Customer Reviews

The Theatre of Production: Philosophy and Individuation between Kant and Deleuze (Renewing Philosophy)

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This is an extremely useful book. Toscano's exposition is supple, definite, and fresh throughout. Of the names mentioned in the product description, Toscano spends the most time on Deleuze, and the least on Peirce. Whitehead also receives substantial treatment, as do (to a lesser extent) Ravaisson and James. The basic idea is that, beginning with the 'scandal of the teleological' in Kant's later work, we can trace the emergence of a single problem through the work of the above mentioned thinkers. It is Toscano's opinion that this problem - the problem of individuation - receives its most adequate formulation/resolution in Deleuze's philosophy. To be clear, individuation is not simply a historical trope which allows us to tell a coherent story about the development of philosophy - it is also a conceptual trope which lies at the base of many contemporary issues. By attacking the problem at the source, you produce a unified attitude towards an otherwise diverse set of issues.

One such issue, which Toscano mentions but does not develop, concerns the 'ethical' aspect of individuation. Who acts in the 'theatre of production'? What is the 'experience' of philosophy? Presumably these are both instances wherein we are individuated in a certain manner: specifically, individuated to act in one way rather than another, or to pursue one line of thought rather than another. To explain the capacity for 'anomalous' (yet nonetheless valid) judgements of this sort, is to offer an account of ethical individuation. And so on for all the other instances of this problem.

I highly recommend this text.