Deleuze and Ikeda: Rethinking the Subject of Revolution

This paper examines the resonances between Gilles Deleuze’s and Daisaku Ikeda’s philosophy of the subject and revolution. Although much has been written about Deleuze’s and Ikeda’s philosophies separately, relatively little has been focused on the resonances between these two philosophies. This paper aims to highlight the resonances between Deleuze’s and Ikeda’s philosophy of subjectivity and their implications for contemporary revolutionary discourses. This paper does not aim to establish that the two philosophies are identical, for it is recognized that Deleuze’s philosophy developed in the context of Western philosophy and Ikeda wrote in the in the context of Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy advocated by Nichiren Daishonin. This paper aims to argue, instead, that despite the obvious differences, there are important resonances between these two philosophies, and they need to be explored as both philosophies may both benefit from mutual dialogue and theoretical exchanges. In the first part of this paper we will examine Deleuze’s theory of the subject in the context of Western philosophy, followed by an examination of Ikeda’s philosophy of the subject in the context of Mahāyāna Buddhism. In the third part, we will examine the resonances between Deleuze’s and Ikeda’s philosophy of the subject, and consider the implications of these for social and political revolutions.