''What is Philosophy?'' (french: Qu'est-ce que la philosophie?) is a 1991 book by the philosopher

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...

and the psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. The two had met shortly after May 1968 when they were in their forties and collaborated most notably on '' Capitalism & Schizophrenia'' (Volume 1: ''

Anti-Oedipus ''Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: Capitalisme et schizophrénie. L'anti-Œdipe) is a 1972 book by French authors Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the former a philosopher and the latter a psychoanalyst. It is the first vol ...

'' (1972); ''Volume 2:

A Thousand Plateaus ''A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia'' (french: link=no, Mille plateaux) is a 1980 book by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the French psychoanalyst Félix Guattari. It is the second and final volume of their collaborative ...

'' 1980) and ''Kafka: Towards a Minority Literature'' (1975). In this, the last book they co-signed, philosophy, science, and art are treated as three modes of thought.

Background and concepts

Deleuze commented in a letter to one of his translators that his purpose in writing ''What is Philosophy?'' was to address "the problem of absolute immanence" and to explain why he considered

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

the "prince of philosophers." ''What is Philosophy?'' is concerned with, among the concepts that the book explores, the

plane of immanence Plane of immanence (french: plan d'immanence) is a founding concept in the metaphysics or ontology of French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Immanence, meaning residing or becoming within, generally offers a relative opposition to transcendence, tha ...

, conceptual personae, geophilosophy, functives, prospects, affects, percepts and chaos, as well as concepts in themselves understood as basic components of philosophy. In a review of the translation of

François Dosse François Dosse (; born 22 September 1950) is a French historian and philosopher who specializes in intellectual history. Biography After devoting his doctoral thesis (1983) to the Annales School, Dosse turned his research interests to stru ...

's biography of Deleuze & Guattari, Adam Shatz writes that while it was Deleuze alone who ''wrote'' their final collaboration, the ideas of his longtime friend were still very much present in this "uncharacteristically sombre and subdued but "lyrical" book. Mathias Schönher holds that ''What is Philosophy?'' is Deleuze and Guattari's last book jointly written. As evidence he cites the drafts and working notes from the Guattari Collection at the archives of the

Institute for Contemporary Publishing Archives ' (IMEC), translated as The Institute for Contemporary Publishing Archives, is a French institution created in 1988 at the initiative of researchers and professionals in French publishing to gather archives and studies related to the main French ...

(IMEC).

Reception

Mainstream media

''What is Philosophy?'' received a mixed review from Leon H. Brody in ''

Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...

''. The book was also reviewed by John Rajchman in '' Artforum'', Christopher Stanley in '' The Times Higher Education Supplement'', and the philosopher

Paul R. Patton Paul Robert Patton (born 1950) is Scientia Professor of Philosophy in the School of History and Philosophy at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, where he has been since 2002. Patton is known for his publications and conferenc ...

in '' The Times Literary Supplement'', and discussed by Adam Shatz in a review of a biography of the two men. Brody credited Deleuze and Guattari with "singular insights" into the nature of philosophy and the distinction between it and other disciplines, but believed that because of the way the book was written it was unclear whether their conclusions were correct or their views were fully intelligible.

Academic reception

''What is Philosophy?'' was reviewed by M. R. Loudon in the '' British Journal of Educational Studies''. Other discussions include those by Stephen Arnott in ''

Philosophy Today ''Philosophy Today'' is an international peer-reviewed journal that reflects the current questions, topics and debates of contemporary philosophy, with a particular focus on continental philosophy. The journal is especially interested in original ...

'', Isabelle Stengers in '' Angelaki'', Vikki Bell in ''

Theory, Culture & Society ''Theory, Culture & Society'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1982 and covers sociology, cultural, and social theory. The journal aims to work "across the borderlines between sociology and cultural studies, the social ...

'', Hanneke Grottenboer in ''Oxford Art Journal'', Daniel W. Smith in ''

Parallax Parallax is a displacement or difference in the apparent position of an object viewed along two different lines of sight and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines. Due to foreshortening, nearby objects ...

'', Ted Striphas in ''Text and Performance Quarterly'', David R. Cole in ''Educational Philosophy & Theory'', Henning Schmidgen in ''Theory, Culture & Society'', and Mathias Schönher in ''Theory, Culture & Society''. Stuhr, writing in '' The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', described the book as important, highly original, and challenging. He praised Deleuze and Guattari's discussions of the nature of concepts and the relationship of philosophy to science and art. Plotnitsky defended the book against criticism from Alan Sokal and

Jean Bricmont Jean Bricmont (; born 12 April 1952) is a Belgian theoretical physicist and philosopher of science. Professor at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), he works on renormalization group and nonlinear differential equations. Since 2004, ...

in '' Paragraph''. Smith wrote that Deleuze and Guattari's

definition of philosophy Definitions of philosophy aim at determining what all forms of philosophy have in common and how to distinguish philosophy from other disciplines. Many different definitions have been proposed but there is very little agreement on which is the rig ...

was famous. Schmidgen argued that philosophy and science did not have such clearly distinct purposes as Deleuze and Guattari maintained.

Criticism

In a chapter of ''Fashionable Nonsense'', Sokal and Bricmont object to the use of scientific terms such as " chaos" in meaningless or misleading ways. They list a number of occurrences of what they deem to be " pseudo-scientific language".

References

Footnotes

Bibliography

;Books * * * * * ;Book Chapters * ;Journals * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ;Online Encyclopediae * {{Deleuze-Guattari 1991 non-fiction books Books about metaphilosophy French non-fiction books Collaborative non-fiction books Philosophy of science books Books about philosophy of mathematics Works by Félix Guattari Works by Gilles Deleuze