Difference and Repetition
Difference and Repetition (French: Différence et répétition) is a 1968 book by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze. Originally published in France, it was translated into English by Paul Patton in 1994.
Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Gilles Deleuze |
|---|---|
| Original title | Différence et répétition |
| Translator | Paul R. Patton |
| Country | France |
| Language | French |
| Series | Bibliothèque de philosophie contemporaine |
| Subjects | Difference Representation |
| Publisher | Presses Universitaires de France, Columbia University Press |
Publication date | 1968 |
Published in English | 1994 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 350 (Columbia University Press edition) |
| ISBN | 0-231-08159-6 (Columbia University Press edition) |
| OCLC | 29315323 |
| 194 22 | |
| LC Class | B2430.D453 D4513 1994b |
Difference and Repetition was Deleuze's principal thesis for the Doctorat D'Etat alongside his secondary, historical thesis, Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza.
The work attempts a critique of representation. In the book, Deleuze develops concepts of difference in itself and repetition for itself, that is, concepts of difference and repetition that are logically and metaphysically prior to any concept of identity. Some commentators interpret the book as Deleuze's attempt to rewrite Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781) from the viewpoint of genesis itself.
It has recently been asserted that Deleuze in fact re-centered his philosophical orientation around Gabriel Tarde's thesis that repetition serves difference rather than vice versa.