Bergson-Deleuze Encounters: Transcendental Experience and the Thought of the Virtual

Bergson-Deleuze Encounters sheds light on the intricate bond between French philosophers Henri Bergson and Gilles Deleuze. It explores the major diffraction between the two thinkers, conveys a sense of the irreducible originality of Deleuze’s thought, and offers a detailed account of Bergson’s “Copernican Revolution.” In so doing, it presents an explanation of thought and experience that contrasts with the dominant account of the phenomenological tradition. Valentine Moulard-Leonard argues that Bergson and Deleuze share a novel conception of the transcendental—which they call the Virtual—that marks a new era in thinking, in which what is ultimately at stake is a new vision of time, experience, and materiality. The Virtual provides an indispensable alternative to the totalizing systems spawned by the traditional transcendent image of thought—be they systems of idealism, scientific positivism, nationalism, racism, sexism, or dogmatism.