Introduction

One of Deleuze's primary aims in Difference and Repetition is to present a new theory of Ideas (dialectics) in which Ideas are conceived of as both immanent and differential. What I would like to examine in this paper is the relation between Deleuze's theory of Ideas and the theme of immanence, particularly with regard to the theory of Ideas found in Kant's three critiques. In using the term ‘Idea’, Deleuze is not referring to the common-sense use of the term, or the use to which empiricists like Hume or Locke put it, for whom the word ‘idea’ refers primarily to mental representations. Rather, Deleuze is referring to the concept of the Idea that was first proposed by Plato, and then modified by Kant and Hegel. Plato, Kant and Hegel are the three great figures in the history of the theory of Ideas, for whom Ideas are as much ontological as epistemological. Deleuze's name could no doubt be added to that list, since he has modi- fied the theory of Ideas in a profound and essential manner.

In what follows, however, I would like to focus primarily on Deleuze's relation to Kant rather than Plato or Hegel. Deleuze tends to index his own theory of Ideas on Kant, and with regard to the theory of Ideas his relations to Plato and Hegel are, in a sense, somewhat secondary. There are two reasons for the priority Deleuze gives to Kant on the question of dialectics.