A Thousand Plateaus V, The State Apparatus and the War Machine, Lecture 8, 5 February 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 8, 5 February 1980, with two forms of the State delineated previously, Deleuze seeks a definition for capitalism linked to its possible intersection with the figures discussed previously. Searching first for the nominal definition, Deleuze turns to Marx (<em>General Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy</em>), discerning the distinction of unqualified, subjective wealth and unspecified, abstract labor. Deleuze leaves the domain of topical conjunctions and shifts to the session’s second part, to introduce the importance of the axiomatic, which begins a new machinery, without personal dependence, a sole and universal subject attributing itself any object whatsoever (abstract labor). Deleuze reintroduces the conjugation of two decoded flows and the topical conjunctions that stop the decoding, and after discussing several examples derived from works by Étienne Balibar and from Marx, Deleuze questions the need henceforth for the State apparatus given the new formation operating through the axiomatic. Drawing again from Marx as well as from Virilio, Deleuze concludes that far from needing to eliminate the State apparatus, capitalism requires a very special kind of apparatus with the flows of independent capital and of unspecified labor working through the force of the State apparatus, an apparatus of violence. After considering some concrete cases of the State apparatus under capitalism, Deleuze examines the axiomatic through its model of realization as this relates to the State apparatus under nation States, defining several tasks to develop these intersections with reference to Robert Blanché’s <em>L’axiomatique </em>(1955) and to the circle of mathematicians writing about the axiomatic under the name Bourbaki, <em>Théorie des ensembles </em>(1939). He outlines two (of many) models of realization and also four specific problems within the axiomatization process (examined in <em>A Thousand Plateaus</em>, pp. 460-473), intending to return to these points.</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>S’appuyant sur les deux formes d’État délimitées précédemment, Deleuze cherche une sorte de définition du capitalisme et de son éventuelle intersection avec les formes esquissées précédemment. Deleuze explore ici de nombreux termes familiers à l’analyse marxiste : propriété, profit, moyens de production, ainsi que les différentes voies nationales empruntées dans le développement du système capitaliste.</p>