François Laruelle (; French: [laʁɥɛl]
(listen) ; born 22 August 1937) is a French
philosopher, formerly of the Collège international
de philosophie and the University of Paris
X: Nanterre.
Laruelle has been publishing since the early
1970s and now has around twenty book-length
titles to his name.
Alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure,
Laruelle is notable for developing a science
of philosophy that he calls non-philosophy.
He currently directs an international organisation
dedicated to furthering the cause of non-philosophy,
the Organisation Non-Philosophique Internationale.
== Work ==
Laruelle divides his work into five periods:
Philosophy I (1971–1981), Philosophy II
(1981–1995), Philosophy III (1995–2002),
Philosophy IV (2002–2008), and Philosophy
V (2008–present).
The work comprising Philosophy I finds Laruelle
attempting to subvert concepts found in Nietzsche,
Heidegger, Deleuze and Derrida.
Even at this early stage one can identify
Laruelle's interest in adopting a transcendental
stance towards philosophy.
With Philosophy II, Laruelle makes a determined
effort to develop a transcendental approach
to philosophy itself.
However, it is not until Philosophy III that
Laruelle claims to have started the work of
non-philosophy.
=== Non-philosophy ===
Laruelle claims that all forms of philosophy
(from ancient philosophy to analytic philosophy
to deconstruction and so on) are structured
around a prior decision, but that all forms
of philosophy remain constitutively blind
to this decision.
The 'decision' that Laruelle is concerned
with here is the dialectical splitting of
the world in order to grasp the world philosophically.
Laruelle claims that the decisional structure
of philosophy can only be grasped non-philosophically.
In this sense, non-philosophy is a science
of philosophy.
== Reception and influence ==
A decade ago, he was described by Scottish
philosopher Ray Brassier as "the most important
unknown philosopher working in Europe today"
and was described by Gilles Deleuze and Félix
Guattari as "engaged in one of the most interesting
undertakings of contemporary philosophy."
The first English-language reception of his
work (Brassier's account of Laruelle in Radical
Philosophy in 2003) has been followed with
a slew of introductions from John Ó Maoilearca
(Mullarkey), Anthony Paul Smith, Rocco Gangle,
Katerina Kolozova, and Alexander Galloway,
as well as Brassier's own subsequent book,
Nihil Unbound.
Today, Laruelle's international reception
is growing with dozens of titles a year translated
and published in English by such publishing
houses as Polity Books, Edinburgh University
Press, Continuum, Palgrave Macmillan, Columbia
University Press, Urbanomic/Sequence and others.
== Selected bibliography ==
Articles translated into EnglishFrançois
Laruelle, 'A Summary of Non-Philosophy' in
Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy.
Vol. 8.
Philosophies of Nature, 1999.
François Laruelle, 'Identity and Event' in
Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy.
Vol. 9.
Parallel Processes, 2000.
François Laruelle, 'The Decline of Materialism
in the Name of Matter' in Pli: The Warwick
Journal of Philosophy.
Vol. 12.
What Is Materialism?
2001.
François Laruelle, 'The Truth According to
Hermes: Theorems on the Secret and Communication'
in Parrhesia 9 (2010): 18-22.
François Laruelle, 'The End Times of Philosophy'
in continent.
2.3 (2012): 160-166.Philosophie IPhénomène
et différence.
Éssai sur l'ontologie de Ravaisson [Phenomenon
and Difference: An Essay on Ravaisson's Ontology],
Klinskieck, Paris, 1971.
Machines textuelles.
Déconstruction et libido d'écriture [Textual
Machines: Deconstruction and Libido of Writing],
Seuil, Paris, 1976.
Nietzsche contra Heidegger.
Thèses pour une politique nietzschéenne
[Nietzsche contra Heidegger: Theses for a
Nietzschean Politics], Payot, Paris, 1977.
Le Déclin de l’écriture, suivi d'entretiens
avec J-L Nancy, S. Kofman, J. Derrida et P.
Lacoue-Labarthe [The Decline of Writing] Paris,
Aubier-Flammarion, 1977.
Au-delà du principe de pouvoir [Beyond the
Power Principle], Paris, Payot, 1978.Philosophie
IILe principe de minorité [The Minority Principle],
Aubier Montaigne, Paris, 1981.
Une biographie de l'homme ordinaire.
Des Autorités et des Minorités [A Biography
of the Ordinary Man: Of Authorities and Minorities],
Paris, PUF,1985.
Les Philosophies de la différence.
Introduction critique [English translation:
Philosophies of Difference: A Critical Introduction
to Non-Philosophy, trans.
Rocco Gangle, New York, Continuum 2010.]
Paris, PUF, 1986.
Philosophie et non-philosophie [Philosophy
and Non-Philosophy], Mardaga, Liège/Brussels,
1989.
En tant qu'un.
La non-philosophie éxpliquée au philosophes
[As One: Non-Philosophy Explained to Philosophers],
Aubier, Paris, 1991.
Théorie des identités.
