Jeffrey A. Bell

Most of the book is engagement with Spinoza, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Derrida's criticisms of the latter, which builds towards the discussion of Deleuze (and Guattari's) philosophy of difference in the final chapters. The applicability of Deleuze's ontology, the rhizome and BwO and assemblages, to the scientific concepts of chaos and complexity is left almost to the coda.

This is an interesting read to see how thought has moved away from typically Cartesian Enlightenment ideals to a more subtle, nuanced, and dynamic philosophy shifting away from identity and into...well, something more true to the movements and fluxes of life-as-lived. The movement from Whitehead's process philosophy into Deleuze's mature thought was almost worth the read in itself (playing to my interest in the dynamic and the chaotic).

The concepts here are not especially light material, but for those motivated (and entertained by such) there is a wealth of ideas to play with, particularly in the area of how stability and order can emerge from a mess of chaos.… (meer)