An Anti-Positivist Conception of Problems

Deleuze, Bergson and the French Epistemological Tradition

Bibliographic Data

ID3774589
AuthorsSean Bowden (0000-0002-7137-2325, School of Humanities and Social Sciences Melbourne Burwood Campus Deakin University 221 Burwood Highway Burwood, VIC 3125 Australia)
Year2018
Volume23
Issue2
Pages45-63
Publication date2018-03-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAngelaki (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0969-725X • E-ISSN: 1469-2899
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0969725x.2018.1451461
OpenAlexW2798031823
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited18

This paper critically examines the relation between problems and the formation and development of concepts in Bergson’s work, as well as in Bachelard, Canguilhem and Deleuze. Building on work by Elie During, I argue that it is not only Bergson but also Deleuze who shares with the French epistemological tradition an “anti-positivist” conception of concept formation, founded upon the posing and solving of novel problems as opposed to the acquisition and verification of empirical facts. Contrary to During, however, I argue that it is not Bergson but Deleuze who furnishes us with an “anti-positivist” conception of problems that is adequate to this anti-positivist conception of concept formation. Deleuze’s anti-positivist view of problems holds, firstly, that genuine problems require the creation of novel terms in which to state and solve them. He shares this view with Bergson, Bachelard and Canguilhem. Secondly, however, Deleuze holds that a problem’s “truth” is not to be evaluated with reference to its eventual solutions (as is the case in Bachelard and Canguilhem), nor with reference to some privileged and contentful experience of reality (as with Bergson), but is rather a matter of its purely intrinsic productivity

Epistemology · Positivism · Relation (database · Sociology · Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology · Computer Science · Historical and Scientific Studies · Philosophical and Theoretical Analysis · Philosophy

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