Life In Flux

In the struggle against rational philosophy, irrational philosophy represented by Nietzsche has been in constant progress. Rational philosophy advocates duality. It stresses the supremacy of rational subject, and rejects the indeterminacy caused by irrational elements. Irrational philosophy emphasizes the role of instinct and passions. It has been developing at an enormous speed since the advent of the last quarter of the 20th century. In this post-modern period, discourses of diverse philosophical schools are in resonance. The debate between utter deconstruction and reconstruction on the basis of deconstruction has been evolving. The theoretical configuration of various schools in this period assumes liberal pluralism and eclecticism. In the roaring discourses of post-modern times, the voice of Gilles Deleuze sounds lonely, deep and lingering. As a follower of Nietzsche, the Stoics, Bergson, and other irrational philosophers, Deleuze was seeking the way to "reconstruct" philosophy after dethroning the traditional metaphysics. Michel Foucault went so far as to claim that "[…] perhaps one day, this century will be known as Deleuzian." Foucault's announcement might be a little exaggerative. However and indeed, Deleuze has not received due attention as have Foucault and Derrida. But the 21st century does witness people's increasing interest in Deleuzian philosophy. In the past decade, there has been growing enthusiasm for Deleuzian philosophy the world over. Deleuze studies take on diverse forms and orientations. Some researchers focus on the general understanding of Deleuze's philosophy; some are concerned with certain Deleuze's philosophical projects; still others focus on the exploration of its practicability in various fields. Generally speaking, the study of Deleuze's works is still in the introductory stage, and this is even more so in China. Deleuze is a philosopher fascinated with immanence in the irrational tradition. The main thrust of his work is to dethrone the Platonic Idea of representation and establish transcendental empiricism. With this as its starting point, the dissertation is to clarify the implications of Deleuze's philosophy of immanence and explore its possibilities in terms of literature interpretation as a literary school. The dissertation explores the significances of "immanence" in different phases of Deleuze's academic practice and attempts to gain insight into Deleuze's personal unconscious lying behind his life and research. It tries to deduce why he insists upon the concept of "immanence," or events, singularities, simulacra, desire, intensities, becoming, affect, percept and sensations, all of which are flowing, pre-individual and depersonalized. It shows that Deleuze had a natural aptitude for a consciousness that is not yet individuated, and for full spiritual freedom, which was clearly reflected in his real life and academic research. The dissertation is composed of eight chapters. The introduction serves as the preliminary part which provides the basic information about Deleuze's life experience, his general features as a paradoxical thinker, his basic academic contributions, his relationship with Foucault and Derrida, and the research questions and methods of this dissertation. It points out that Deleuze is in a constant process of erecting a new duality after he deconstructs the old duality, and he is always considering erecting the new metaphysics of transcendental empiricism after he deconstructs the classical metaphysics. He is claimed to be a master of "concepts," a skill he mastered because he had lost confidence in the traditional concepts and wanted to use new concepts to express difference and becoming. Thus, his concepts are, in fact, "a-conceptual," rather than representational. Chapter 1 introduces how Deleuze integrates diverse theoretical sources into his own philosophical framework. The key to understanding his life pursuit and philosophical orientation is his fascination with "immanence." In the process of dethroning the Platonic idea of rep...