Gilles Deleuze’s Philosophy Of Difference And His Later Political Turning

The French philosophy in the 20 th century is like a colorful starry sky.Gilles Deleuze,a shining star,made outstanding contributions in this field.He was one of the famous French philosophers in this period,together with Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida.His thought influenced philosophy(political philosophy),psychoanalysis,film criticism,history,anthropology,literary criticism,linguistics,art and drama,and other fields.Gilles Deleuze attached great importance to innovative key concepts of philosophy.He,together with Felix Guattari,brought up a series of thoughtful and penetrative theoretical concepts,such as “plane of immanence”,“body without organs”,“rhizome”,“deterritorialization”,“nomadism”,“a thousand plateaus”,which had an extensive influence on movie,urban planning,architecture,education and other fields.In general,this thesis is divided into four parts to study Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy and political thoughts.Chapter I expounds Deleuze’s criticism and deconstruction of traditional identity philosophy.As a kind of constructive thought,where the starting point of Deleuze’s philosophy of difference came from is the first problem to be solved.In this thesis,the Author first analyzes the connection of Plato’s theory of Ideas and Aristotle’s logics as finite representation with Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of difference through comparing difference and identity.Deleuze argued that difference is not identity on the basis of criticizing their theories.The Author also analyzes the relation and distinction between Hegel’s philosophy of contradiction,Leibniz’s “vice contradiction” as infinite representation and Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of difference through comparing difference and contradiction.According to Gilles Deleuze,the traditional metaphysics is to reflect on the difference by the presentation,which is embodied in many philosophers such as Plato,Aristotle,Hegel and Leibniz.Plato’s theory of Ideas laid a foundation for the thought of representation.Aristotle’s thought is a concrete expansion of the presentation of difference.But both of their thoughts are the finite representation of difference,and their thoughts of difference are the infinite representation of difference.According to Gilles Deleuze,the four bases constitute the presentation,including identity of concept,similarity of perception,opposition of predicate as well as analogy of judgment.However,the thought of presentation cannot truly think about and grasp the difference,since the difference had been eliminated and was placed under the domination of identity.So in Gilles Deleuze’s system,the difference is not the identity.If the differences between difference and opposition,and between difference coordination and unity of opposition are compared in detail from the perspectives of system philosophy and analytical philosophy,it can be found that difference is universal,while opposition and contradiction are special,so difference is not contradiction.Chapter II mainly discusses Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of difference.This thesis attempts to clarify the connotation of Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of difference by discussing the concepts of "undifferentiated difference and chaos","individualized difference" and "univocal existence".According to Gilles Deleuze,the world is a generative anonymous world,and a chaotic world of difference,in which difference is everything.In Gilles Deleuze’s viewpoint,individualization is a process in which existence not only gives the unity of its own characteristics,but also distinguishes itself from other individuals,so difference plays an important role in individualization.Gilles Deleuze stressed that "chaotic world" is a world of "impersonal individualization" and "singularity of pre-individual".In this world-nature,nature-world,which is the coexistential condition of infinite existence and finite existence,is finally set.Obviously,the world is not God or man-made;and to resist the theory that everything is identical,Gilles Deleuze put forward the theory of univocal existence,based on which,this thesis synthesizes the previous research achievements,and analyzes the "temporal mechanism of difference","theory of force and the will of power" and "the eternal return and the repetition of difference" and other issues to clarify Gilles Deleuze’s thought of repetition of difference.In Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy,the differentiation of difference is repetition.There is an important association between difference and repetition,which can only be expressed through repetition.Difference occurs in repetition,and repetition generates difference instead of the identity.Repetition realizes cyclic reciprocation in difference,which can be regarded as the regeneration of difference.Gilles Deleuze demonstrated the proposition of "how is the repetition of difference possible" by using the theory of differential temporalization mechanism of three synthesis of time.The will of power constitutes the core of Gilles Deleuze’s interpretation of Nietzsche’s philosophy.Gilles Deleuze used the basic concepts of power and difference to explain the theory of the will of power,clarified many misunderstandings about will of power,excavated numerous valuable and available ideological resources,and further developed his own philosophy of power-based theory with will of power as the core,which is different from Nietzsche’s philosophy.In Gilles Deleuze’s view,eternal return is a synthesis that synthesizes the infinite future and the infinite past,bringing them together,going back and returning to the present moment,and synthesizing them into the present and creating new differences.Eternal return is a kind of repetition,but not of the identity,but of difference.Through the thinking and discussion of the above issues,this thesis attempts to make a systematic analysis of the ontology of differences,and to discuss the "plane of immanence " and "dialectics of differences" and other issues.Chapter III discusses Gilles Deleuze’s politics of differences.From the perspectives of "event" and "pragmatism",this thesis analyzes the political function of philosophy and explains the micro-politics in Gilles Deleuze’s generative philosophy in combination with Gilles Deleuze’s theory of "style-stuttering: revolutionary potential";based on this,it further explores the relationship between "generation-minority","generation-democracy" and democratic politics.According to Gilles Deleuze,the importance of philosophy lies in the fact that philosophy is a kind of pragmatism,and philosophy is an intervention in the world.Giving full play to the political function of philosophy can create an open future.What Gilles Deleuze called the generated "minority" is a kind of pluralistic political subject,which is fundamentally different from the single political subject in the traditional sense.This is also the direction of the future new political subject constructed by Deleuze’s political philosophy.Gilles Deleuze’s "generation--democracy" cannot be regarded as criticizing contemporary democratic countries or rejecting or condemning democracy itself,but as resisting the present in the name of some potential democracy or future democracy.Gilles Deleuze’s politics of difference constructs many special political concepts and theories,and provides us with a new perspective and valuable resources to explore political philosophy in the future.At the end,this thesis evaluates Gilles Deleuze’s thoughts and analyzes their contributions and shortcomings.