Becoming and time in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze
Abstract
This dissertation interrogates the concept of becoming as it operates in an ontological system of immanence. Our project is to investigate becoming on its own terms. We have chosen Gilles Deleuze as the philosopher of becoming par excellence, who asks how becoming effects the fixed structures of representational thought. Despite being the driving force of Deleuze's philosophical project, he never formally systematized his concept of becoming. Reconstructing the conceptual history of becoming in Deleuze's philosophy enables us to sketch a differential, immanent ontology and its temporal and causal processes. From the outset, we discover that Bergonian duration and Nietzschean eternal return are re-appropriated in Deleuze's concept of becoming. Contrary to his critics, Deleuze does not evince dualist ontology. Remapping the temporal lines which inform the course of his writings, we discover that Deleuze's ontology is tripartite. Absolute becoming, sensory becoming, and effectuated being provide the landscape through which pure difference is produced. Staging conceptual encounters between Bergson, Nietzsche, Leibniz, Borges, Klossowski, and Proust enables us to formulate an explicit concept of becoming from their implicit temporalities in Deleuze's philosophy. In the end, we apply the new concept of becoming to Deleuze's works, demonstrating that his canon dramatizes the immanent ontology he theorizes.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Smith, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Philosophy
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