A Monad and the Fold: The Interpretation of Leibniz’s Theory in Deleuze’s Philosophy

Abstract

One of the most original and relevant interpretations of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s theory is presented in the works of contemporary French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, especially in his book The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque. The aim of the article is to show the influence of the Leibnizian monadology on the formation of the Deleuzian concept of the fold and to highlight the significance of the concept in the context of contemporary art and painting. Deleuze created the concept of the fold in order to make relevant the Leibnizian concept of monadology. The fold emerges a cultural term linking the Baroque and postmodern eras, as they brought out the issue of infinity and the plurality of reality. Drawing on Leibniz’s philosophy, Deleuze argues that the world should be understood not as a structure but as a texture. Leibniz’s idea that a monad is a metaphysical point reflecting the infinity of the universe inspired Deleuze’s philosophy of life, the view that life can also be found in matter. The world is becoming and changing in every part of itself. It is based neither on absolute chaos nor on uniform order. The world is a chaosmos without ultimate definite borders, with the power to establish multiple systems. Both Baroque and modern painting—from El Greco to Simon Hantaï—are characterized by an intuition: the ability to “think” and depict the plurality and vitality of reality through artistic expression. By applying the “logic” of chance and accident, using liberated hand movements and the matter of paint, contemporary painting (for example, the work of Henrikas Čerapas) reveals the plane of chaos that generates objects.