The aim of this volume is to provide, through a series of close textual engagements, critical readings of Gilles Deleuze's The Fold. Leibniz and the Baroque. As interest in the Deleuzean corpus grows, more detailed expositions of his work become necessary. The Fold is a notoriously intricate text that presents a unique reading both of Leibniz and of the Baroque by bringing them together under an operative concept that is also integral to Deleuze's own work. Since its appearance, the readership of the book has grown incessantly, inspiring creative work across the fields of philosophy, aesthetics and cultural theory. However, surprisingly little sustained critical work has been undertaken with regard to it. This volume opens up a number of the key areas of difficulty and complexity within the text in order to provide a readership across different fields with a number of critical perspectives on this work.
Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
Introduction; N.McDonnell & S.van Tuinen
Four Things Deleuze Learned from Leibniz; M.Lærke
The Free and Indeterminate Accord of 'The New Harmony': The Significance of Benjamin's Study of the Baroque for Deleuze; T.Flanagan
Leibniz's Combinatorial Art of Synthesis and the Temporal Interval of the Fold; N.McDonnell
Leibniz, Mathematics and the Monad; S.Duffy
Perception, Justification and Transcendental Philosophy; G.Banham
Genesis and Difference: Deleuze, MaImon, and the Post-Kantian Reading of Leibniz; D.W.Smith
A Transcendental Philosophy of the Event: Deleuze's Non-Phenomenological Reading of Leibniz; S.van Tuinen
Towards a Political Ontology of the Fold: Deleuze, Heidegger, Whitehead and the 'Fourfold' Event; K.Robinson
Two Floors of Thinking; or, Deleuze's Aesthetics of Folds; B.M.Kaiser
Capacity or Plasticity: So just what is a Body? M.Hammond
Index
Authors
SJOERD VAN TUINEN is Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Belgium. He is author of Peter Sloterdijk. Ein Profil (2006).
NIAMH MCDONNELL is a graduate from Goldsmiths University of London, UK. She was the organizer of the conference 'A Leibniz Affair–Readings of Leibniz from Kant to Deleuze' in 2005. Currently researching the intersection between performative writing in philosophy and moving image art forms, she lives and works in London.