A one-day workshop on Deleuze's relationship to the question of method in philosophy
'To encounter is to find, to capture, to steal, but there is no method for finding other than a long preparation.'
~Gilles Deleuze
This workshop will bring together several internationally recognised scholars of the philosopher, Gilles Deleuze, to discuss his relationship with the question of method across his work from his early works through to his collaborations with Guattari. We will explore questions of the consistency of Deleuze's position on method across his work, his relationship to transcendental philosophy, and the implications of his philosophy of the problem.
The workshop will take place in Stewart House RM 1, Senate House, Central London, on November 1st, 2024.
Organised by Henry Somers-Hall (RHUL) and supported by the Centre for Continental Philosophy.
Schedule
12.30-13.30 - Edward Thornton, ‘Neither Systematic nor Coherent: Deleuze and Guattari’s Geophilosophical Method'
13.45-14.45 - Craig Lundy (LMU), 'Deleuze's Problematic Principle of Sufficient Reason’
14.45-15.15 - Coffee
15.15-16.15 - Nathan Widder (RHUL), 'Deleuze’s early Empiricism and Critique of Transcendental Philosophy’
16.30-17.30 - Jeffrey Bell (SELU), 'A Method to Philosophical Madness’
If you would like to attend the workshop, please register at the following eventbrite page by October 25th so we have an idea of numbers:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/deleuze-and-method-tickets-1046777358257
Edward Thornton is a researcher and historian of philosophy whose work concerns the broad question of how different systems of thought interact with power. He has special interests in the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari and the history of Institutional Psychotherapy. Recently he has been investigating the burgeoning field of plant philosophy. He is the author of several journal articles including in Deleuze and Guattari Studies, Journal of Transcendental Philosophy, Hypatia and The European Legacy.
Craig Lundy's research has been concerned with investigating the nature of transformational processes, in particular the role that history plays in shaping socio-political formations. Much of this research has focused on the work of Deleuze and the post-Kantian lineage (e.g. Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Bergson), but he's also conducted applied research using the principles of complexity theory/science to examine the formation of community identity, the pedagogy of ‘service-learning’, and the processes of public engagement.
Nathan Widder's two main areas of interest are in contemporary post-Nietzschean political theory and philosophy and the history of political and philosophical thought. He has sought to bring these two areas of interest together by focusing on philosophical questions of difference, power, knowledge, and time, in ways that can speak to contemporary concerns without losing sight of complex contributions from the past. He has drawn upon ideas in contemporary thought for the purpose of staging a re-engagement with both central and marginal figures in ancient, early Christian and medieval thought, a project that culminated with my first monograph, Genealogies of Difference (University of Illinois Press, 2002). More recently he has published book chapters and articles on Deleuze's concepts of univocity and sense, Foucault on power, contemporary theories of radical democracy, and conceptions of micropolitics developed through Nietzsche, Foucault, and Deleuze. His second monograph, Reflections on Time and Politics(Penn State University Press, 2008), develops an ontology of non-linear time in order to address issues of power, selfhood, meaning, and micropolitics, drawing on diverse thinkers in ancient philosophy, contemporary Continental thought, and psychoanalysis. His third monograph, Political Theory after Deleuze (Continuum Press, 2012), is a detailed study of Gilles Deleuze's ontology and its implications for politics and ethics, setting his work within what has become known as the 'ontological turn' in contemporary political theory.
Jeffrey A. Bell is Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. He has recently been a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, during which time much of this book was written. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Deleuze and Deleuze and Guattari, including Deleuze and Guattari's What is Philosophy?: A Critical Introduction and Guide (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), Deleuze’s Hume (Edinburgh University Press, 2008), Philosophy at the Edge of Chaos (University of Toronto Press, 2006) and The Problem of Difference: Phenomenology and Poststructuralism (University of Toronto Press, 1998). Bell is co-editor with Paul Livingston and Andrew Cutrofello of Beyond the Analytic–Continental Divide: Pluralist Philosophy in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2015) and with Claire Colebrook of Deleuze and History (Edinburgh University Press, 2009).
