Glossary

Virtual / Actual (Deleuze)

In Gilles Deleuze's philosophy, the virtual and the actual are two interrelated dimensions of reality. The virtual is a realm of capacities that have not yet been actualized or materially realized in the concrete world. Nonetheless, they are real in a potent and generative sense, containing all possible outcomes or forms that something might take within a given context and assemblage. The actualization process is the transition from the virtual to the actual, where these potentialities become manifested in the world as tangible entities or events. This concept challenges traditional notions of reality and potentiality, emphasizing becoming and transformation over static and perennial being.