Gilles Deleuze | |
---|---|
Born | 18 January 1925 Paris, France |
Died | 4 November 1995 Paris, France |
(aged 70)
Alma mater | University of Paris (BA/MA) |
Era | 20th-century philosophy |
Region | Western philosophy |
School |
Continental philosophy Post-structuralism |
Institutions | University of Paris VIII |
Main interests
|
Aesthetics, history of Western philosophy, metaphilosophy, metaphysics |
Notable ideas
|
Affect, assemblage, body without organs, deterritorialization, line of flight, minority, plane of immanence, rhizome, schizoanalysis, transcendental empiricism,univocity of being, the Virtual, the identity–difference distinction |
Gilles Deleuze (French: [ʒil dəløz]; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1960s until his death, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes of Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Anti-Oedipus (1972) and A Thousand Plateaus (1980), both co-written with psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. His metaphysical treatise Difference and Repetition (1968) is considered by many scholars to be his magnum opus.A. W. Moore, citing Bernard Williams's criteria for a great thinker, ranks Deleuze among the "greatest philosophers". His work has influenced a variety of disciplines across philosophy and art, including literary theory, post-structuralism and postmodernism.
Deleuze was born into a middle-class family in Paris and lived there for most of his life. His initial schooling was undertaken during World War II, during which time he attended the Lycée Carnot. He also spent a year in khâgne at the Lycée Henri IV. During the Nazi occupation of France, Deleuze's older brother, Georges, was arrested for his participation in the French Resistance, and died while in transit to a concentration camp. In 1944, Deleuze went to study at the Sorbonne. His teachers there included several noted specialists in the history of philosophy, such as Georges Canguilhem, Jean Hyppolite, Ferdinand Alquié, and Maurice de Gandillac, and Deleuze's lifelong interest in the canonical figures of modern philosophy owed much to these teachers. In addition, Deleuze found the work of non-academic writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre attractive.