Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-fnpn6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-28T08:19:53.968Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - The Dogmatic Image of Thought

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2013

Daniela Voss
Get access

Summary

The image of thought is a recurrent theme in Deleuze's philosophy: it appears already in his writings on Nietzsche (1962) and Proust (1964), and is then fully laid out in his magnum opus Difference and Repetition (1968).

At first sight, it might seem peculiar to talk about an ‘image’ of thought, for it seems that the realm of images or the imaginary is opposed to the realm of thought or the intelligible. Is the expression ‘image of thought’ not a contradiction in terms? Must we not distinguish carefully between the imaginary and thought, or in fact between the imaginary and the real? In one of his early essays Deleuze remarks:

We are used to, almost conditioned to a certain distinction or correlation between the real and the imaginary. All of our thought maintains a dialectical play between these two notions. Even when classical philosophy speaks of pure intelligence or understanding, it is still a matter of a faculty defined by its aptitude to grasp the depths of the real (le réel en son fond), the real ‘in truth’, the real as such, in opposition to, but also in relation to the power of imagination.

(DI 171/239)
Type
Chapter
Information
Conditions of Thought
Deleuze and Transcendental Ideas
 , pp. 18 - 73
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×