters that concern society, politics, creativity, subjectivity. During his life he created and published many works, some of which was written in co-authorship, including with the psychoanalyst Guattari.

short biography

The French philosopher was born on January 18, 1925 in Paris. Gilles Deleuze was the representative of a middle-class family of conservative views. He spent most of his life in his hometown.

Father was an engineer and until 1930, the owner of a small company. After his closing, he got a job at a factory that produced airships. My mother was a housewife.

Education the boy received in the ordinary public school. In 1940, his father took the children to Normandy, but a year later they returned home, and Gilles entered the Lyceum of Carnot. In occupied Paris, Gilles's brother, Georges, took part in the Resistance. He was seized, and soon he died. The death of his brother, according to many biographers, influenced the outlook of a young man who had moved away from the family, seeking himself in philosophy. After a while, his father died.

A significant influence on the young man was the product of Sartre "Being and Nothingness", which saw the light in 1943. He knew him for memory and could quote almost any part of it.

After graduating from the Lyceum, Gilles attended preparatory lectures in the lyceums of Henry the Fourth and Louis the Great. Having received not enough points for the Higher School, he nevertheless entered the Sorbonne and received a scholarship. Since 1945, the student began to publish his own articles, which were imbued with the phenomenology of Sartre.

Since 1948, Deleuze began to work as a teacher of philosophy in the lyceums of Amiens, Orleans, Louis the Great. Since 1957, he began working at the Sorbonne, and since 1960 received a four-year paid vacation to write his work from the National Center for Scientific Research.

Further, he taught at the Universities of Lyons, Vincennes, the College de France, published his works, including co-authorship with other philosophers.

All his life Deleuze accompanied with health problems. At first he had asthma, after tuberculosis, then he underwent surgery to remove one lung, and by the end of his life the disease developed into lung cancer. The philosopher could not stand the impossibility of working on his works. And although he wanted to write more about many things, including a book about Marx, on November 4, 1995, he threw himself out of the window. He was buried in the cemetery in Limousin.

A family

In 1956, a friend introduced Gilles to Fanny Grange. She worked as an interpreter. Young people married at the estate of the parents of the bride, who was located in Limousin. After they moved to an apartment in Paris, which was part of the family inheritance of Grange.

In marriage, two children were born:

• In 1960, Julien's son;
• In 1964 the daughter of Emily.

The concept of a new vision of the world

The philosopher for a long time collaborated with the psychoanalyst Guattari. Together, they published several successful books, and also offered their vision of a vision of the world. She got her name from the word "nomad", which means "nomad".

Nomadology Gilles Deleuze was characterized by a rejection of ideas, which consisted of a rigid structure and determinism. The key symbol of the new concept was rhizome, which resists the unchanging linear structures typical of European culture.

Major works

Publication of his works the philosopher took up since 1945. At first they were articles, and after moving with his wife to his own small apartment, he began to create his first books. In all his life, in addition to books, he published many articles, reviews, lectures, seminars, dissertations, petitions.

Significant works:

• 1968 - the treatise "Difference and repetition";
• 1969 - the treatise "The Logic of Meaning";
• 1972 - the joint work of "Anti-Oedipus";
• 1975 - joint work "Kafka";
• 1977 - Critical philosophy of Kant;
• 1980 - joint work of the "Thousand Plateaus";
• 1983, 1985 - "The Cinema";
• 1988 - "Folding: Leibniz and Baroque";
• 1991 - joint work "What is philosophy?".

This is only a small part of the works in which Gil Deleuze reveals his philosophy. The "logic of meaning" was one of the first significant works of the thinker.

"Logic of meaning"

The book is focused on one of the most complex and at the same time traditional themes for philosophy: what is the meaning? The thinker relies on the creativity of Carroll, Freud, Nietzsche, and also the Stoics. He is developing his original concept. The author connects the meaning with nonsense and events, different from the metaphysical entities that were characteristic of traditional philosophy.

