The Science of Difference

The Concrete Universal in Deleuze and Althusser

Abstract

This work proposes implicit points of contact between the philosophies of Althusser and Deleuze. In order to do this, we characterize Althusser's theoretical and scientific practice as one linked to elements distant from a classical or positivist view: the inquiry into absent, invisible, and immeasurable causes accounts for a novel conception of science, which undoubtedly deserves attention. If science in Marxist terms aims at constructing thought rather than empirical data, then that object is related to what Deleuze characterizes as difference. Similarly, Deleuze's philosophy of difference can also be characterized in terms of what Althusser calls theoretical practice. The methodology shared by both philosophers, and what guides the synthesis we present here, is the search for concrete universals.