What is Philosophy?

"The question ‘what is philosophy?’ can perhaps only be posed late in life, with the arrival of old age and the time for speaking concretely. It is a question posed in a moment of quiet restlessness, at midnight, when there is no longer anything to ask."<br><br>Posing that question, Deleuze and Guattari worked together for what turned out to be the last time, to produce a book which can be seen as a condensation of everything they had written before, together and separately. Twenty years on from their endlessly influential <i>Anti-Oedipus</i>, Deleuze and Guattari have lost none of their inspirational radicalism, only deepened it. Their book is a profound and careful interrogation of what it might mean to be a ‘friend of wisdom’, but it is also a devastating attack on the sterility of what has become, when ‘the only events are exhibitions and the only concepts are products which can be sold’.<br><br>Philosophy, they insist, is not contemplation, reflection or communication, but the creation of <i>concepts</i>. The first part of the book explores the concept, the ‘plane of immanence’ in which it can be born and the 'conceptual personae’ which can activate it. It concludes with a brilliant account of philosophy’s relation to social and economic development, from ancient Greece to the modern capitalist state. Part two considers other forms of thought: science, art, literature and music. By the light of its ‘rivals’, Deleuze and Guattari illuminate philosophy in all its distinctiveness, displaying the same light-footed erudition whether they are discussing Godel’s Theorem, Proust and Pessoa, Mondrian or Boulez.<br><br>Written with the energy and inventiveness that marked their earlier collaborations, <i>What is Philosophy?</i> is an enormous achievement. It is a vital book, not only for philosophers but for everyone concerned with the uses of human intelligence in a time when, as the authors remark, sales promotion has replaced critique.