In their final collaborative work, Deleuze and Guattari set out to address the question, 'what is philosophy?' Their answer is simple enough: philosophy ‘is the art of forming, inventing and fabricating concepts’. In this book, Jeffrey A. Bell explores what that involves. Crucial to Deleuze and Guattari’s understanding of this task, Bell argues, is the assumption that philosophy is integral to a life well lived. Bell shows that a concept of learning is created through the course of the text, composed of three inseparable components: philosophy, science and art. Ultimately, What is Philosophy? can be understood as a meditation on a life well lived, with this concept of learning at its core.

Bell’s book is not only a guide to What is Philosophy?, but a critical introduction to Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy as a whole. Bell writes with an admirably clear and lucid prose, and even long-time readers of Deleuze will find much in his analyses that is challenging and thought-provoking. A rich and rewarding book. -- Daniel W. Smith, Purdue University
Much more than a guide to Deleuze and Guattari’s last work, this rich and insightful book unpacks key themes of Deleuze’s earlier work. Bell shows how his conception of philosophy engages with the history of philosophy and connects it with elements of contemporary Analytic philosophy. This is essential reading for every serious student of Deleuze. -- Paul Patton, University of New South Wales Australia

Jeffrey A. Bell is Professor of Philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University. He has recently been a Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professor in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London, during which time much of this book was written. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Deleuze and Deleuze and Guattari, including Deleuze and Guattari's What is Philosophy?: A Critical Introduction and Guide (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), Deleuze’s Hume (Edinburgh University Press, 2008), Philosophy at the Edge of Chaos (University of Toronto Press, 2006) and The Problem of Difference: Phenomenology and Poststructuralism (University of Toronto Press, 1998). Bell is co-editor with Paul Livingston and Andrew Cutrofello of Beyond the Analytic–Continental Divide: Pluralist Philosophy in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge, 2015) and with Claire Colebrook of Deleuze and History (Edinburgh University Press, 2009).