François Laruelle

French philosopher (born 1937)

François Laruelle (/l//ɑː//r/'/w//ɛ//l/; laʁɥɛl; 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.

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.

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. Laruellean (non)ethics is "radically de anthropocentrized, fundamentally directed towards a universalized, auto effective set of generic conditions."

In 2003, 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 R. 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.

Phénomène et différence. Éssai sur l'ontologie de Ravaisson [Phenomenon and Difference. An Essay on the Onology of Ravaisson], Klinskieck, Paris, 1971. Phenomenon and Difference: Essay on the Ontology of Ravaisson. trans. Lindsay Lerman, &&& Publishing, 2023
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. Followed by Interviews with Jean Luc Nancy, Sarah Kofman, Jacques Derrida, and Philippe Lacoue Labarthe] Paris, Aubier Flammarion, 1977. Au delà du principe de pouvoir [Beyond the Power Principle], Paris, Payot, 1978.

Le principe de minorité [The Minority Principle], Aubier Montaigne, Paris, 1981. Une biographie de l'homme ordinaire. Des Autorités et des Minorités, Paris, PUF, 1985. A Biography of the Ordinary Man: Of Authorities and Minorities, trans. Jessie Hock and Alex Dubilet, Medford, Polity Press, 2018
Les Philosophies de la différence. Introduction critique, Paris, PUF, 1986. Philosophies of Difference: A Critical Introduction to Non Philosophy, trans. Rocco Gangle, New York, Continuum 2010. Philosophie et non philosophie, Mardaga, Liège/Brussels, 1989. Philosophy and Non Philosophy, trans. Taylor Adkins, Minneapolis, Univocal, 2013
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, Paris, PUF, 1992. Theory of Identities: Generalized Fractality and Artificial Philosophy, trans. Alyosha Edlebi, New York, Columbia University Press, 2016.

Théorie 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, PUF, Paris, 1996. Principles of Non Philosophy, trans. Nicola Rubczak and Anthony Paul Smith, New York, Bloomsbury 2013
Dictionnaire de la non philosophie, François Laruelle et Collaborateurs, Kimé, Paris, 1998. Dictionary of Non Philosophy, trans. Taylor Adkins, Minneapolis, Univocal, 2013. 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, PUF, Paris, 2000. Introduction to Non Marxism, trans. Anthony Paul Smith, Univocal Publishing, 2015.

Le Christ futur, une leçon d'hérésie, Exils, Paris 2002. Future Christ: A Lesson in Heresy, trans. Anthony Paul Smith, New York, Continuum 2010. L'ultime honneur des intellectuels, Textuel, Paris 2003. Intellectuals and Power, trans. Anthony Paul Smith, Malden, MA, Continuum, 2014. La Lutte et l'Utopie à la fin des temps philosophiques, Kimé, Paris 2004. Struggle and Utopia at the End Times of Philosophy, trans. Drew S. Burk and Anthony Paul Smith, Univocal 2012. Mystique non philosophique à l’usage des contemporains [Non Philosophical Mysticism for Contemporary Use], L'Harmat, Paris 2007.

François 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.