Signature of the World: 'What is Deleuze and Guattari's Philosophy?

by Éric Alliez, Alberto Toscano (Translator), Eliot Ross Albert (Translator)

The Signature of the World focuses on one of the most influential works of contemporary philosophy: What is Philosophy? by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, their last joint work after Anti-Oedipus and A Thousand Plateaus. It sets What is Philosophy? in the context of earlier work by the two thinkers and, in a manner sure to challenge and provoke, juxtaposes it to the work of both analytic philosophers and continental phenomenologists.

Alliez explores the distinctive theory of thought put forth by Deleuze & Guattari from a series of angles, delving into their revolutionary, Spinozist treatment of the history of philosophy, elucidating their engagement with the metaphysics of current research programmes in the sciences and delineating their invention of a 'material meta-aesthetics' capable of responding to the most radical experiments in contemporary art.

Much recent philosophy has revelled in declaring the end of metaphysics, of ontology, and sometimes of philosophy itself. In sharp contrast, The Signature of the World is a forceful reminder of the power of ontology and the need for a materialist reinvention of metaphysics.

The Signature of the World is here accompanied by two appendices, 'Deleuze Virtual Philosophy' and 'On the Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction to (the) Matter', as well as a preface by Alberto Toscano.

Genres: Philosophy

152 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 1993

About the author

Éric Alliez is a philosopher and Professor at Université Paris 8 and at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Kingston University, London. He is the author of Capital Times, The Signature of the World: Or, What is Deleuze and Guattari's Philosophy?, The Brain-Eye: New Histories of Modern Painting, and Wars and Capital, with Maurizio Lazzarato (Semiotext(e), and editor of The Guattari Effect, with Andrew Goffey, and Spheres of Action: Art and Politics, with Peter Osborne (MIT Press).

Reviews

[Elia Mantovani · Rating 1 out of 5]

In case you are looking for a clear, succinct and enlightening guide to Deleuze and Guattari's last enigmatic book, this is definitely not the book you should have a look at. The subtitle is a marketing choice, the whole text is more like an autonomous speculation, focusing on Spinoza and some original concepts regarding metaphilosophy. Totally pointless if considered a guide to Deleuze and Guattari's book.

[Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Signature of the World is an odd book. Ostensibly about Deleuze’s and Guattari’s last coauthored work, ‘What Is Philosophy?’, this isn’t so much a commentary as it is a kind of ‘extension' of WIP, a postscript or an unwritten eighth chapter, riffing on WIP's themes while moving in directions not exactly prescribed by the book itself. Not quite a guide, but more of a chaser to the main event, if could be put that way. Comprised of three small essays and a pair of appendices (this isn’t a big book), Signature works best when magnifying and extrapolating from the many suggestive lines scattered across WIP itself. Pursuing, for instance, the resonances between the philosophy of Alfred Whitehead and D&G (perhaps among the first secondary discussions to really do so), as well as fleshing out the scholastic notions of ‘real’, ‘formal’, and ‘numerical’ distinction in the work of Descartes and Spinoza (as read by D&G), Alliez has a knack for illuminating some of the more finicky and underdeveloped themes of D&G’s final work.

On the other hand, the clear familiarity that Alliez has for his subjects tends, as far the reading experience goes, to somewhat work against his own book. Although pregnant with instances of suggestion, both the pace and density with which Signature moves across its subject matter has the effect of obscuring the many legitimately interesting points otherwise raised. After proposing the intriguing notion of reading Deleuze and Guattari in terms of an ‘ontobiology’, for example, the term itself more or less disappears from the rest of the book, lost amongst Alliez’s flurry of forward-momentum. If this were a longer work, one could perhaps forgive the many instances of this kind of thing. Yet at just over a hundred pages, these flash-in-a-pan insights (of which there are many!) never seem to cohere in any sustained manner, leaving a distinct feeling of ‘yes, but… what exactly was that all about?’ at the end of each essay.

Granted, this is as much an effect of the demands placed upon the reader by Alliez himself, and someone with a bit more patience, a bit more sympathy, might be more willing than I to work through and pursue the many suggestions and implications developed through the book. After all, Signature does have the distinction of in fact engaging with many points of reference that are only now really coming to the attention of the English speaking world - the work of Gilbert Simondon, Fransisco Verela, Raymond Ruyer and the aforementioned Whitehead all stand out - but again, the scattered nature of the discussions here make this a book far easier to cite from (there are choice quotes everywhere!) than to be properly taught from. If anything, it’s the two small appendices which ‘save’ book, insofar as they take a line of thought and simply run with it; the reprinted talk, ‘Deleuze’s Vritual Philosophy’ is especially helpful in its reconstruction of Deleuze’s intellectual and philosophical trajectory.

So like I said - an odd book: one that tries to do a little too much in much too little a space. Read if you have the time and the interest.

[booklover · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book because I was curious about what Alliez had to say about "Deleuze's Virtual Philosophy" and was not disappointed!