The Force of the Virtual

Gilles Deleuze once claimed that “modern science has not found its metaphysics, the metaphysics it needs.” The Force of the Virtual responds to this need by investigating the consequences of the philosopher’s interest in (and appeal to) “the exact sciences.” In exploring the problematic relationship between the philosophy of Deleuze and science, the original essays gathered here examine how science functions in respect to Deleuze’s concepts of time and space, how science accounts for processes of qualitative change, how science actively participates in the production of subjectivity, and how Deleuze’s thinking engages neuroscience.

 

All of the essays work through Deleuze’s understanding of the virtual—a force of qualitative change that is ontologically primary to the exact, measurable relations that can be found in and among the objects of science. By adopting such a methodology, this collection generates significant new insights, especially regarding the notion of scientific laws, and compels the rethinking of such ideas as reproducibility, the unity of science, and the scientific observer.

 

Contributors: Manola Antonioli, Collège International de Philosophie (Paris); Clark Bailey; Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht U; Manuel DeLanda, U of Pennsylvania; Aden Evens, Dartmouth U; Gregory Flaxman, U of North Carolina; Thomas Kelso; Andrew Murphie, U of New South Wales; Patricia Pisters, U of Amsterdam; Arkady Plotnitsky, Purdue U; Steven Shaviro, Wayne State U; Arnaud Villani, Première Supérieure au Lycée Masséna de Nice.

Preface, Acknowledgments, Introduction: Science in the Gap, Part I. The Virtual in Time and Space, 1. The Insistence of the Virtual in Science and the History of Philosophy, by Arnaud Villani, 2. Superposing Images: Deleuze and the Virtual after Bergson’s Critique of Science, by Peter Gaffney, 3. The Intense Space(s) of Gilles Deleuze, by Thomas Kelso, Part II. Science and Process, 4. Interstitial Life: Remarks on Causality and Purpose in Biology, by Steven Shaviro, 5. Digital Ontology and Example, by Aden Evens, 6. Virtual Architecture, by Manola Antonioli, Part III. Science and Subjectivity, 7. The Subject of Chaos, by Gregory Flaxman, 8. Elemental Complexity and Relational Vitality: The Relevance of Nomadic Thought for Contemporary Science by Rosi Braidotti, 9. Numbers and Fractals: Neuroaesthetics and the Scientific Subject by Patricia Pisters, Part IV. Science and the Brain, 10. The Image of Thought and the Sciences of the Brain after What Is Philosophy?, by Arkady Plotnitsky, 11. Deleuze, Guattari, and Neuroscience, by Andrew Murphie, 12. Mammalian Mathematicians, by lark Bailey, Afterword: The Metaphysics of Science: An Interview with Manuel DeLanda Manuel DeLanda and Peter Gaffney, Contributors, Index