Fractalité généralisée et philosophie
artificielle [Theory of Identities: Generalized
Fractality and Artificial Philosophy], Paris,
PUF, 1992.Philosophie IIIThéorie des Étrangers.
Science des hommes, démocratie, non-psychoanalyse
[Theory of Strangers: Science of Men, Democracy,
Non-Psychoanalysis], Kimé, Paris, 1995.
Principes de la non-philosophie [English Translation:
Principles of Non-Philosophy, trans.
Nicola Rubczak and Anthony Paul Smith, New
York, Bloomsbury 2013], PUF, Paris, 1996.
Dictionnaire de la non-philosophie [Dictionary
of Non-Philosophy], François Laruelle et
Collaborateurs, Kimé, Paris, 1998.
Éthique de l'Étranger.
Du crime contre l'humanité [Ethics of the
Stranger: Of The Crime Against Humanity],
Kimé, Paris, 2000.
Introduction au non-marxisme [Introduction
to Non-Marxism], PUF, Paris, 2000.Philosophie
IVLe Christ futur, une leçon d'hérésie
[English translation: Future Christ: A Lesson
in Heresy, trans.
Anthony Paul Smith, New York, Continuum 2010],
Exils, Paris 2002.
L'ultime honneur des intellectuels [English
translation: Intellectuals and Power, trans.
Anthony Paul Smith, Malden, MA, Continuum,
2014], Textuel, Paris 2003.*
La Lutte et l'Utopie à la fin des temps philosophiques
[English translation: Struggle and Utopia
at the End Times of Philosophy, trans.
Drew S. Burk and Anthony Paul Smith, Univocal
2012], Kimé, Paris 2004.
Mystique non-philosophique à l’usage des
contemporains [Non-Philosophical Mysticism
for Contemporary Use], L'Harmat, Paris 2007.Philosophie
VIntroduction aux sciences génériques [Introduction
to Generic Science], Pétra, Paris 2008.
Philosophie non-standard : générique, quantique,
philo-fiction [Non-Standard Philosophy: Generic,
Quantum, Philo-Fiction], Paris, Kimé, 2010.
Anti-Badiou : sur l'introduction du maoïsme
dans la philosophie [Anti-Badiou: The Introduction
of Maoism in Philosophy], trans.
Robin Mackay, New York, Bloomsbury, 2013,
Paris, Kimé, 2011.
Théorie générale des victimes [English
translation: General Theory of Victims, trans.
Alex Dubilet and Jessie Hock, Malden, MA,
Polity, 2015], Paris, Mille et une nuits,
2012.
Christo-fiction [Christo-Fiction: The Ruins
of Athens and Jerusalem, trans.
Robin Mackay, New York: Columbia University
Press, 2015], Paris, Fayard, 2014
En dernière humanité: la nouvelle science
écologique [In The Last Humanity: The New
Ecological Science], Paris, Cerf, 2015
== See also ==
Speculative realism
== Notes ==
== Further reading ==
Brassier, Ray, 'Axiomatic Heresy: The Non-Philosophy
of Francois Laruelle', Radical Philosophy
121, Sep/Oct 2003.
Brassier, Ray, Nihil Unbound.
Enlightenment and Extinction.
Edinburgh University Press, 2007.
Galloway, Alexander, Laruelle: Against the
Digital.
University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
Gangle, Rocco.
François Laruelle's Philosophies of Difference:
A Critical Introduction and Guide.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.
Rocco Gangle (Editor), Julius Greve (Editor),
Superpositions: Laruelle and the Humanities,
Rowman & Littlefield 2017.
James, Ian.
The New French Philosophy.
Cambridge: Polity, 2012.
Kolozova, Katerina.
Cut of the Real: Subjectivity in Poststructuralist
Philosophy.
Columbia University Press, 2014.
Kolozova, Katerina.
The Lived Revolution: Solidarity with the
Body in Pain as the New Political Universal.
Evro-Balkan Press, 2010.
Mullarkey, John.
Post-Continental Philosophy: An Outline.
Continuum Press, 2006.
Mullarkey, John, and Anthony Paul Smith, eds.
Laruelle and Non-Philosophy.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012.
Ó Maoilearca, John, All Thoughts are Equal:
Laruelle and Nonhuman Philosophy, University
of Minnesota Press, 2015
Smith, Anthony Paul.
François Laruelle's Principles of Non Philosophy:
A Critical Introduction and Guide.
Edinburgh University Press, 2015.
Smith, Anthony Paul.
Laruelle: A Stranger Thought.
Polity Press, 2016.
== External links ==
Organisation Non-Philosophique Internationale
(ONPhI)
Swami Narasimhananda, Review of Intellectuals
and Power by François Laruelle, Prabuddha
Bharata, 121/7 (July 2016), 578
See Pérez, Rolando, "Intellectuals in an
Age of Capitalist Nihilism," review of Intellectuals
and Power: The Insurrection of the Victim,
François Laruelle, in conversation with Philippe
Petit in Radical Philosophy 193.
September/October 2015: 60-62
