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Gilles Deleuze – What is Philosophy? [audio]

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Re: Gilles Deleuze – What is Philosophy? [audio]

#31

Post by bangkoksbest »

beepbooptheory wrote: post #23
mrkeen wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To have a variable is to assume that something can vary. Tautology. > To be a cause is to assume something can make a difference. Tautology. > To have a process is to assume a system that can change and transform. Tautology. Vacuous is exactly how I'd describe the above. The only statement with potential depth is: > To make a measurement you assume there is a scale to measure difference. This invokes quantum mechan…

This is very strange.. Those are not what tautologies are. In order for something to be tautological, you need to be working within some formal system of proof. Proposing definitions to terms could never be tautological. I think you just want to say "I know that already!" Also, Deleuze would love this comment, precisely because of your confusion in the term. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Sense

To be fair, I did intentionally write them in a style to mimic propositional logical statements (which are tautologies) but you are correct that they're not in a formal system so they can't actually be tautologies.

Re: Gilles Deleuze – What is Philosophy? [audio]

#33

Post by 2devnull »

smokel wrote: post #25
dr_dshiv wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is very popular in the arts, but I don’t understand why. It’s vaguely platonic (which I like) but obtuse (like kant).

Many contemporary artists are good at associative thought but pretty bad at rational thought. Several popular French philosophers say a lot , so there will always be some interesting hook for people to catch on. The rational thinker will get annoyed, because the drivel is unfounded. The artist will feel inspired and enlightened. (Source: have formal education in both mathematics and fine arts.)

The influence of French cinema may be a factor too I would guess.

Re: Gilles Deleuze – What is Philosophy? [audio]

#34

Post by mannykannot »

dlkf wrote: post #8
gexaha wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you consider Whitehead's philosophy also vacuous?

Motte (principia) and bailey (process philosophy).

I'm not sure this would be entirely fair to Whitehead unless he tried to pass off the latter as being justified by the former.

Re: Gilles Deleuze – What is Philosophy? [audio]

#35

Post by dash2 »

bangkoksbest wrote: post #10
zvmaz wrote: post #3

"Deleuze's work is characterized by his emphasis on difference and multiplicity, which he saw as fundamental to understanding the world. He developed a philosophy of becoming, which emphasizes the importance of change and transformation." Vacuous. Reminds me of David Stove's "What is wrong with our thoughts" [1]. [1] https://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/wrongthoughts.html

The Stove essay (in truth it's a prolonged rant) supposedly extols the virtues of empirical thinking, and you invoked it to back up the sense you had that the description of Deleuze's philosophy is vacuous... And yet... Difference and multiplicity are core to empirical data and scientific & engineering modelling. To make a measurement you assume there is a scale to measure difference. To have a variable is to assume…

I'm pretty sure Deleuze never said anything about difference, multiplicity, variables, or process that has proved useful to a scientist or engineer, but I'd be very interested to be proved wrong.

Re: Gilles Deleuze – What is Philosophy? [audio]

#36

Post by nathias »

zupatol wrote: post #21
nathias wrote: post #6

Deleuze is one of the best thinkers of the last century, but he requires a lot of reading before what he's saying can make any sense.

I read a few pages of thousand plateaus and I didn't get the impression he really wanted the reader to make sense of it. It's full of quotations of works you would certainly know if you had enough culture. It feels like an violent attempt to humiliate the reader into submission. Apparently the english version came out with a lot of footnotes to provide context. This probably betrays the spirit of the original. I'll t…

Continental philosophy has some starting points, but some authors will be completely incomprehensible without reading most of the classical works. It's written for philosophers. If you haven't read at least Kant and Hegel, Heidegger and know what psychoanalysis and structuralism are about you have no basis of understanding for it.

Re: Gilles Deleuze – What is Philosophy? [audio]

#37

Post by nathias »

smokel wrote: post #25
dr_dshiv wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is very popular in the arts, but I don’t understand why. It’s vaguely platonic (which I like) but obtuse (like kant).

Many contemporary artists are good at associative thought but pretty bad at rational thought. Several popular French philosophers say a lot , so there will always be some interesting hook for people to catch on. The rational thinker will get annoyed, because the drivel is unfounded. The artist will feel inspired and enlightened. (Source: have formal education in both mathematics and fine arts.)

this is more of a problem of the US reception of Deleuze via literary studies not philosophy, Deleuze is a very serious and rational thinker, but without context, it's senseless (which people use for posturing)

Re: Gilles Deleuze – What is Philosophy? [audio]

#38

Post by modernpink »

bangkoksbest wrote: post #10
zvmaz wrote: post #3

"Deleuze's work is characterized by his emphasis on difference and multiplicity, which he saw as fundamental to understanding the world. He developed a philosophy of becoming, which emphasizes the importance of change and transformation." Vacuous. Reminds me of David Stove's "What is wrong with our thoughts" [1]. [1] https://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/wrongthoughts.html

The Stove essay (in truth it's a prolonged rant) supposedly extols the virtues of empirical thinking, and you invoked it to back up the sense you had that the description of Deleuze's philosophy is vacuous... And yet... Difference and multiplicity are core to empirical data and scientific & engineering modelling. To make a measurement you assume there is a scale to measure difference. To have a variable is to assume…

All of modern science is possible without philosophy. In fact, it is when what was called natural philosophy broke off into the natural sciences that philosophy per se devolved into a series of language games on metaphysics that became of little relevance aside from those in the philosophy profession itself.

All our modern advances from hypersonic missiles, large language models, quantum physics and spaceflight and are in spite of what is called philosophy, not due to it.

Re: Gilles Deleuze – What is Philosophy? [audio]

#40

Post by tim333 »

pas wrote: post #19
bronikowski wrote: post #13

Philosophize This is a very beginner friendly podcast. I'd gladly recommend it to anyone with even cursory interest. Then you go to History of Philosophy without Any Gaps. ;)

Excuse my spamminess (and for hijacking the current top comment), but I would like to recommend the innocent looking episode 162 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-43zh_za_eQ The Creation of Meaning - The Denial of Death ( transcript https://www.philosophizethis.org/transcript/episode-162-tran... ) "The Denial of Death is a 1973 book by American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker which discusses the psychological an…

"you know a squirrel doesn't sit around and agonize over what kind of squirrel they want to be this week" 3:37

I'm not sure about this. Some look quite contemplative.

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