On Throwing A Plane Over Chaos
Perhaps the peculiarity of art
is to pass through the finite
in order to rediscover,
to restore the infinite.
What defines thought
in its three great forms—
art, science, and philosophy—
is always confronting chaos,
laying out a plane,
throwing a plane over chaos.But philosophy wants to save the infinite
by giving it consistency;
it lays out a plane of immanence that,
through the action of conceptual personae,
takes events or consistent concepts
to infinity.Science, on the other hand,
relinquishes the infinite
in order to gain a reference:
it lays out a plane of simply undefined coordinates
that each time,
through the actions of partial observers,
defines states of affairs, functions,
or referential propositions.Art wants to create the finite
that restores the infinite:
it lays out a plane of composition that,
in turn, through the action of aesthetic figures,
bears monuments or composite sensationsArt should not be thought to be like a synthesis
of science and philosophy,
of the finite and the infinite routes.
The three routes are specific,
each as direct as the others……Thinking is thought
through concepts, or functions, or sensations
and no more of these thoughts
is better than another,
or more fully, completely,
or synthetically “thought.”These culminating points
contain two extreme dangers:
either leading us back to the opinion
from which we wanted to escape
or precipitating us
into the chaos
that we wanted to confront.
—excerpt What Is Philosophy by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari p. 197.
On occasion I wrestle with the vocabulary and syntax of a text that is beyond me as if it were a foreign language. My inner voice tells me that the material is worth the effort. And then I read a well crafted statement that rings like a bell. This is such a magisterial statement on the three aspects of our knowledge: art, philosophy and science.
My soul still rings…….
