Observations on observation: Perspective in deleuze

Abstract

What is perspective, and who or what can have it? How 'human' are so-called 'human' perspectives? Deleuze's answer is that some perspectives often considered quintessentially human are in fact importantly non-human or include a crucial non-human element. By 'nonhuman,' Deleuze has in mind Soviet experimental filmmaker Dziga Vertov's notion of 'a non-human eye, an eye which would be in things.' The chapter examines three examples from Deleuze's thought on art, science, and cinema to extract his notion of an inhuman perspective: the case of the very large statue in Plato's Sophist, discussed in 'Plato and the Simulacrum;' the 'partial observer' found in Deleuze and Guattari's discussion of Bertrand Russell in What is Philosophy?; the 'cine-eye' of Deleuze's Cinema I and II. Internalized, installed, and assembled forms of perspective are identified as cases of non-human perspective. The Platonic simulacrum, the conic section, Russell's sensibilia, and film editing are the chief cases treated. Deleuze's view implies that transhumanisms and posthumanisms that seek to abandon so-called 'human' perspectives in favor of non-human perspectives might ignore or overlook the point that crucial elements of the non-human and non-organismic are already embedded in some putatively human perspectives.

Publication Title

Deleuzian Mind

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS