DOI: 10.4231/y0pa-b148
title: Leibniz and the Baroque, Lecture 1, 28 October 1986

description: &lt;p&gt;The Deleuze Seminars is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during his career at the University of Paris 8. This seminar clearly prepares publication of his 1988 book on Leibniz, The Fold, Leibniz and the Baroque. This first lecture is organized within a 20-lecture seminar that Deleuze taught between October 1986 and June 1987, presented on October 28, 1986.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In this first session, Deleuze lays out the principal elements of his understanding of &quot;the fold&quot;: the Baroque, says Deleuze, is characterized by matter never ceasing to be pleated, being pleated onto itself, or the soul never ceasing to be folded, hence &lt;em&gt;the pleats of matter &lt;/em&gt;and &lt;em&gt;the folds of the soul. &lt;/em&gt;Deleuze links this vision of the Baroque to Leibniz&rsquo;s particular conception of vitalism, but also to his conception of death, as an infinite envelopment of the body and with the infinitely pleat bodies unfolding at the Final Judgment. To this first vitalist aspect corresponds a second, the diffusion of inorganic matter, and both of these aspects are linked to a point on a curvature with its own inflection. This leads Deleuze to argue that the Baroque is what treats form through the genetic element of inflection, with the center of curvature occurring on the side of concavity. Hence, matter does not account for folds and pleats that affect it; the curvature has to refer to a free spontaneity, determined as the spontaneity of the point as point of view. These are the folds of the soul that alone account for the ideal genesis of forms, and the folds and pleats of matter presuppose this second region of folding (&lt;em&gt;plissement&lt;/em&gt;) of folds and pleats. Here, Deleuze hints at an eventual move toward an absolute transformation of the notions of subject and object. Many references in this opening session correspond to chapter 1 of &lt;em&gt;The Fold. Leibniz and the Baroque&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This dataset includes one .mp3 audio file of the original recorded lecture and the complete French transcription and English translation in odt format.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;---&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Les S&eacute;minaires de Deleuze sont une collection d&#39;enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents compl&eacute;mentaires des conf&eacute;rences que le philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Gilles Deleuze a donn&eacute; lors de sa carri&egrave;re &agrave; l&#39;Universit&eacute; de Paris 8.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Dans cette s&eacute;ance initiale, Deleuze indique les &eacute;l&eacute;ments principaux de sa compr&eacute;hension du &ldquo;pli&rdquo;, notamment &ldquo;Le pli est donc le caract&egrave;re essentiel du Baroque compris comme un acte op&eacute;ratoire,&quot; ce qui correspond au chapitre 1 de &lt;em&gt;Le Pli. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;em&gt;Leibniz et le baroque&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Seminar of 20 sessions given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at Paris 8-St. Denis University, October 28, 1986, to June 6, 1987, Deleuze’s final seminar in his career. This first session was presented on October 28, 1986.