a life | the self

John Rajchman will write, in his introduction to Deleuze's book Pure immanence: essays on A life,

"we may think of a life as an empiricist concept in contrast to what John Locke called "the self". A life has quite different features thatn those Locke associated with the self - conciousness, memory and personal identiy. it unfolds according to another logic: a logic

of impersonal individuation rather than personal individualization,

of singularities rather than particularities.

it can never be completely specified. it is always indefinite - a life.

In short, in contrast to the self, a life is impersonal and yet singular, and so requires a "wilder"sort of empiricism - a transcendental empiricism.

A conception of empirisism that departs from the classical definition that says that all our ideas can be derived from atomistic sensations through logic of abstraction and generalization. the real problem of empiricism is rather to be found in a new conception of subjectivity."

David Hume: "thinking with AND instead of thinking IS, instead of thinking for IS: empiricism has never had another secret."

Deleuze, G.(2001)Pure Immanence: Essays on A Life. Zone Books, New York