[Discussion] CFP: The Living Thought of Gilles Deleuze (Denmark) (1/15/05; 11/3/05-11/4/05)

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Call for Papers

The Living Thought of Gilles Deleuze

Conference at University of Copenhagen, Denmark
November 3-4, 2005

One of the prominent themes in the writings of Gilles Deleuze is an
understanding of thinking as being alive. Thinking is conceived as an
affirmation of life, and life itself is affirmed by thinking as
something that is alive. In other words, the relationship between life
and thinking is an affirmative relationship, in which life is affirmed
by thinking and thinking affirmed by life. The notion of the double
affirmation in Nietzsche et la philosophie (1962) is revolving around
such an affirmative relationship between life and thinking.

The affirmative relationship between life and thinking is further
elaborated in the books on Proust et les signes (1964) and Le
bergsonisme (1966). In these books Deleuze explores the affirmative
relationship between life and thinking through the lense of temporality.
The temporality of the affirmation is primarily described in two modes:
the proustian apprenticeship of signs as an ongoing becoming, as a
number of leaps and revelations, is organized from the viewpoint of a
future, whereas the bergsonian notions of duration, memory and =E9lan
vital accentuates a relationship to the past.

It can be argued that the double affirmation of life and thinking is one
of the basic themes in Diff=E9rence et r=E9p=E9tition (1968). In fact, De=
leuze
presents the reader with a conception of life as a multitude of
differential relationships between immanent forces, and thinking in the
affirmative mode is described as a number of temporal syntheses and
repetitions. In this respect we can rearticulate the complex notions of
difference and repetition as they are presented by Deleuze as a
philosophical portrait of living thought.

The collaboration between Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari introduces,
among other aspects, an experimental and subversive dimension. The
critique of psychoanalysis in L=92Anti-=8Cdipe (1972) encompasses at leas=
t
two dimensions: a specific critique of a certain French psychoanalysis
in the early 1970s, and a more general critique of a mode of thinking
that willingly or unwillingly tries to domesticate life. In Mille
plateaux (1980) the authors present the reader with a number of critical
models, ranging from the rhizome to the nomadic machine, all of which
contain a certain potential for an affirmative and experimental
thinking. If L=92Anti-=8Cdipe criticizes thinking in the mode of negativi=
ty,
then Mille Plateaux creates a number of critical models for an
affirmative thinking.

The books on cinema returns to a number of earlier themes in the
writings of Gilles Deleuze: the apprenticeship of signs, difference and
repetition, the temporality of affirmation... The history of cinema is
described as an apprenticeship of moving and temporal signs, and the
notion of the crystalline image, for instance, rearticulates the problem
of how to introduce time in thinking. The books are not simply applied
philosophy, but rather an attempt to articulate the experience of living
images in terms of thought: an empiricism of the cinema.

However, it is probably in the book on Foucault (1986) that Deleuze most
clearly outlines his understanding of living thought. His general
description of Foucault=92s writings is guided by two questions: What is
=93the middle=94 or the constant element in the thought of Foucault? What=
 is
the element that Foucault and Deleuze have in common? The response to
both of these questions is concentrated in a notion of living thought,
or in other words a philosophical vitalism.

In Qu=92est-ce que la philosophie? (1991) the authors further elaborate
the understanding of living thought by describing it as a creative
thinking: philosophy as creation of concepts, science as creation of
functions, art as creation of affects and percepts. This notion of
thinking as a creation of different entities - concepts, functions,
affects and percepts - is a continuation of the nietzschean notion of a
double affirmation between life and thinking. Between these two notions
there is a wide variety of manifestations and critical expositions of
living thought in the writings of Gilles Deleuze.

The conference on The Living Thought of Gilles Deleuze is held on the
occasion of the 10th anniversary of the voluntary death of Gilles
Deleuze. However, it is not simply our intentions to commemorate the
death of a philosopher, but more importantly to explore and celebrate
the thoughts of Gilles Deleuze as very much alive today.

The conference will be held November 3-4, 2005, at the University of
Copenhagen, Denmark, and is organized and coordinated in collaboration
between the University of Copenhagen and the Copenhagen Business School.
The language at the conference will be English. With the exception of
keynote speakers, whom will be announced shortly, each of the
presentations at the conference will be limited to 20 minutes in order
to facilitate a commentary session regarding each paper. It is planned
that the papers at the conference will be published afterwards in an
anthology.

Proposals for papers, including a short academic biography, must be
submitted by January 15th 2005 to the organizers at kimsu@hum.ku.dk and
the notification regarding acceptance will be announced by February 15th
2005.

For further information, please contact the organizers:

Associate professor
Martin Fuglsang
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
Blaagaardsgade 23B
DK 2200 Copenhagen N
Denmark
Phone: (+45) 3815 2813
Email: fuglsang@cbs.dk

Assistant research professor
Kim Su Rasmussen
Department of Cultural Studies and the Arts,
Comparative Literature and Studies in Modern Culture
University of Copenhagen
Njalsgade 140-142, Building 25.5
DK 2300 Copenhagen S
Denmark
Phone: (+45) 3532 9269
Email: kimsu@hum.ku.dk


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