Terence Blake’s ‘MISTRUST THE CONCEPT: Notes on Deleuze and Guattari’s “What is Philosophy?” (3)’

 

by Corry Shores

 

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Terence Blake

 

MISTRUST THE CONCEPT: Notes on Deleuze and Guattari’s “What is Philosophy?” (3)

 

In this post Blake discusses parts of Deleuze & Guattari’s What is Philosophy? on the topic of the “mistrust” we should have for concepts:

Deleuze, like Nietzsche, taught us to mistrust sickness, but not to judge it or condemn it. In sickness lies an “impossible value”, if we can elaborate its concept (Deleuze is ever the philosopher), if we can create new concepts by means of it (perhaps we shall explore the use of “pathological” means in a later instalment). In this book Deleuze takes a step back. He looks on old age with mistrust, and with hope, but more importantly he wants to, and wants us to, mistrust the concept:

trust must be replaced by distrust, and the philosopher must distrust concepts the most, as long as he has not created them himself (WIP? page 6, my translation)

Mistrust of the concept has become an important theme of philosophy, and Deleuze has been criticised for his conceptual, or perhaps we should say “hyperconceptual”, style.

(Terence Blake)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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