Morphogenesis without Structure? Deleuze and René Thom

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between Gilles Deleuze and René Thom’s catastrophe theory in order to clarify the philosophical status of morphogenesis in Deleuze’s thought. Starting from a reconstruction of structural morphogenesis as developed by Thom and extended by Jean Petitot, the article shows how this paradigm remains grounded in structural stability, topological invariance, and formal classification. Through a detailed analysis of The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, it argues that Deleuze neither philosophically nor epistemologically continues Thom’s mathematical project, but deliberately pushes it to its limit. At this threshold, a conception of morphogenesis without structure emerges, grounded in intensive variation, fluctuation, and continuous differentiation.