The Idiot: Deleuze's Nietzsche for a Politics of Difference.
In: Nietzsche and the Politics of Difference. Eds. Andrea Rehberg & Ashley Woordward, De Gruyter, 2022.
Abstract: Following Philippe Mengue, this chapter explains the importance of the figure of the idiot in Deleuze’s philosophy. The idiot allows for a conception of resistance relevant in the context of micropolitics. It implies a peculiar notion of political action: it is not the action of a consciously engaged individual, but rather the excretion of indetermination by someone or something inane, which creates an openness and thereby allows for something different to emerge, to go its course and be affirmed. This chapter relates this Deleuzean perspective to Melville's Bartleby, to Nietzsche’s “anti-politics” and to his interpretation of Christ. It argues that Deleuze mobilises Nietzschean ideas in a transcendental way, in order to conceive of a persona that would allow for political change, which explains and justifies an “anti-political” stance.
About the book: The question of Nietzsche's use of political theory has a long and vexed history. The different chapter of this book re-situate debates around the notion of difference with a view to current political developments. They discuss a variety of perspectives, such as how Nietzsche helps us to think through and maintain hard-won civil liberties and rights in the face of hegemonic discourses, practices and forces, or how to counteract global environmental degradation.
The volume evolved from papers given at the 24th Annual Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, held at and sponsored by Newcastle University, UK, as well as by the British Society for the History of Philosophy.