A Thousand Plateaus V, The State Apparatus and the War Machine, Lecture 3, 20 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 the two previous sessions, Deleuze reached a point at which the imperial archaic State form was directly linked groups to hunter-gatherers. In session 3, 20 November 1979,<strong> </strong>Deleuze proposes to explore the possibility of simultaneously overlapping and diverse social formations (primitive societies, State apparatuses, war machines, the countryside, towns), with the hypothesis of defining these formations as "machinic processes", leading to the phenomenon of zigzag, rather than linearity, that places in question the evolutionist model of State development. After reviewing research in this area (notably, by Pierre Clastres), Deleuze applies the schema of wave theory for a human social field to so-called primitive communities, asserting that mechanisms for warding off State power are also vectors tending toward the formation of State power. Asserting that historians rather than sociologists best describe reasons for identifying “town” form and “State” form, Deleuze insists on their distinction, noting the States’ suspicion of their towns, and referring to European history, he also again asks how capitalism is born within the State form rather than the town form, providing extensive historical detail and references. Deleuze shifts to a “conceptual direction”, distinguishing two thresholds of the State-town: for the town form, a threshold of transconsistency; for the State form, a threshold of intraconsistency. Deleuze cites several contemporary examples as well as work by Samir Amin regarding international economic relations, and then outlines the material for the next session, proposing to consider how coexistence between like formations (e.g., the so-called primitive) can occur and also maintain relations with the State apparatus.</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>Ayant consacré deux séances aux perspectives historiques, technologiques et économiques du développement de l’État et de l’appareil de l’État, Deleuze propose d’explorer le phénomène du zigzag, en contraste avec la linéarité, qui met en question le modèle évolutionniste du développement de l’État.</p>