Originally published in French in 1997 and appearing here in English for the first time, David Lapoujade's William James: Empiricism and Pragmatism is both an accessible and rigorous introduction to James's thought and a pioneering rereading of it. Examining pragmatism's fundamental questions through a Deleuzian framework, Lapoujade outlines how James's pragmatism and radical empiricism encompass the study of experience and the making of reality, and he reopens the speculative side of pragmatist thought and the role of experience in it. The book includes an extensive afterword by translator Thomas Lamarre, who illustrates how James's interventions are becoming increasingly central to the contemporary debates about materialist ontology, affect, and epistemology that strive to bridge the gaps among science studies, media studies, and religious studies.

A posthumous collection of writings by Deleuze, including letters, youthful essays, and an interview, many previously unpublished. Letters and Other Texts is the third and final volume of the posthumous texts of Gilles Deleuze, collected for publication in French on the twentieth anniversary of his death. It contains several letters addressed to his contemporaries (Michel Foucault, Pierre Klossowski, Francois Chatelet, and Clement Rosset, among others). Of particular importance are the letters addressed to Felix Guattari, which offer an irreplaceable account of their work as a duo from Anti-Oedipus to What is Philosophy? Later letters provide a new perspective on Deleuze's work as he responds to students' questions. his volume also offers a set of unpublished or hard-to-find texts, including some essays from Deleuze's youth, a few unusual drawings, and a long interview from 1973 on Anti-Oedipus with Guattari.

People tend to confuse winning freedom with conversion to capitalism. It is doubtful that the joys of capitalism are enough to free peoples.... The American "revolution" failed long ago, long before the Soviet one. Revolutionary situations and attempts are born of capitalism itself and will not soon disappear, alas. Philosophy remains tied to a revolutionary becoming that is not to be confused with the history of revolutions.--from Two Regimes of MadnessCovering the last twenty years of Gilles Deleuze's life (1975-1995), the texts and interviews gathered in this volume complete those collected in Desert Islands and Other Texts (1953-1974). This period saw the publication of his major works: A Thousand Plateaus (1980), Cinema I: Image-Movement (1983), Cinema II: Image-Time (1985), all leading through language, concept and art to What is Philosophy? (1991). Two Regimes of Madness also documents Deleuze's increasing involvement with politics (with Toni Negri, for example, the Italian philosopher and professor accused of associating with the Red Brigades). Both volumes were conceived by the author himself and will be his last. Michel Foucault famously wrote: "One day, perhaps, this century will be Deleuzian." This book provides a prodigious entry into the work of the most important philosopher of our time. Unlike Foucault, Deleuze never stopped digging further into the same furrow. Concepts for him came from life. He was a vitalist and remained one to the last. This volume restores the full text of the original French edition.The philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) published twenty-five books, including five in collaboration with Felix Guattari."

Originally published in French in 1997 and appearing here in English for the first time, David Lapoujade's William James: Empiricism and Pragmatism is both an accessible and rigorous introduction to James's thought and a pioneering rereading of it. Examining pragmatism's fundamental questions through a Deleuzian framework, Lapoujade outlines how James's pragmatism and radical empiricism encompass the study of experience and the making of reality, and he reopens the speculative side of pragmatist thought and the role of experience in it. The book includes an extensive afterword by translator Thomas Lamarre, who illustrates how James's interventions are becoming increasingly central to the contemporary debates about materialist ontology, affect, and epistemology that strive to bridge the gaps among science studies, media studies, and religious studies.

On the complex aesthetics and ontology at work in Etienne Souriau's unique oeuvre In this concise but expansive exegesis of the philosophical aesthetics of Etienne Souriau, philosopher David Lapoujade provides a lucid introduction to many of the key concepts underpinning Souriau's existential pluralism. Among the various modes of existence that populate a world, Souriau grants particular importance to virtual beings-the lesserexistences. Always taking the form of a sketch or an outline, the perfection of such existences lies precisely in the incompletion with which they imbue all reality. They exist with a problematizing force, posing questions and inviting the establishment of an "art" that would make them more real. And yet, for this to happen, another existence must first see them-must be capable of hearing their appeals-and must be willing to defend their right to exist. Through discussions of modern art ranging from the dispossessed characters of Kafka and Beckett to the grids of Agnes Martin and the protographies of Oscar Munoz, Lapoujade leads the reader into a complex philosophical world, brimming with modal existences and animated by a unique conception of creative processes, where the philosopher as artist or artist as philosopher becomes an advocate, defending the right of certain realities to gain in existence. For Souriau, nothing is given in advance, everything is a work in the making: such is the instaurative practice that grounds his entire oeuvre.