UNA BUONA DOSE DI CANDORE FILOSOFICO
LA TEORIA DELEUZIANA DELL’IDEA
(DIFFERENZA E RIPETIZIONE, CAPITOLO QUARTO)

Furio Carmagnola

In Différence et répétition, Chapter four, we can find outlines of Gilles Deleuze’s theory of Idea. Aim of my essay is to explore some consequences of the theory in the aesthetical field, through a discussion about the algebrical/logical notation of differential (dx/dy) as Deleuze gets from Leibniz. In Deleuze’s view, dx becomes a symbol. According to Kant theory of symbol, it’s a sensible and indirect exhibition of idea, as Vernunftbegriff (“concept of the Reason”) whose kein kongruirender Gegenstand in den Sinnen werden kann (“no sensible object is possible to obtain”). We have no direct conceptual explanation, but only indirect exhibitions of Idea, that’s a symbolic view. Consequently, if we must take seriously symbols, as Deleuze states, we can consider the word symbol in a twofold view, logically and aesthetically. And the same logical notation (dx/dy) in this view symbolizes, in a strong aesthetical meaning. “Symbolic” meaning represents now, in aesthetical fields, a condition of “actuality” in relation with the virtuality of ideas. So, the baroque figure of the fold could be the aesthetical or actual side of mathematical differential calculus.

The second part of the issue displays, in the works of late Deleuze, a strong correspondence between logical and philosophical works of Leibniz and Baroque style in architecture and art. The same we can find in some contemporary artistic and narrative works, from Borges to Bill Viola.