In Difference and Repetition, Deleuze unhinges thought from static structures, breaking away from identity, essence, and sameness as the grounds for meaning. He instead centers difference as the foundation of existence, identity, and thought itself. For Deleuze, repetition is not a cycle of identical forms but a series of dynamic variations where “difference” perpetually gives rise to newness. The repetitions in life, nature, and thought aren’t identical echoes but deviations, asymmetries, and creative expressions that drive evolution and consciousness. Repetition, then, becomes a generative force where difference expresses itself, endlessly and without essence, through multiplicity.
By upending traditional logic that privileges sameness, Deleuze invites an embrace of becoming over being. Identity is thus seen as provisional, constantly evolving, and only intelligible within the flux of difference. Thought, untethered, becomes an experiment of pure variation, challenging us to think without identity as a point of reference—a thought that, like life itself, thrives in motion.