Gilles Deleuze.
Différence and Repetition" (French: Différence et répétition) is a study of philosophy published by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze in 1968.
In this book, Deleuze focuses on the problem of identity. For example, in the statement "Socrates is a man," Deleuze describes a situation in which what is used exclusively to refer to Socrates, an individual and concrete historical figure, is equal to what is commonly used to refer to human beings, beings with various differences.
Deleuze points out that the successive sequence "ABABAB..." is recognized as a repetition of "AB," and argues that such recognition is due to the imagination of the perceiver, not to the essence of the object of recognition. He also believes that such recognition of identity is not a conscious action of the mind, since it arises from the passive synthesis of the perceiver. First, the perceiver's past experience is "virginal repetition" in the present in a realm beyond the action of the mind. This idealizes and contraction a being that had no identity of its own. Deleuze thus argues for a revision of the identity of the activity of philosophy, based on the fact that the identity of any being is determined by past experience, its passive synthesis, and its virginal repetition. The fact that existence is defined by the past is a continuous event in the future, and the past prepares another repetition in the present and thus becomes the condition for action in the future. Deleuze argues that in order to break free from this, we can orient ourselves to a new way of being by finding a past that has never been repeated. ---
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