The Southern Journal of Philosophy

Volume 45, Issue 1, Spring 2007

Taylor Hammer
Pages 57-77

The Role of Ontology in the Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze

This essay discusses the role of being and ontology in the work of Gilles Deleuze. Starting from an examination of Alain Badiou’s ontology and theory of the event, I discuss the possible opposition of being and the event in Deleuze’s work. Though famous for his discussions of the univocity of being, Deleuze does discuss the event as that which is not being. Deleuze’s theory of the event is similar to that of Badiou in that he considers the event to be extra-ontological. The essay closes by considering the differences between Deleuze and Badiou on the subject of the event.