Kant: Synthesis and Time, Lecture 3, 28 March 1978

<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>In 1963, Deleuze published a tightly articulated book on Kant, <em>La philosophie critique de Kant </em>(translated as <em>Kant’s Critical Philosophy</em>) that lays out (in the introduction) the “transcendental method”, then in three successive chapters, outlines the relations of the faculties as presented, respectively, in the <em>Critique of Pure Reason</em>, the <em>Critique of Practical Reason, </em>and the <em>Critique of Judgement, </em>with a brief conclusion on “les fins de la raison”, the “ends of reason”.</p>

<p>Years later, in <em>L’Abécédaire </em>(“K as in Kant”), Deleuze describes his motivation for working on a philosopher with whom he had little in common: first, for Deleuze, Kant’s writing constituted such a turning point in numerous ways and, second, he initiated something in philosophy that had never been advanced previously, a tribunal of reason and things being judged as a function of this tribunal. Deleuze argues that Kant’s greatness is due to creating a whole undergirding in his works that makes Deleuze quite enthusiastic, while on top of the undergirding is a system of judgment that Deleuze says he would like to do away with, but without standing in judgment.</p>

<p>Let us also note that during the 1977-78 academic year, one possible topic for an oral explication in the national <em>agrégation de philosophie</em> examination was of a German language text by Kant (from the <em>Critique of Judgment,</em> Introduction, “Analytik des Schöne”). Besides offering a mini-seminar on Spinoza earlier in the same academic year, perhaps Deleuze’s choice for this brief seminar on Kant linked his students’ needs for the <em>agrégation</em> to his own interests.</p>

<p>In session 3, 28 March 1978, after reflecting on Descartes’ innovation in introducing time into philosophical discourse in several meditations, Deleuze refers to Kant’s text, “What does it mean, to orient oneself in thinking?” in which Kant moves beyond Descartes’ conclusion. Deleuze proposes to justify the shift he is making between a conceptual determination to a spatio-temporal determination, i.e., Kant as posing the problem of the relation between the form of determination “I think” and the form of the determinable as time, thereby upending philosophy. Deleuze then explores the senses of “spatio-temporal determination” and its correspondence to conceptual determination and argues that the innovation in Kant’s analysis is his awareness of the double catastrophe, of the sublime’s crushing effect and of the symbol’s eruption dislodging the ground of knowledge on which syntheses and schemas are built. Pursuing Kant’s sense of the synthesis of perception, Deleuze considers the three operations constituting the synthesis operating on diversity in and of space and time. As for causality in Kant, Deleuze outlines several definitions, one in the order of phenomena (notably “phenomenal” and so-called “free causality”), a second definition as the relation between phenomena when the succession in their apprehension corresponds to an objective rule. The session ends abruptly here, suggesting that the transcript is not entirely complete.</p>

<p>No recording of this session is available currently. This dataset includes three files: a revised French transcription and new English translation in odt format, and the original French transcript from WebDeleuze. [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>Les Séminaires de Deleuze 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>Dans la séance 3, le 28 mars 1978, après avoir réfléchi à l’innovation de Descartes en introduisant le temps dans le discours philosophique dans plusieurs méditations, Deleuze se réfère au texte de Kant, « Qu’est-ce que s’orienter dans la pensée?», dans lequel Kant va au-delà de la conclusion de Descartes. Deleuze propose de justifier le passage d’une détermination conceptuelle à une détermination spatio-temporelle, c’est-à-dire que Kant pose le problème de la relation entre la forme de détermination « je pense » et la forme du déterminable comme temps, bouleversant ainsi la philosophie. Deleuze explore ensuite les sens de la « détermination spatio-temporelle » et sa correspondance avec la détermination conceptuelle et soutient que l’innovation dans l’analyse de Kant est sa conscience de la double catastrophe, de l’effet écrasant du sublime et de l’éruption du symbole qui déloge le sol de la connaissance sur lequel se construisent les synthèses et les schémas. Poursuivant le sens kantien de la synthèse de la perception, Deleuze considère les trois opérations constitutives de la synthèse opérant sur la diversité dans et de l’espace et du temps. Quant à la causalité chez Kant, Deleuze esquisse plusieurs définitions, l’une dans l’ordre des phénomènes (notamment « phénoménale » et dite « causalité libre »), une seconde définition comme la relation entre les phénomènes lorsque la succession dans leur appréhension correspond à une règle objective. La séance s’arrête ici brusquement, suggérant que la transcription n’est pas entièrement complète.</p>