Living mirrors of the universe : expression and perspectivism in Benjamin and Deleuze after Leibniz

Dissertation, Kingston University (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This thesis argues for the significance of G.W Leibniz’s concepts of ‘expression’, ‘force’ and ‘perspective’ to the writings of Walter Benjamin and Gilles Deleuze. By triangulating the philosophical projects of Benjamin, Deleuze and Leibniz, as has not yet been done, the thesis opens up new perspectives and provides new readings of all three. Designating a structure of relations in which every simple substance or monad serves as a ‘living mirror’ of the universe, Leibniz’s concept of ‘expression’ denotes virtual inclusion or immanence. His concept of ‘force’ denotes the self-incurred drive that motivates the monad to action, while his ‘perspectivism’ defines the monads individuality through their infinite points of view on the world. Deleuze and Benjamin, I suggest, appropriate Leibniz’s concepts as part of their respective critiques of epistemology, which target Kant’s conception of experience as a hierarchic relation of representation, allowing them to redefine experience as non-hierarchal, de-centred and embodied. At the same time, for both, Leibniz’s philosophy serves to criticize historicist views of chronological time. Leibniz’s perspectivism is reformulated by Deleuze and Benjamin as part of their respective critical theories of the image, culminating in their later formulations of the ‘dialectical’ and ‘crystal’ image, respectively. The conclusion however, highlights the diverging paths formed by their returns to Leibniz. Benjamin develops a politically effective ‘historical perspectivism’ in which the discontinuity of history enables ‘true historical time’ to replace chronological time. Deleuze, on the other hand, opts for an ahistorical pure form of temporality, his ‘mannerist perspectivism’ describing a continuous, perpetually repeated ‘becoming’.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 102,020

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-09-06

Downloads
25 (#896,434)

6 months
6 (#917,032)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Noa Levin
Kingston University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

9. The Task of the Translator.Walter Benjamin - 2012 - In John Biguenet & Rainer Schulte (eds.), Theories of Translation: An Anthology of Essays From Dryden to Derrida. University of Chicago Press. pp. 71-82.
Infinitesimals as an issue of neo-Kantian philosophy of science.Thomas Mormann & Mikhail Katz - 2013 - Hopos: The Journal of the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (2):236-280.
Leibnizian expression.Chris Swoyer - 1995 - Journal of the History of Philosophy 33 (1):65-99.
Leibniz on force and absolute motion.John T. Roberts - 2003 - Philosophy of Science 70 (3):553-573.

View all 21 references / Add more references