Deleuze and the Non-West

Is Deleuze a Western philosopher? If Deleuzian thought belongs to the tradition of western philosophy, in what sense does the non-West regard Deleuze as a philosopher? Philosophy is equal anywhere on earth. Since Descartes’ ‘discovery’ that the non-West could think, western philosophy could no longer ignore the presence of the non-West, a philosophical otherness in reality. Deleuze recognized the problem of the non-West and suggested a solution with the concept of ‘geophilosophy’. In What Is Philosophy? Deleuze, along with Guattari, uses this term for a philosophy of the earth. For Deleuze, thinking is not a matter of the dialectic between subject and object, but rather ‘the relationship of territory and the earth’. It is not unusual to relate Deleuze with the non-West or place Deleuze in the non-West; rather the very Deleuzian way to speak of Deleuzian philosophy is in relation to the non-Deleuzian.This special issue explores Deleuze and the non-West, and includes topics such as the non-Western plane of immanence; the non-Western reception of Deleuze; Deleuze as a philosopher of non-Western ethics; the translation of Deleuze into non-Western languages; geophilosophical studies of Deleuze; and Deleuzian concepts and non-Western philosophy.