Mis-readings of Leibniz: Deleuze and Whitehead against Badiou

The paper is motivated by the desire to identify exactly what Leibniz has contributed to Deleuze and Whitehead’s particular version of (non-organic) vitalism. This reading of Leibniz is compared with those of Badiou (with a little help from Heidegger, who specifically demonstrates the dependence of logic on ontology rather than of ontology on logic). The paper compares each of these philosopher’s interpretations of the fundamental principles that ground Leibnizian monadology, with the intention of highlighting the implications of these readings for political theory. In particular, Badiou’s notion of a schema of torsion is examined and distinguished from Deleuze’s notions of actualization and realization.