Deleuze and Derrida Difference and the Power of the Negative

The first scholarly comparative analysis of Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze's philosophies of difference

Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze are best known for their respective attempts to theoretically formulate non-dialectical conceptions of difference. Now, for the first time, Vernon W. Cisney brings you a scholarly analysis of their contrasting concepts of difference.

Cisney distinguishes their conceptions of difference by differentiating them on the basis of the criticisms they level against Hegel, as well as their valorisations of Nietzsche, and the ways in which they understand Nietzsche's thought to surpass that of Hegel. The contrast between the two, Cisney argues, is that while Deleuze formulates an affirmative conception of difference, Derrida's différance amounts to an irresolvable negativity.

Vernon W. Cisney is Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Gettysburg College. He is the author of Deleuze and Derrida: Difference and the Power of the Negative (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) and Derrida's Voice and Phenomenon: An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide (Edinburgh University Press, 2014). He is also the co-editor of Between Foucault and Derrida (Edinburgh University Press, 2016); The Way of Nature and the Way of Grace: Philosophical Footholds on Terrence Malick's Tree of Life (Northwestern University Press, 2016); and Biopower: Foucault and Beyond (University of Chicago Press, 2015).

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations

Part I: Introduction
1. The Question
2. Grounding the Question

Part II: The Tremendous Power of the Negative
3. The Two Pillars of Deconstruction
4. Deleuze and Hegelian Difference
5. The Tremendous Power of the Negative

Part III: Thinking Difference Itself
6. Traces and Ashes
7. Deleuze, Plato's Reversal, and Eternal Return
8. Derrida, Deleuze, and Difference

Part IV: Implications and Conclusions
9. Deconstruction v. Constructivism
10. Conclusion(s)

Bibliography