Plato’s Parasite: Re:turning with(in) Deleuze

Abstract

ABSTRACT Upon encountering Deleuze’s Nietzschean reiteration that it is the task of modern philosophy to overturn Platonism, as put forth in Difference and Repetition (1968), this article worms its way in, seeking to unearth not merely what Deleuze’s differential repetition signifies, but also what such gestures generate in (re)turn. By considering Deleuze’s intervention as a manifold performance of (re)purposeful gestures that put the notion of reversal itself into question, and after providing a brief, Deleuzian, exposition of Platonism, this article not only homes in on Deleuze’s demiurgic detection of an overturning gesture paradoxically already present in, if not itself initiated by, Plato’s writing, but additionally calls attention to other curiosities turn up when reading besides, instead of against, the grain. In introducing Michel Serres as a critical companion, this experimental article ultimately ponders over and entertains the productive possibility of framing Plato’s poignant predicament as a (problem of the) parasite. Composed as fruitful conceptual personae, parasites emerge throughout this article in unforeseen manners, time and time again bringing new food for thought to the table.