A Thousand Plateaus V, The State Apparatus and the War Machine, Lecture 13, 25 March 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 13, 25 March 1980 (before the five sessions on Leibniz), Deleuze’s lengthy (30-minute) answer to a question regarding the status of the blacksmith allows him to summarize not just this seminar but the preceding (1978-79) seminar, discussing types of peoples (nomads, sedentaries, troglodytes), of spaces (smooth, striated, holey) and their links to the complex topic of metallurgy in early societies as it relates to economic development and exchange (cf. <em>A Thousand Plateau</em>, plateau 12, notably, pp. 387-423, and plateau 14). Deleuze then completes the discussion of the axiomatic as it relates to the State and to politics, first, reviewing the three categories outlined in the previous two sessions, and finally indicating the fourth as the question of power (<em>puissance</em>), i.e., the relationship of the axiomatic of capital to an actual war machine. Then proposing a fifth category, the war machine as a kind of power of the continuous, ceaseless redrawing of a new global map, Deleuze argues that the capitalist axiomatic generates and remains confronted by so-called “undecidable propositions”, in which axioms do not take hold, demanding extreme measures by the axiomatic of capital in response. Deleuze reviews the overcoding apparatus of previous formations, and he recalls that at the extreme, some flows escape being axiomatized. Deleuze develops the criteria distinguishing a majority from a minority, or subsets, and while he recognizes certain aspects of this that might raise suspicions, he insists that connections, lines of flight, must be established, even the majoritarian fleeing toward a minoritarian becoming.</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>Dans la dernière séance de ce séminaire, Deleuze commence par une longue réponse à une question (posée avant le début de l’enregistrement) qui lui permet de revenir sur les concepts développés dans les années 1978- 79, sur les types de peuples (nomades, sédentaires, troglodytes) et d’espace (lisse, strié, troué) et leurs liens avec le thème complexe de la métallurgie dans les premières sociétés en ce qui concerne le développement économique et les échanges. Ensuite, Deleuze revient à la discussion sur l’axiomatique en ce qui concerne l’État et la politique en revoyant les rubriques exposées précédemment et en ajoutant une cinquième rubrique à cette liste. Il conclut par une discussion, sans doute issue d’un séminaire antérieur, correspondant aux concepts importants des devenirs (-femme, -noir, -Juif, etc.).</p>