Very few thinkers have traveled the heretical path that François Laruelle walks between philosophy and non-philosophy. For Laruelle, the future of philosophy is problematic, but a mutation of its functions is possible. Up until now, philosophy has merely been a utopia concerned with the past and only provided the services of its conservation. We must introduce a rigorous and nonimaginary practice of a utopia in action, a philo-fiction—a close relative to science fiction. From here we can see the double meaning of the watchword, a tabula rasa of the future. This new destination is imposed by a specifically human messianism, an eschatology within the limits of the Man-in-person as antihumanist ultimatum addressed to the History of Philosophy. This book elucidates some of the fundamental problems of non-philosophy and takes on its detractors.
In the course of more than twenty works François Laruelle has developed one of the most singular and unique ways of thinking within contemporary philosophy. This volume develops the style of his late work, which has sought to combine the idioms of diverse areas (from the language of quantum mechanics to theology, messianism and Gnosticism) to create non-standard philosophical fictions which further articulate his thinking of radical immanence in relation to wide-ranging themes and concerns. The focus here is a reassessment of his attempt to rethink what it means to be human. Much of that work has taken place through an engagement with science, politics and religion, but now we see Laruelle confronting the challenge of ecology for his kind of humanism (which he would call a 'non-humanism', meaning a non-standard humanism). This challenge is one of thinking of the ethical demands of other entities within a general ecology. Namely the lives of plants and other vegetation alongside that of animals. Dealing with the intersections between science and philosophy in current French thought, this book is of particular interest to those concerned with the philosophical innovation and renewal of ecological thought that have influenced ecological theory. The first English translation of a key work from this highly original experimental philosopher, it will surely help cement his place in the firmament of avant-garde French thinkers, from Derrida and Deleuze to Badiou.
The Real is Radical is centrally concerned with the explication and development of François Laruelle's theory of “non-standard Marxism.” Fardy assembles a constellation of concepts designed to put Laruelle's work into dialogue with diverse theoretical perspectives, including Althusser, Tronti, Adorno, Baudrillard, Kolozova and others while demonstrating the novelty and theoretical saliency of Laruelle's work. The Real is Radical provides a much-needed introduction to non-standard Marxism and a useful starting point for the development of its theoretical potential.
Religion and European Philosophy: Key Thinkers from Kant to Žižek draws together a diverse group of scholars in theology, religious studies, and philosophy to discuss the role that religion plays among key figures in the European philosophical tradition. Designed for accessibility, each of the thirty-four chapters includes background information on the key thinker, an overview of the main themes, concepts, and concerns that occupy his or her attention, and a discussion of the religious and theological elements present in his or her thought, in light of contemporary issues. Given the scope of the volume, Religion and European Philosophy will be the go-to guide for understanding the religious and theological dimensions of European philosophy, for both students and established researchers alike.
Non-philosophy poses a challenge to philosophical thought, inspired by the work of François Laruelle. It questions the idea that philosophy, or other disciplines, can tell us what it means to think. This edited collection brings together an internationally known and interdisciplinary group of scholars, including a major new essay by Laruelle himself. Together they use non-philosophy to cross the boundaries between philosophy and performance. Philosophers have been busy for centuries looking for the foundations of truth, value, and reality. They try to say what it all means and how it all fits together. Areas of life like science and art have to wait for the philosopher to show up to tell them what they are really about. Theory dictates meaning: performance just puts it into effect. Non-philosophy is different. It says that reality is not an object out there that we can think and understand. The Real is the place we stand: it is where we think from. Crucially, non-philosophy understands philosophy itself to be performative. It enacts modes of thinking that do not dominate the material of thought and do not capture the Real in concepts. Philosophy is mutated by its performances; and performances themselves think, are modes of theory. What happens when we bring philosophy, art, and performance together, without hierarchy? How can they get inside and change one another? The thinkers in this collection answer these pressing questions.
Utilizing François Laruelle's "non-philosophical" method, Smith constructs a unified theory of philosophical theology and ecology by challenging environmental philosophy and theology, claiming that and engagement with scientific ecology can radically change the standard metaphysics of nature, as well as ethical problems related to "the natural".
In Principles of Non-Philosophy, Laruelle develops the concepts and method of a more democratic form of thought where neither science nor philosophy is subjected to one another, but brought together in a more productive theoretical and practical relationship. While the potential importance of this project is clear, Laruelle remains famously difficult. Anthony Paul Smith provides an introduction and guide to the text that situates you amongst the figures and concepts Laruelle engaged with, provides a foothold for your own understanding and, more importantly, potential use of the project of non-philosophy.
This special issue of Labyrith is the first part of a diptych dedicated to the eminent French philosopher François Laruelle in honor of his 80th Anniversary. It aims to unveil the attracting force of Laruelle's non-philosophy for artists and scholars from different disciplines. The essays demonstrates in an emblematic way how a new "democratic order of thinking" permits non-philosophy to enclose domains that have long been considered as opposites - philosophy, science, religion and the arts - and to superpose these variables in a process of creative invention. The issue includes an original dialogue between François Laruelle and Anne Françoise Schmid, an inteview with Laruelle's translator into English Anthony Paul Smith conducted by Mark W. Westmoreland, and articles by Yvanka B. Raynova, Constance L. Mui, Julien S. Murphy, Katerina Kolozova, Adam Louis Klein, Nicholas Eppert, Laura Cull Ó Maoilearca, Gilbert Kieffer, Benoît Maire, and Anne-Françoise Schmid.
The Poverty of Philosophy: Readings in Non and Other Philosophies and Arts of Imminence kicks off with an 8,000 word overture, “Poverty of Philosophy” introducing non-philosophy and its progenitor, François Laruelle, his inspirations by, rapports and connections with other ‘philosophers of immanence’ (Nietzsche, Henry, Deleuze, Derrida...) as well as exploring, and also drawing some conclusions as to the possibilities of its present, and/or feasible impact on culture, politics and the arts, there follows the Anthology of NON, and other Philosophies and Arts of Immanence, comprised of some 300 excerpts from some 140 published sources, many signed by Laruelle, and many of the others by French, Anglophone, as well as Eastern European writers, artists, philosophers, scholars, critics and thinkers who extend his insights in the various domains of human endeavor. Very often translated from the French, and frequently commented, these excerpts are arranged alphabetically under 88 topics, from Actor to World, the complete list of them following my introduction, in a table of contents keyed to page #’s for each of them. Following are close readings in Beitchman’s five review essays, two of works of Laruelle, and of three by scholars here very much in his wake: “The Machinery of Control (Sophie Lesueur, “Pensée machine et ordre politique”)”; “Universe, World, Philo-Fiction and Non-Action in Non-philosophy (François Laruelle, Tétralogos:)”; “Ecology, Sacred and Profane (François Laruelle, En dernière humanité: la nouvelle science écologique)”; “The Philo-Fictions of Katerina Kolozova (Cut of the Real and 5 other works)”; “A Leap through Language: Non-Philosophy, Science and the Arts (Sergueï Khoruzhiy, “La non-philosophie de François Laruelle entre le Charybde de la transraison et le Scylla du scientisme”).” These essays provide a synoptic overview of non-philosophy from its inception to its latest non-standard philosophy avatar. Generally Beitchman’s focus is on language and vocabulary, and their associated arts, principally literary and performing—and on the way terms like World, Universe, Superposition and Philo-fiction are deployed, defined, re-defined or refused definition; also how modern science, once fractals, now more Quantum and Wave theory, in concert with these imponderables, expands the horizon of the thinkable, conceivable and above all the feasible.
