Towards the Sources of Transcendental Empiricism: Deleuze With and Beyond Gueroult

Abstract

Deleuze’s relationship with Gueroult is paradoxical. On a strictly philosophical level, Gueroult adhered to a rationalism that was not dissimilar to that of Alquié or Hyppolite, which Deleuze criticized severely. But Deleuze did not criticize Gueroult’s positions, instead frequently adopting them himself. How can this be explained? The reason seems to be the following: Gueroult constantly sought a “synthetic order” or a “genetic dynamism” in philosophy; yet, before it served as the basis of the thinker’s method, this aim expressed a certain conception of philosophy, from which both his practice and history of philosophy derived; and if Deleuze took up Gueroult’s positions, it is because Gueroult’s aim, and the conception of philosophy it involved, never ceased to influence his own philosophical work. In Deleuze’s work, this desire even made it possible to take a decisive position—that is, the critique of rationalism in the name of transcendental empiricism—, surpassing Gueroult’s intention. The disciple became a creator, both with and beyond Gueroult. It is perhaps in this sense that Olivier Revault d’Allonnes’s statement can be understood: “I have always found that Gilles [Deleuze] was a great disciple of Gueroult.”