Now officially available as “open access” through Edinburgh University Press! You can download it for free at the website here.

From the back cover:

In What is Philosophy? Deleuze argued that atheism is not a drama but “the philosopher’s serenity and philosophy’s achievement.” One of Shults’ main goals in this book is to illustrate the uses and effects of an “atheist machine” throughout Deleuze’s work, demonstrating its central role in his philosophical achievements in metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.

Shults also brings Deleuze’s philosophy into dialogue with recent advances in computational social simulation, especially multi-agent artificial intelligence modelling. The successful development and deployment of such methodologies lend plausibility to Deleuze’s radical philosophy of immanence, which in turn provides the former with more adequate metaphysical moorings. All of this is framed in the context of empirical findings and theoretical developments in the bio-cultural scientific study of religion, which point toward the potentially creative role of atheist assemblages in addressing societal challenges associated with the Anthropocene.