A Thousand Plateaus V, The State Apparatus and the War Machine, Lecture 2, 13 November 1979

<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 2, 13 November 1979,<strong> </strong>given the increased attendance from the previous week, Deleuze reviews the premises for continuing the previous year’s topic and repeats the basic question of where the State apparatus came from. Deleuze traces the theoretical history of these premises, from the despotic or Asiatic formations, distinguishing “primitive codes” (of interlaced lineages and territories) from their “overcoding”, i.e., their subsistence in relation to a superior unity (e.g., the despot) which acts upon them to “overcode” them, thereby defining the archaic empire. Summarizing the previous year’s hypothesis, Deleuze states that overcoding (a unit enjoying profit, rent, tax revenue, external commerce) is something added on top of the code (communes, lineages, territories), with the whole arising from communes to the Emperor, hence the formalized unity, distinct from the set of formalized objects, occurring through transcendence. In contrast (speaking in logical terms) is “axiomatization” (discussed in the 1978-79 seminar) which is a formalization of pure immanence, alongside the formalized aggregates. Then, to distinguish enslavement and subjection, Deleuze pursues two consecutive perspectives, the first technical, the second economic, and concludes that capitalism pushed social subjection to its limit since the more variable capital increases (labor power, the sum of wages), the greater the possibility of surplus-value (and indirectly, of profit), thereby never confusing machines and men. Deleuze proposes following research by Karl August Wittfogel as well as archaeological research regarding archaic Empires in Neolithic and Palaeolithic eras (e.g., 7000 BC in Anatolia) to consider exchanges beyond agricultural communities and the possibility of imperial formations locked into hunter-gatherers and towns.</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 revient aux concepts présentés dans la séance précédente, puis commence l’examen de l’appareil d’État sous ses formes historiques, techniques, et économiques.</p>