Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction [Hardcover]

Todd May (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 052184309X | ISBN-13: 978-0521843096 | Publication Date: January 17, 2005

Other books have tried to explain Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995), one of the twentieth century's most important and elusive thinkers, in general terms. However, Todd May organizes his introduction around a central question at the heart of Deleuze's philosophy: How might we live? He demonstrates how Deleuze offers a view of the cosmos as a living entity that provides ways of conducting our lives that we may not have even dreamed of.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a well-organized and accessible account of a difficult philosopher." - De Philosophia, Stephen B. Hawkins, University of Ottawa

"The trajectory May suggests for reading and understanding Deleuze is incisive and suggestive. We can only hope that in the near future we will see more of May's work on Deleuze, including a deeper and more thorough engagement with the problems that he so rightly and elegantly identifiies." - Ella Brians, The New School for Social Research

Book Description

This book offers a readable and compelling introduction to the work of one of the twentieth century's most important and elusive thinkers. Other books have tried to explain Deleuze in general terms. Todd May organizes his book around a central question at the heart of Deleuze's philosophy: how might we live? The author then goes on to explain how Deleuze offers a view of the cosmos as a living thing that provides ways of conducting our lives that we may not have dreamed of.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 196 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (January 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052184309X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521843096
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,348,704 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lucid introduction to Deleuze--that might change your life, June 12, 2005

By 

David Morris (Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction (Paperback)

This is a great, beautiful and timely book. It introduces Deleuze's philosophy by first of all having us think about a problem central to Deleuze's philosophy, the question "How might one live?" From this question, May unfolds Deleuze's ontology of difference and his views of life, thinking, science, language, teaching and politics. The book is compelling and highly accessible-and does something no other book on Deleuze that I know of does-precisely because it gets us to see Deleuze's point not simply through Deleuze's difficult writing and novel concepts, but through a familiar question that each one of us might live. And so May takes us into an enormous and rich field of life, from Prigogine's and Monod's science of chaos and chance, to the Palestinian intifada, to the life of John Coltrane, to life in urban America, to erotics.

Gille Deleuze: An Introduction is a book not simply for the scholar or the student, but for the one who might want to live differently, who might want to see how thinking differently about the world and life can open a different way of living. It might change your life. It might not. It should be read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, December 9, 2009

By 

Mark E. Simpson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction (Hardcover)

As someone who is well-versed in Foucault, less so in Deleuze (and not at all in Derrida), I found the first chapter of this book to be a lovely simple yet fruitful little exposition situating these three titans of contemporary French philosophy as three distinctive responses to the Nietzschean legacy. Further, May helpfully distinguishes Deleuze in a way that separates him from Foucault/Derrida on the question of ontology. Now, these may be obvious/broad distinctions, but since this is an introduction, it is appropriate, and the text is written in a way that is very useful/accessible for english-speaking philosophers who may be unfamiliar (or worse) with Deleuze and other French philosophers.

I really enjoyed and highly recommend some of May's other works (e.g. the one on poststructuralist anarchism and between genealogy and epistemology on foucault), but I think this is perhaps his best; an elegant and powerful contribution that fills an important need--making Deleuze more readily accessible to students and anglophone philosophers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nicely explains Deleuze, June 12, 2010

By 

JOATMON "DIYer" (Detroit, MI) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Gilles Deleuze: An Introduction (Paperback)

Gilles Deleuze seems to write in a "stream of consciousness" fashion. Someone described his writing as akin to driving around a city with signless, winding streets full of dead ends and cul de sacs. May does an excellent job of teasing out and summarizing the key themes of Deleuze's work. Reading May in conjunction with select Deleuzian works will give you a much greater appreciation for Deleuze and may even influence how you view life. I cannot give May the fifth star because I found he does not always set the right level of explanation - sometimes too cursory, sometimes too much.