The Differentiation Of Difference

In order to spell out that Deleuze's difference in itself is in essence equivalent to time itself, this paper reflects on the inner coherence of Deleuze's conception of difference with his ideas of time. Thus I would firstly focus on his philosophy of difference, especially how this pure difference overturns the whole conventional philosophy. The latter, owing to its spatialized view of time, falsely treated difference as an unconditional subordinate to unity or identity. To illustrate how the difference should be considered temporally and how it differentiates itself, the major part of this paper would concentrate on the theoretically dense text of Deleuze's three syntheses of time in "Difference and Repetition".It is just through these most delicate descriptions and deductions of the syntheses of time that we would comprehend how it is possible for the pure difference to unwind itself endlessly without reference to or presupposition of identity. Finally, I would argue that although Deleuze's philosophy of difference dissipates the foundation of conventional philosophy featured with identity, representation, fixed and transcendental subjectivity, etc., it is at the same time true that his three syntheses of time constitute the metaphysics of pure difference. This positive constructiveness has actually betrayed his inclination not to be an absolute deconstructionist but rather a constructive philosopher, who characterizes himself as a "pure metaphysician".