Deleuze and Ethology: A Philosophy of Entangled Life

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Ethology, or how animals relate to their environments, is currently enjoying increased academic attention. A prominent figure in this scholarship is Gilles Deleuze and yet, the significance of his relational metaphysics to ethology has still not been scrutinised. Jason Cullens book is the first text to analyse Deleuzes philosophical ethology and he prioritises the theorists examination of how beings relate to each other. For Cullen, Deleuzes Cinema books are integral to this investigation and he highlights how they expose a key Deleuzian theme: that beings are fundamentally continuous with each other. In light of this continuity then, Cullen reveals that how beings understand each other shapes them and allows them to transform their shared worlds.

Reviews

In deploying two rare academic qualities - deft scholarship and bold originality - Jason Cullen defends a new and controversial interpretation of Deleuze's ontology as ethology. His book gives valuable insights into current research on Deleuze's philosophy and sets out an ingenious thesis connecting Deleuze's work on cinema to ethology. * James Williams, Honorary Professor of Philosophy, Deakin University, Australia *
Jason Cullens superb book analyzes how Deleuze transformed ethologythe study of animal behaviorinto a practical science of manners of being that unites ethics and ontology. Cullen deftly traces its development through Deleuzes works on Spinoza, Bergson, and the cinema, showing how all beings are ultimately entangled with each other in what he terms an affective continuity. Deleuze and Ethology is a compelling and original work that will revitalize our understanding of Deleuze. * Daniel W. Smith, Professor of Philosophy, Purdue University, USA *
Deleuze and Ethology is an impressive account not only of what Deleuze and Guattari took directly from ethology, but how their own work can be understood as continuing the work of ethology by other means. Its reconsideration of Deleuzes cinema book from this perspective is especially interesting in this regard. * Ian Buchanan, Professor of Cultural Theory, University of Wollongong, Australia *

Author Bio

Jason Cullen is a research assistant at the University of Queensland, Australia. His current research interests are the intersections of Deleuze, process philosophy, and the history and philosophy of biology.