Constantin Boundas

With Jean-Clet Martin's book, Une intrigue criminelle de la philosophie: lire la Phénoménologie de l'Esprit de Hegel, the latter emerges as a philosopher of (negative) difference and (infinite) repetition, one of the first to inject Being with becoming, in other words, as the brother-enemy that Deleuze had been waiting for and with whom he did establish complex relationships that cannot be conveniently summarized in his Nietzschean moment. In view of his novel and striking reading of Hegel, Martin is invited by the interviewer to defend his suggestions that the negative and the dialectic need not turn into spoilers of the joys of Spinoza and the affirmations of Nietzsche; that Hegel's anti-humanism can be counted as a variation on Deleuze's own; that Hegel did anticipate Deleuze in the distinction between becoming and history and in the separation of the virtual event from the actual state of affairs; that Hegel's death of God ushers in, ahead of Nietzsche's Zarathustra, the death of man in the ‘overman’; and that, despite their infinite proximity, Hegel and Deleuze are separated by two incompatible images of thought that make the difference between them a difference of nature and not only a difference of degree.

The Companion is organized into two sections, each one of which reflects the developments of the Anglo-American Analytic and the Continental European philosophical traditions respectively. An appendix presents the main accomplishments of non-Western philosophies in the same time frame. Each section discusses the main movements and fields of the discipline throughout the century. The authors have maintained a balance between the historian's commitment to breadth and accuracy with the commitment of the systematic philosopher to the engaged point of view and to critical reflection. The result is a distinctive reference book made up of a series of philosophical studies -an invaluable companion to anyone who is searching for a panoramic but also reliable and challenging presentation of the philosophical ideas which shaped the last century.

A book review, if you will, can be a powerful tease for readers who anticipate extracting nuggets of insight from its parent source. It can also be—and often is—a way for the reviewer to bask in the glow of a good writer or, by the same token, to flaunt his own cleverness and sense of superiority at the expense of a struggling essayist. I never had conclusive evidence to hold myself immune to either of these temptations. This time, however, I am in a position—temptations notwithstanding—to render my services to interested readers, with the satisfaction that comes from knowing that the pains of composing a review have been fully redeemed by the pleasure of having read two books that made me think long and hard. May's and Hallward's books are very different from each other, in scope, ambition, and targeted readership: May chose to write an introduction to Deleuze—an introduction that could be read and appreciated even by those who know nothing, or very little, about Deleuze—and he did it with honesty, fidelity to the material he has been working with, and with the exquisite transparency and subtlety of his style. The result is one of the best introductions to the rhizome-Deleuze we have had that can be read profitably by beginners and Deleuze-aficionados alike.