Deleuze, Difference, Intensity

The originality of Deleuze's concept of Difference is that it is unmediated by Identity, i. e. it is not homogenized, hypostasized, equalized, or suppressed. An instance of Difference that is important to him is Intensity, the differences of which are asymmetrical, as opposed to Extensity, which is constituted by symmetrical, and, hence, equalized differences. For example, altitude is an intensive magnitude, because any two parts of it are not interchangeable, whereas distance is an extensive magnitude, since the distance between any two points is the same as that between their reverse. However, if altitude B is an intensive magnitude by virtue of its difference from included lesser altitude A, that difference presupposes a prior ascending from A to B. In other words, it presupposes a differentiating extending of A to B, and while it preserves the difference between A and B as 'A is internal to B', it suppresses the differential relation 'B is external to A'. So, at the heart of Intensity is a dynamic differentiating Extension which it homogenizes. Deleuze thus errs in conceiving Intensity as more fundamentally Differential than is Extensity.