The Fold

Leibniz and the Baroque

1992
Author:

Gilles Deleuze
Translated by Tom Conley
Foreword by Tom Conley

In The Fold, Gilles Deleuze argues that Leibniz’s writings constitute the grounding elements of a Baroque philosophy and of theories for analyzing contemporary arts and science. A model for expression in contemporary aesthetics, the concept of the monad is viewed in terms of folds of space, movement, and time. Similarly, the world is interpreted as a body of infinite folds and surfaces that twist and weave through compressed time and space. According to Deleuze, Leibniz also anticipates contemporary views of event and history as multifaceted combinations of signs in motion and of the “modern” subject as nomadic, always in the process of becoming.

In The Fold, Gilles Deleuze argues that Leibniz’s writings constitute the grounding elements of a Baroque philosophy and of theories for analyzing contemporary arts and science. A model for expression in contemporary aesthetics, the concept of the monad is viewed in terms of folds of space, movement, and time. Similarly, the world is interpreted as a body of infinite folds and surfaces that twist and weave through compressed time and space. According to Deleuze, Leibniz also anticipates contemporary views of event and history as multifaceted combinations of signs in motion and of the “modern” subject as nomadic, always in the process of becoming.

A significant and needed contribution. Proposes a radically new conception of the notion of Baroque and, at the same time, is a new interpretation of Leibniz’s work.

Reda Bensmaïa

In The Fold, Gilles Deleuze argues that Leibniz’s writings constitute the grounding elements of a Baroque philosophy and of theories for analyzing contemporary arts and science. A model for expression in contemporary aesthetics, the concept of the monad is viewed in terms of folds of space, movement, and time. Similarly, the world is interpreted as a body of infinite folds and surfaces that twist and weave through compressed time and space. According to Deleuze, Leibniz also anticipates contemporary views of event and history as multifaceted combinations of signs in motion and of the “modern” subject as nomadic, always in the process of becoming.

Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) was professor of philosophy at the University of Paris, Vincennes-St. Denis. With Félix Guattari, he coauthored Anti-Oedipus, A Thousand Plateaus, and Kafka. He was also the author of Kant’s Critical Philosophy, Cinema 1, Cinema 2, and Essays Critical and Clinical. All of these books are published in English by the University of Minnesota Press.

Tom Conley is professor of French at Harvard University. He is the author of The Self-Made Map, published by the University of Minnesota Press, and has translated several books, including works by Réda Bensmaïa and Michel de Certeau.

A significant and needed contribution. Proposes a radically new conception of the notion of Baroque and, at the same time, is a new interpretation of Leibniz’s work.

Reda Bensmaïa