The philosopher as civilization's doctor and the sage's materialism

Abstract

The present article intends to investigate the following problem: what kind of approximation can we identify, in the updates made by Gilles Deleuze’s interpretation, between the philosopher’s Nietzschean project the philospher as the civilization’s doctor and the Rousseauan method of the sage’s materialism? In order to develop this question, we propose as an interpretative hypothesis that, for Deleuze, the philospher as civilization’s doctor and the method of the sage’s materialism are bound by the theme of time and the operation of desexualization. To develop this hypothesis, we will present the philosopher’s project as a physician of civilization as he is exposed by Nietzsche in the text entitled The book of the philosopher, establishing counterpoints and relations with Ecce homo. Next, we will characterize the deleuzeana claim of this project. In the next step, we shall deal with the materialism of the sage in Rousseau and Deleuze’s interpretation of it. Finally, we will try to show how the Nietzschean project and the Rousseau method are related in the thought of Gilles Deleuze.