EDITORIALE / Sara Baranzoni, Filippo Domenicali, Paolo Vignola
History and Counter-History of Philosophy: Gilles Deleuze and the “Portraits” of Thought
This article is the Editors’ note to the issue XLI (2025) of Lo Sguardo, titled History and counter-history of Philosophy. Gilles Deleuze and the portraits of Thought, and it collects 23 essays, distributed within five sections. The title of this issue, through its reference to the history and counter-history of philosophy, expresses the Deleuzian tension towards the discipline, whilst, through the image of ‘portraits of thought’, it highlights Deleuze’s response to this tension, a response capable of redefining the very status of the history of philosophy. Throughout the collection of articles, two key areas can be identified: on the one hand, the investigation into the method and resources employed by Deleuze to engage with the history of philosophy, which expresses the ‘problematic’ dimension of Deleuzian history of philosophy; on the other hand, the focus on the philosophers studied by Deleuze, which instead expresses its ‘portrayal’ dimension. With regard to the first area, whilst highlighting different approaches or tendencies within Deleuze’s method, the authors share the view that the general question of the problem and the problematic at the root of philosophical thought is the indispensable starting point for understanding Deleuze’s entire portraiture, but also for clarifying the relationship with the non-philosophical intermediaries who enabled Deleuze himself to renew the discipline.
