- Multiplicity (philosophy)
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Multiplicity is a philosophical concept that Edmund Husserl and Henri Bergson developed by analogy with Riemann's description of the mathematical concept.[1] It forms an important part of the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze, particularly in his collaboration with Félix Guattari, Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1972–80). In his Foucault (1986), Deleuze describes Michel Foucault's The Archaeology of Knowledge (1969) as "the most decisive step yet taken in the theory-practice of multiplicities."[2]
Contents
Deleuze's philosophy
The notion of multiplicity forms a central part of Bergson's critique of philosophical negativity and the dialectical method, Deleuze argues in his commentary, Bergsonism (1966). The theory of multiplicities, he explains, must be distinguished from traditional philosophical problems of "the One and the Multiple."[3] By opposing "the One and the Multiple," dialectical philosophy claims "to reconstruct the real," but this claim is false, Bergson argues, since it "involves abstract concepts that are much too general."[4]
Instead of referring to "the Multiple in general," Bergson's theory of multiplicities distinguishes between two types of multiplicity: continuous multiplicities and discrete multiplicities (a distinction that he developed from Riemann).[5] The features of this distinction may be tabulated as follows:
Continuous multiplicities Discrete multiplicities differences in kind differences in degree divides only by changing in kind divides without changing in kind non-numerical - qualitative numerical - quantitative differences are virtual differences are actual continuous discontinuous qualitative discrimination quantitative differentiation simultaneity succession fusion juxtaposition organization order subjective - subject objective - object duration space See also
References
- ^ "It was Riemann in the field of physics and mathematics who dreamed about the notion of 'multiplicity' and other different kinds of multiplicities. The philosophical importance of this notion then appeared in Husserl's Formal and Transcendental Logic, as well as in Bergson's Essay on the Immediate Given of Awareness" (Deleuze 1986, 13).
- ^ Deleuze (1986, 14).
- ^ "Multiplicity remains completely indifferent to the traditional problems of the multiple and the one, and above all to the problem of a subject who would think through this multiplicity, give it conditions, account for its origins, and so on. There is neither one nor multiple, which would at all events entail having recourse to a consciousness that would be regulated by the one and developed by the other" (Deleuze 1986, 14).
- ^ See Deleuze (1966, 38-47); The dialectical method "compensates for the inadequacy of a concept that is too broad or too general by invoking the opposite concept, which is no less broad and general [. . .]. The concrete will never be attained by combining the inadequacy of one concept with the inadequacy of its opposite. The singular will never be attained by correcting a generality with another generality" (Deleuze 1966, 44).
- ^ Deleuze (1966, 39).
Sources
- Husserl's philosophy
- Deleuze, Gilles. 1966. Bergsonism. Trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam. NY: Zone, 1991. ISBN 0942299078.
- ---. 1986. Foucault. Trans. Sean Hand. London: Althone, 1988. ISBN 0826457800.
- Deleuze, Gilles and Félix Guattari. 1972. Anti-Œdipus. Trans. Robert Hurley, Mark Seem and Helen R. Lane. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 1 of Capitalism and Schizophrenia. 2 vols. 1972-1980. Trans. of L'Anti-Oedipe. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. ISBN 0826476953.
- ---. 1980. A Thousand Plateaus. Trans. Brian Massumi. London and New York: Continuum, 2004. Vol. 2 of Capitalism and Schizophrenia. 2 vols. 1972-1980. Trans. of Mille Plateaux. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit. ISBN 0826476945.
- Foucault, Michel. 1969. The Archaeology of Knowledge. Trans. A. M. Sheridan Smith. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0415287537.
- Massumi, Brian. 1992. A User's Guide to Capitalism and Schizophrenia: Deviations from Deleuze and Guattari. Swerve editions. Cambridge, USA and London: MIT. ISBN 0262631431.
- Nicholas Tampio, ["Multiplicity"] "Sage Encyclopedia of Political Theory" (2010).
Deleuze - Guattari Gilles Deleuze (Cat) • Félix Guattari (Cat) Concepts
and theoriesAffect • Arborescent • Assemblage • Body without organs • Conceptual character • Desiring-production • Deterritorialization • Difference • Haecceity • Immanent evaluation • Individuation • Line of flight • Minority • Molar and molecular • Multiplicity • Noosphere • Plane of immanence • Reterritorialization • Rhizome • Schizoanalysis • Society of control • Subjectification • Transcendental empiricism • VirtualCapitalism and Schizophrenia (Anti-Oedipus • A Thousand Plateaus) • Kafka: Towards a Minor Literature • Rhizome • Nomadology: The War Machine • What is Philosophy? Works by Deleuze Empiricism and Subjectivity • Nietzsche and Philosophy • Kant's Critical Philosophy • Proust and Signs • Nietzsche • Bergsonism • Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty • Difference and Repetition • Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza • The Logic of Sense • Spinoza: Practical Philosophy • The Intellectuals and Power: A Discussion Between Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault1 • Dialogues2 • Superpositions3 • Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation • Cinema 1: The Movement Image • Cinema 2: The Time-Image • Foucault • The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque • Périclès et Verdi: La philosophie de Francois Châtelet • Negotiations • Essays Critical and Clinical • Bartleby, la formula della creazione4 • Pure Immanence • Desert Islands and Other Texts 1953-1974 • Two Regimes of MadnessWorks by Guattari Psychanalyse et transversalité • Molecular Revolution • Desire and Revolution5 • L'inconscient machinique. Essais de Schizoanalyse • L’intervention institutionnelle6 • Les années d'hiver • Pratique de l'institutionnel et politique7 • Communists Like Us8 • Molecular Revolution in Brazil9 • The Three Ecologies • Cartographies schizoanalytiques • Chaosmose • Chaosophy • Soft Subversions • The Guattari Reader • The Anti-Œdipus Papers • Chaos and ComplexityRelated topics L'Abécédaire de Gilles Deleuze • La Borde clinic • A New Philosophy of Society: Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity1 with Michel Foucault • 2 with Claire Parnet • 3 with Carmelo Bene • 4 with Giorgio Agamben • 5 with Franco Berardi and Paolo Beretto • 6 with Jacques Arodino, Georges Lapassade, Gerard Mendel and Rene Lourau • 7 with Jean Oury and François Tosquelles • 8 with Antonio Negri • 9 with Suley Rolnik
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