Leibniz and the Baroque, Lecture 3, 18 November 1986

<p>The Deleuze Seminars 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. This seminar clearly prepares publication of his 1988 book on Leibniz, The Fold, Leibniz and the Baroque. This third lecture is organized within a 20-lecture seminar that Deleuze taught between October 1986 and June 1987, presented on November 18, 1986.</p>

<p>Having laid out the bases for studying “Leibniz as Baroque philosopher” in the first two sessions, here Deleuze offers a detailed analysis of theories of perspective and point of view in relation to the previously defined elements of the fold. Deleuze concludes that point of view serves as the subject of inclusion, and whereas the city is always folded, existing or included within the point of view, it is the accord of subjects or of points of view, i.e., of superjects. After reviewing the levels on which Leibniz speaks about point of view, Deleuze adds that each subject is like a concave mirror on the world and that each monad is a mirror of the universe according to its point of view. Deleuze situates the session’s discussion on the Baroque house’s upper floor, moving from inflection to inclusion within a point of view, provided that point of view has no reference to an exteriority and solely to other points of view, the information grid.</p>

<p>This meeting is exceptional because, in contrast to nearly all the others that are available only through audio recordings (usually with gaps due to cassette changes), the 18 November seminar was filmed for broadcast on RAI-3, directed by Marielle Burkhalter (as student in Deleuze's seminar), and accessible through YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEg4Tc40rWM), hence is a nearly complete class. Also, in contrast to the audio recordings, the viewer can see Deleuze's gestures as well as his use of the blackboard, an important context nearly entirely absent from the translations based on audio transcripts. At one point, however, there is an unexplained 90-second gap in the film, completed for the transcript and translation with access to the audio recording.</p>

<p>This dataset includes one .mp3 audio file of the original recorded lecture and the complete French transcription and English translation in odt format.</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>Ayant établi les bases de l’étude de "Leibniz comme philosophe baroque" dans les deux premières séances, Deleuze aborde un examen élaboré des théories de perspective vis-à-vis des éléments définis quant au pli.</p>

<p>La transcription s’est faite, d’abord, à partir de la piste sonore du film de la séance (disponible sur YouTube), et puis à partir des enregistrements disponibles à la BNF et à Web Deleuze. Pourtant, à un moment donné, il semble que l’enregistrement de la BNF ne corresponde plus à celui d’un magnétophone et corresponde plutôt à la piste sonore du film. De toute manière, les indices temporels correspondent exceptionnellement au film plutôt qu’à l’enregistrement.</p>