Life drawing : a Deleuzean aesthetics of existence

Deleuze’s publications have attracted enormous attention, but scant attention has been paid to the existential relevance of Deleuze’s writings. In the lineage of Nietzsche, Life Drawing develops a fully affirmative Deleuzean aesthetics of existence. For Foucault and Nehamas, the challenge of an aesthetics of existence is to make your life, in one way or another, a work of art. In contrast, Bearn argues that art is too narrow a concept to guide this kind of existential project. He turns instead to the more generous notion of beauty, but he argues that the philosophical tradition has mostly misconceived beauty in terms of perfection. Heraclitus and Kant are well-known exceptions to this mistake, and Bearn suggests that because Heraclitean becoming is beyond conceptual characterization, it promises a sensualized experience akin to what Kant called free beauty. In this new aesthetics of existence, the challenge is to become beautiful by releasing a Deleuzean becoming: becoming becoming. Bearn’s readings of philosophical texts—by Wittgenstein, Derrida, Plato, and others—will be of interest in their own right. Gilles Deleuze's publications have attracted enormous interest, but scant attention has been paid to the existential relevance of his writings. In the lineage of Friedrich Nietzsche, this book develops a fully affirmative Deleuzean aesthetics of existence. For Michel Foucault and Alexander Nehamas, the challenge of an aesthetics of existence is to make your life, in one way or another, a work of art. In contrast, the book argues that art is too narrow a concept to guide this kind of existential project. It turns instead to the more generous notion of beauty, but argues that the philosophical tradition has mostly misconceived beauty in terms of perfection. Heraclitus and Kant are well-known exceptions to this mistake, and the author suggests that because Heraclitean becoming is beyond conceptual characterization, it promises a sensualized experience akin to what Kant called free beauty. In this new aesthetics of existence, the challenge is to become beautiful by releasing a Deleuzean becoming: becoming becoming. The author's readings of philosophical texts - by Wittgenstein, Derrida, Plato, and others - are of interest in their own right Deleuze's publications have attracted enormous attention, but scant attention has been paid to the existential relevance of Deleuze's writings. In the lineage of Nietzsche, 'Life Drawing' develops a fully affirmative Deleuzean aesthetics of existence. For Foucault and Nehamas, the challenge of an aesthetics of existence is to make your life, in one way or another, a work of art. In contrast, Bearn argues that art is too narrow a concept to guide this kind of existential project. He turns instead to the more generous notion of beauty, but he argues that the philosophical tradition has mostly misconceived beauty in terms of perfection. Heraclitus and Kant are well-known exceptions to this mistake, and Bearn suggests that because Heraclitean becoming is beyond conceptual characterization, it promises a sensualised experience akin to what Kant called free beauty. In this new aesthetics of existence, the challenge is to become beautiful by releasing a Deleuzean becoming: becoming becoming Yes And No -- Learning To Swim -- Andante Vivace -- Again And Again -- Keep Everything In Sight At The Same Time -- Desire Without Desires -- Becoming Becoming -- Refusing Beauty, Or, The Bruise -- An Ethics Of Affection. Gordon C.f. Bearn. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.