Germinal Life: The Difference and Repetition of Deleuze

by Ansell-Pearson; Keith

• ISBN13: 9780415183505
• ISBN10: 0415183502
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-06-28
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Germinal Lifeembarks on a fascinating tour of ethology, biology, ethics, literature and cyborgs. Opening with a linking of Richard Dawkin's theory of the extended phenotype and Deleuzian thought, Ansell Pearson introduces the idea of germinal life to challenge traditional notions of ethology and philosophy. By revisiting nineteenth century Darwinism and the origins of germ science, Keith Ansell Pearson develops a stunning reading of Deleuze's key texts. He also introduces highly original interpretations of classic modern literature, including Thomas Hardy'sTessand D.H.Lawrence'sKangaroobefore connecting these themes with cyborgism and the work of the performance artist Stelarc. As a companion to Ansell Pearson'sViroid Life,which explored Nietzsche's philosophy of the human,Germinal Lifeprovides a highly original study of the biophilosophical aspects of Deleuze's thought.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xi
A note on translations	xii
Introduction: repeating the difference of Deleuze	1	(19)
The difference of Bergson: duration and creative evolution	20	(57)
Introduction	20	(2)
The method of intuition	22	(6)
Intuition and duration	28	(5)
What is duration?	33	(7)
Bergson's Creative Evolution	40	(25)
Deleuze and the elan vital	65	(4)
Conclusion: Deleuze beyond Bergson and towards an ethics of creative evolution	69	(8)
Difference and repetition: the germinal life of the event	77	(62)
Introduction	77	(7)
Transcendental encounters	84	(6)
Individuation: Simondon and the difference of Darwin	90	(6)
Ethics after individuation	96	(3)
The phenomenon of repetition and the three syntheses of time	99	(5)
The death-drive: Freud's reworking of Weismann	104	(10)
The heredity of the crack and Nietzsche's superior return	114	(7)
Staging the event	121	(8)
Conclusion: Deleuze beyond Weismann and the problem of the event	129	(10)
The memories of a Bergsonian: from creative evolution to creative ethology	139	(70)
Introduction	139	(6)
Complexity and the organism	145	(7)
The body without organs and the organism	152	(3)
What is a multiplicity? Bergsonism and neo-Darwinism	155	(4)
Nature as a plane of consistency	159	(2)
Creative involution	161	(7)
Autopoiesis and machinic heterogenesis	168	(2)
From an ethology of behaviour to an ethology of assemblages	170	(9)
Becomings -- animal of the human	179	(6)
On the advantages and disadvantages of Deleuze's reading of Uexkull	185	(4)
Becomings beyond memory	189	(10)
Conclusion: philosophy as absolute deterritorialization	199	(10)
Conclusion: fold and superfold	209	(16)
Deleuze's return to the fold	209	(5)
Beyond the human?	214	(11)
Notes	225	(19)
Bibliography	244	(17)
Index	261