deleuze: final words before he died.

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Deluze is one of my favorite thinkers and I was already familiar with his work. This volume was supposed to be something that evolved just before his death and represented his comprehensive thought. I found it to be very comprehensive, presented in a logical order, and very accessible .


he doesn't give a vague answer; he tells us exactly what philosophy is; it has three specific steps: the pre-philosophical plane of immanence; the conceptual-persona; and finally, construction of the "constellation-event". He fills each area with substantial content and links the areas together.

one exciting aspect of the presentation is the way he enlists Hegel's concept of "counter-blow". With his theory of an extended plane; he articulates the eventual curves that evolve along this plane, and the "folding-back",

SIKH RELIGION: neo-colonialism

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IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE "ABDA-GURU". And the "abda-guru" was with god; and the "abda-guru" was god. Mandair's new book on how the east can move beyond colonialism to post-colonialism is a significant contribution from Columbia's insurrection series. This time, however it is not post-modern thought. It goes beyond that to post-colonial thought. The fundamental premise is to move forward by adopting Zizek, with a few modifications. This means that Europe and India look at the same events and hold the same purpose from two distinct perspectives. Their paths will run parallel to each other, but will never converge or synthesize. A past attempt at a synthesis was colonialism and it absorbed and obliterated India's distinct identity. Parallax is the only workable solution.




neo-colonial texts have emerged that provide false signification for India. These were Singh's Sikh theology and Mcleod's systematic theology. What is needed is a new signifier to couple with the hermeneutic of parallax. That new signifier is "sabda-guru" or "word". The word-model will transcend both false models of "humanism" and "post-modernism". This model is constructed through the "vanishing mediator of an authentic India-identity and voice.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND: 1 & 2

In 19 days. On may 4th, Alice Liddell will turn 161 years old. You may know her better as the girl who fell down the rabbit hole at age 10. She just finished her PhD at Columbia university (which shows it’s never too late to go back to school; and she contacted me through my internet site just recently. When I asked her why me? She responded, " after listening to your lectures I could tell that you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole also. I’d thought we’d get along fine. We ended up going through a series of interviews; she’s always kept a diary, ever since her childhood. She felt that Deleuze had gotten the story slightly wrong; but not entirely so, when he interpreted it along the lines of postmodern thinking. She agreed with the idea, but said she wanted a few things cleared up. I felt honored that she would approach me with such a task; but such is the case; and I am headlong into my notes as you read this. I’d like to make it by May 4^th, but that might be difficult. She is an interesting character and still has an active and energetic imagination at age 161.

this is MY work only;  no outside sources whatsoever.  please keep this in mind. 

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S POSITION

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Mark Taylor is the head of the religion department at Columbia University. Therefore he is at the forefront of emerging postmodern thought in America; in response to the French philosophy which currently has taken center stage. His university champions this movement and his position is extremely important for understanding how we are involving ourselves in this process in America. Taylor's position is actually situated at the beginning and end chapters of the book. The center section presents a chronological view of how this new school came into being. So if you don't want the history lesson right away; you could read the first chapter and the last two chapters and just take in Taylor's position. This is rewarding in itself. You get two books for the price of one. Taylor's fundamental position is to challenge the theory of entropy ; that everything is unavoidably headed for dissolution and chaos. He says the new science has found room for neg-entropy and that theology should adopt this neg-entropy theory also. In this way, the self can approach the abyss of darkness and its repetition of sameness with a real anticipation of difference and its potential to "self-actualize into a sub-system of order. The key here is that Taylor admits to "objective" self-organizing sub-systems; not just our subjective construction

LACAN'S INFLUENCE ON POSTMODERNS:

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All of the postmodern thinkers in philosophy today claim Lacan as their inspiration. Therefore, every thinker needs to investigate this psychological contribution. This book by Fink gives you an adequately in-depth look where you don't just get skimmed-over summary material but some relevant thought to apply to philosophy. The book is structured perfectly and so don't skip around. Start on page one and proceed. The book takes you logically through each structural step of the emerging "self" in Lacan's theory. Lacan gives Freud some radical ontological weight which inspired a lot of what we are reading today. Lacan flourished in the 60's when French philosophy was being re-born.

deleuze: part II - epistemology

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Our positing of difference in the "Spatium" was to follow an epistemology of the triad of: 


"bodies - sense - event", which led to the manifestation of the incorporeal. This earlier volume from Columbia univ. press gives us the epistemology in detail. He concentrates on the 3rd moment of "event" and the "logic of sense", as the title announces. He presents an extremely detailed account of : manifestation of the singularity along the line of "past-future" on the surface of external bodies; next , signification as the"ideal-game", for which he lists "8" aspects. Then 3rd, he articulates abstraction along the "border-of-sense", as that creative frontier where our "rebel-element" emerges that stretches the present. Finally he addresses what many might miss: an actual doctrine of Hegel's "counter-blow". He calls it keeping concepts "liquid" and preventing them from the rigidity that is imposed by the "schizophrenic -self". This liquidity is presented as a triad of: word-passion / word-action / word-aesthetic (my rendition for this 3rd moment). The amount of information here is staggering. He is tough to completely assimilate. But take your time; conquer questions immediately before moving on. I did this with his 1994 book; and then this one was much more accessible. Deleuze offers real transcendence for post-moderns; but it is a "produced" transcendence. After completing this volume you should have a firm grasp on his thought. 5 stars of course.

economics is truth

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full marx lecture.  30 min. 

marx on representation

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THE MARX ESSAY WAS BRILLIANT AS WELL. Interestingly, you will read the bulk of the essay, minus the final 20 pages and then Hartley breaks out an in-depth summary of "structure" for the former content he just discussed. Take good notes in the beginning and this late structure-contribution is extremely helpful. It lifts Marx out of strict capitalism economics. And adds social dialectic. Ths was an interesting presentation of Marx which synthesized it into postmodern thinking.