A Thousand Plateaus V, The State Apparatus and the War Machine, Lecture 7, 29 January 1980

<p><em>The Deleuze Seminars</em> is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during his career at the University of Paris 8.</p>

<p>Following publication of <em>Anti-Oedipus</em> in 1972, Deleuze continues to develop the proliferation of concepts that his collaboration with Guattari had yielded. As part of this process of expanding concepts in order to produce the sequel of <em>Capitalism & Schizophrenia</em>, <em>A Thousand Plateaus</em>, this series of 13 lectures on “The State Apparatus and War Machines” constitutes the major seminar of 1979-80 and Deleuze’s penultimate consideration of these concepts. Deleuze first considers material begun during the previous year’s seminar, material corresponding to plateaus 12 (1227: Treatise on Nomadology – The War Machine), 13 (7000 B.C.: Apparatus of Capture), and 14 (1440: The Smooth and the Striated). [The final consideration of these concepts will take place in the May-June 1980 two-session seminar on “Anti-Oedipus and Other Reflections”.</p>

<p>In session 7, 29 January 1980, Deleuze accepts Eric Alliez’s contribution in the session’s first part (approximately thirty minutes, occasionally inaudible) regarding mercantilism, the rise of banks, and tax-trade organization in Europe. Providing examples of revision of fiscal policies from England and France in the 17<sup>th</sup> century, Alliez confirms Deleuze’s previous analysis with additional support from different sources. Then reviewing the formation of the State as an apparatus of capture, Deleuze considers the tendency toward decoded flows escaping the apparatus of capture, a tendency linked to the three forms of overcoding, public property, public works and taxes. Referring to Ferenc Tökei, Deleuze again proposes the figure of the freed slave as the locus for the emergence of private property, both in terms of private labor and in terms of circulation of currency and creation of money (cf. <em>A Thousand Plateaus, </em>plateau 13, notably, pp. 448-452). While outlining feudalism in this dual perspective, Deleuze closes the session by reviewing these two great figures of State, within which kinds of “knots” arise, e.g., the chivalrous form of love (courtly love) and the marital circuit, overcoding as well as decoded flows, suggesting that these perspectives prepare the emergence of capitalism with which the next session will begin.</p>

<p>This dataset includes four files: an aggregate version of the audio recordings into a single mp3, the complete French transcription and English translation of the recorded lecture in odt format, and the original Web Deleuze French transcription. [WebDeleuze was founded by Richard Pinhas -- a student in Deleuze's seminars -- who, with the Deleuze family's support, developed transcripts and translations of many of the seminars.]</p>

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<p><em>Les Séminaires de Deleuze</em> sont une collection d'enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents complémentaires des conférences que le philosophe français Gilles Deleuze a donné lors de sa carrière à l'Université de Paris 8.</p>

<p>A la suite de la publication de <em>L’Anti-Œdipe</em> en 1972, Deleuze continue de développer la prolifération de concepts que sa collaboration avec Guattari avait fait naître. Dans le cadre de ce processus d’élargissement des concepts en vue de produire la suite de <em>Capitalisme et schizophrénie</em>, <em>Mille plateaux</em>, ce séminaire de 13 séance sur « L’appareil d’État et les machines de guerre » constitue le séminaire majeur de 1979-80 et l’avant-dernière réflexion de Deleuze sur ces concepts. La dernière réflexion aura lieu en mai-juin 1980, un mini-séminaire de deux séances sur « L’Anti-Œdipe et d’autres réflexions ».</p>

<p>Deleuze continue de bénéficier de la collaboration d’Eric Alliez qui contribue au cours (avec des propos malheureusement en partie inaudibles) sur le mercantilisme et l’essor des banques. Deleuze remonte ensuite le temps pour discuter des formes archaïques d’échange monétaire et de surcodage, en considérant en détail comment l’activité même de surcodage des États et des Empires donne ironiquement lieu à des décodages de flux et de fuites de lignes.</p>