Folds‘What always matters is folding, unfolding, refolding,’ Deleuze writes
at the end of his book on Leibniz in 1988 (The Fold, 137). Thought is in
the folding, but also in the unfolding, in the process of explication.
The questions that bring together Deleuze and Leibniz and also dis-
tance them, all concern the problem of explication. The same is true
for Deleuze and Spinoza.
At the centre of the Deleuzian reflection on Spinoza is the theme of
expression: expression means unfolding what is folded, projecting con-
structively what is constituted in the interior of language in the form
of complication.Expression is taken to be synonymous with ‘emanation’. (Expression-
ism in Philosophy: Spinoza, 17)But on the other hand, as Deleuze then writes:Expression is taken as another word for explication.(Expressionism in
Philosophy, 17–18)Thus at the beginning is the fold, the particular folding that being
assumes within language, in the singular world of a subject of enuncia-
tion. Enunciation is the process that puts projection in motion, that is,
the unfolding from which the projected world emanates, the con-
structed world of language, the world of linguistic interaction, the rope
across the abyss of non-sense.Becoming expressive, that is, becoming active. (Expressionism in
Philosophy, 288)Deleuze returns to Spinoza at several moments, and in particular he
devotes two books to the Dutch philosopher, one on expressionism
[Expressionism in Philosophy] in 1968, and another, smaller book called
Spinoza: Practical Philosophy, in 1981.
Spinoza restores a Stoic aura to philosophy: what is at stake in philo-
sophy as well as in the search for sense is the happiness of existence.
Spinoza questions being from the viewpoint of affection, and in this
way, he recognizes – rare among Western philosophers – the philo-
sophical legitimacy of happiness (felicità).
Happiness: a word so suspect that is was banished from reflection.Deleuze and the Rhizomatic Machine 699780230_221192_08_cha07.pdf 10/3/08 11:35 AM Page 69