Re: Physicists Take Philosophers to Task in Paris (N.Y. Times)

[Doug Henwood <dhenwood@xxxxxxxxx>]

Harry M. Cleaver wrote:

>Doug: I beg to differ, especially about Deleuze & Guattari some of whose
>works I know quite well. There is a great deal of extremely thought
>provoking and useful material in their writings. While there was no excuse
>for writing Anti-Oedipus the way they did, Thousand Plateaus, beginning
>with the lovely essay on "rhizomes", more than made up for it. Deleuze's
>work more generally has elaborated readings of Spinoza, Nietsche & others
>highlighting what might called moments of an anti-dialectical tradition
>which is a healthy antidote to the cosmology of orthodox Marxism and some
>ideas for thinking about going beyond capitalism which complement, in
>my mind, Marx's own work. Regardless of legitimacy of Sokal's critique of
>these writers understanding of science (I haven't read the book but I
>would not ASSUME he is correct) their work provides a wealth of useful
>material.

I haven't read Thousand Plateaus. I tried to read Anti-Oedipus, but I gave
up after about 50 pages because I thought it was complete nonsense. Since I
respect your opinions a lot, Harry, I'll give 1000Ps a shot.

Doug