Saturday, January 15, 2011

Deleuze, Levinas, Eversion

According to Deleuze, one process that neutralizes Difference is Eversion. At one point he asserts that the essence of extension, which he holds to be the process by which intensive difference is homogenized, is that it turns intensive difference "inside out". Now, one problem with this formulation has previously been discussed--Deleuze's lack of appreciation that dynamic Extension is a process of Differentiation that is the source of intensive difference. Accordingly, he is unable to consider that Eversion could constitute Extension in precisely that sense, and, hence, could be fundamental Differentiation. Furthermore, 'inside out' presupposes a difference between Interiority and Exteriority that he leaves unexamined. This neglect is especially noteworthy, given that that difference is a main theme of Levinas' Totality and Infinity, with which Deleuze is surely familiar at the time of the writing of Difference and Repetition. Of specific relevance to Deleuze's formulation is Levinas' alignment of Exteriority with Alterity, and Interiority with Ipseity. On that basis, Eversion produces Difference, and it is Inversion that neutralizes it. Since Deleuze never addresses theses challenges, his interpretation of Difference remains flawed.

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