What is the main principle of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze? The "logic of meaning", the summary of which can not be conveyed in two words, answers this question. It becomes clear from the work that the main principle is to create concepts about what should only become an object, that is, which does not yet exist. In this case, the philosopher can become a "doctor of civilization."

How do readers of the same Russia perceive Gilles Deleuze himself? The "logic of meaning", which is contradictory, can not be a priori accepted by everyone. This is not a tabloid reading, not an easy novel ... There are reviews of the townsfolk, from which it is clear that not everyone could perceive the ideas of the thinker and abandoned their attempts at the beginning of the journey. The only thing I want to advise is to have patience and nothing more.

Among the critics of Russia on the philosophical work of Deleuze mentioned LA Markova with his work "Science and" The logic of the meaning of "Deleuze." Also quite interesting is the article by A. S. Kravets entitled "Theory of the meaning of Deleuze: pro and con."

Anti-Oedipus

The project, which Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari were able to implement, was a success among readers. The book is the first volume of the creation titled "Capitalism and Schizophrenia." The second volume was published later and is called "Thousand Plateaus".

The first work included:

• Theory of production;
• The genealogy of capitalism, which relied on Nietzsche, Marx, Freud;
• Criticism of Marxism in all its forms, including Freudarchism.

"Anti-Oedipus" (Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari) spoke with the concept of power and the theory of subjectivity. The inspirers of the authors of the work were Kant, Marx, Nietzsche.

Ideological ties

Gilles Deleuze refers to a philosophy called continental. It differs from the analytical one in that it places the questions under consideration in the context of history, using a more synthetic terminology.

A number of researchers considered certain aspects of Deleuzian philosophy:

• V. Bergen studied creativity.
• F. Zurabishvili, D. Williams - event, time and strength.
• D. Ołkowski - representation.
• T. May - individuation and ethics.

The Thinker discussed certain problems not through polemics, but building his philosophy. In his understanding of philosophy he was interested in the concepts of thinkers of the past, but not their philosophical systems.

How did Deleuze relate to the famous learned men?

He considered Hegel a thinker of identity, in his own words, he always remained a Marxist. He especially liked the ideas of the outer border and the limit. Although, in his own words, he read Marx superficially and selectively.

Influence on the present

Gilles Deleuze, whose books were a great success during his lifetime, became one of the most influential thinkers in the world in the new century. Deleuze relies not only on issues of philosophy, he is referred to by representatives of the social and human sciences. He is quoted in sociology, cultural studies, urban studies, cinematography, literary criticism, geography and many other fields.

His works have received recognition throughout the world. So, in Japan the creation of the "Thousand Plateaus", especially among architects and sociologists, became very popular. The above-mentioned book "Anti-Oedipus" has become popular in Brazil and Italy. In the UK, Deleuze's philosophy has become popular since the last decade of the twentieth century. The philosopher is also known in Russia.

Today Deleuze is regarded as one of the predecessors of speculative realism. His influence was tested in many areas, for example, the actor-network theory, postcolonialism, queer theory and many others.

Interesting Facts

Even since his teaching at the Lyceum, Deleuze has become accustomed to dressing in classical style. He always wore a hat that became part of his image. On some photos it can be seen in your favorite style.

Among the world community in different years, this or that philosophy has been gaining popularity. Gilles Deleuze and his concept also did not remain in the shadows. In 2007, he was placed on the twelfth place in the list of the most cited authors among the humanities and social sciences. He outstripped even such famous thinkers as Kant, Marx, Heidegger.

Deleuze loved cinema. Together with his family, he often went to the movies of Fellini, Godard and other directors. Since 1974, the philosopher began to create articles about cinema. At the same time, he annually attended the film festival of informal cinema. At the same time he did not like to participate in the conference on philosophy.

Co-authorship with Felix Guattari has borne fruit. Together they wrote important works. But the authors worked in completely different rhythms. Deleuze is disciplined, and Guattari in this regard was an anarchist.