The Force of the Virtual: Deleuze, Science, and Philosophy

Gilles Deleuze once claimed that ‘modern science has not found its metaphysics, the metaphysics it needs.’ The Force of the Virtual responds to this need by investigating the consequences of the philosopher’s interest in (and appeal to) ‘the exact sciences.’ In exploring the problematic relationship between the philosophy of Deleuze and science, the original essays gathered here examine how science functions in respect to Deleuze’s concepts of time and space, how science accounts for processes of qualitative change, how science actively participates in the production of subjectivity, and how Deleuze’s thinking engages neuroscience.

All of the essays work through Deleuze’s understanding of the virtual—a force of qualitative change that is ontologically primary to the exact, measurable relations that can be found in and among the objects of science. By adopting such a methodology, this collection generates significant new insights, especially regarding the notion of scientific laws, and compels the rethinking of such ideas as reproducibility, the unity of science, and the scientific observer.

Contributors: Manola Antonioli, Collège International de Philosophie (Paris); Clark Bailey; Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht U; Manuel DeLanda, U of Pennsylvania; Aden Evens, Dartmouth U; Gregory Flaxman, U of North Carolina; Thomas Kelso; Andrew Murphie, U of New South Wales; Patricia Pisters, U of Amsterdam; Arkady Plotnitsky, Purdue U; Steven Shaviro, Wayne State U; Arnaud Villani, Première Supérieure au Lycée Masséna de Nice.

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The Force of the Virtual: Deleuze, Science, and Philosophy

Gilles Deleuze once claimed that ‘modern science has not found its metaphysics, the metaphysics it needs.’ The Force of the Virtual responds to this need by investigating the consequences of the philosopher’s interest in (and appeal to) ‘the exact sciences.’ In exploring the problematic relationship between the philosophy of Deleuze and science, the original essays gathered here examine how science functions in respect to Deleuze’s concepts of time and space, how science accounts for processes of qualitative change, how science actively participates in the production of subjectivity, and how Deleuze’s thinking engages neuroscience.

All of the essays work through Deleuze’s understanding of the virtual—a force of qualitative change that is ontologically primary to the exact, measurable relations that can be found in and among the objects of science. By adopting such a methodology, this collection generates significant new insights, especially regarding the notion of scientific laws, and compels the rethinking of such ideas as reproducibility, the unity of science, and the scientific observer.

Contributors: Manola Antonioli, Collège International de Philosophie (Paris); Clark Bailey; Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht U; Manuel DeLanda, U of Pennsylvania; Aden Evens, Dartmouth U; Gregory Flaxman, U of North Carolina; Thomas Kelso; Andrew Murphie, U of New South Wales; Patricia Pisters, U of Amsterdam; Arkady Plotnitsky, Purdue U; Steven Shaviro, Wayne State U; Arnaud Villani, Première Supérieure au Lycée Masséna de Nice.

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The Force of the Virtual: Deleuze, Science, and Philosophy

The Force of the Virtual: Deleuze, Science, and Philosophy

The Force of the Virtual: Deleuze, Science, and Philosophy

The Force of the Virtual: Deleuze, Science, and Philosophy

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Overview

Gilles Deleuze once claimed that ‘modern science has not found its metaphysics, the metaphysics it needs.’ The Force of the Virtual responds to this need by investigating the consequences of the philosopher’s interest in (and appeal to) ‘the exact sciences.’ In exploring the problematic relationship between the philosophy of Deleuze and science, the original essays gathered here examine how science functions in respect to Deleuze’s concepts of time and space, how science accounts for processes of qualitative change, how science actively participates in the production of subjectivity, and how Deleuze’s thinking engages neuroscience.

All of the essays work through Deleuze’s understanding of the virtual—a force of qualitative change that is ontologically primary to the exact, measurable relations that can be found in and among the objects of science. By adopting such a methodology, this collection generates significant new insights, especially regarding the notion of scientific laws, and compels the rethinking of such ideas as reproducibility, the unity of science, and the scientific observer.

Contributors: Manola Antonioli, Collège International de Philosophie (Paris); Clark Bailey; Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht U; Manuel DeLanda, U of Pennsylvania; Aden Evens, Dartmouth U; Gregory Flaxman, U of North Carolina; Thomas Kelso; Andrew Murphie, U of New South Wales; Patricia Pisters, U of Amsterdam; Arkady Plotnitsky, Purdue U; Steven Shaviro, Wayne State U; Arnaud Villani, Première Supérieure au Lycée Masséna de Nice.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781452942681
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Publication date: 11/30/2013
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 408
File size: 3 MB

About the Author

Peter Gaffney is visiting assistant professor at Haverford College and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he teaches film studies, philosophy, and literature.

Table of Contents

Preface vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction. Science in the Gap Peter Gaffney 1

I The Virtual in Time and Space

1 The Insistence of the Virtual in Science and the History of Philosophy Arnaud Villani 69

2 Superposing Images: Deleuze and the Virtual after Bergson's Critique of Science Peter Gaffney 87

3 The Intense Space(s) of Gilles Deleuze Thomas Kelso 119

II Science and Process

4 Interstitial Life: Remarks on Causality and Purpose in Biology Steven Shaviro 133

5 Digital Ontology and Example Aden Evens 147

6 Virtual Architecture Manola Antonioli 169

III Science and Subjectivity

7 The Subject of Chaos Gregory Flaxman 191

8 Elemental Complexity and Relational Vitality: The Relevance of Nomadic Thought for Contemporary Science Rosi Braidotti 211

9 Numbers and Fractals: Neuroaesthetics and the Scientific Subject Patricia Pisters 229

IV Science and the Brain

10 The Image of Thought and the Sciences of the Brain after What Is Philosophy? Arkady Plotnitsky 255

11 Deleuze, Guattari, and Neuroscience Andrew Murphie 277

12 Mammalian Mathematicians Clark Bailey 301

Afterword. The Metaphysics of Science: An Interview with Manuel DeLanda Manuel DeLanda Peter Gaffney 325

Notes 333

Contributors 379

Index 383

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