Theory of Identities

François Laruelle, Alyosha Edlebi

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English

Columbia University Press
24 May 2016

Deconstructionism, Structuralism, Post-structuralism; Philosophy: metaphysics & ontology; Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge; Philosophy of science

François Laruelle proposes a theory of identity rooted in scientific notions of symmetry and chaos, emancipating thought from the philosophical paradigm of Being and reconnecting it with the real world. Unlike most contemporary philosophers, Laruelle does not believe language, history, and the world shape identity but that identity determines our relation to these phenomena.

Both critical and constructivist, Theory of Identities finds fault with contemporary philosophy's reductive relation to science and its attachment to notions of singularity, difference, and multiplicity, which extends this crude approach. Laruelle's new theory of science, its objects, and philosophy, introduces an original vocabulary to elaborate the concepts of determination, fractality, and artificial philosophy, among other ideas, grounded in an understanding of the renewal of identity.

Laruelle's work repairs the rift between philosophical and scientific inquiry and rehabilitates the concept of identity that continental philosophers have widely criticized. His argument positions him clearly against Deleuze, Badiou, the new materialists, and other thinkers who stray too far from empirical approaches that might revitalize philosophy's practical applications.

By: François Laruelle
Translated by: Alyosha Edlebi
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 25mm
Weight: 553g
ISBN: 9780231168946
ISBN 10: 0231168942
Pages: 296
Publication Date: 24 May 2016
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface to the English Edition: Retrospection (2014) Preface to the French Edition (1992) Introduction: Science, Identity, Fractality Part 1: The Essence of Science 1. Science: A Nonepistemological Description 2. Non-philosophy: A Scientific Reform of the Understanding Part 2: Theory of Generalized Fractality 3. Of Determination-in-the-Last-Instance as Destruction of the Principle of Sufficient Determination 4. The Concepts of Generalized Fractality and Chaos Part 3: Principles of an Artificial Philosophy 5. Unified Theory of Thought 6. The Concept of an Artificial Philosophy 7. The Fractal Modeling of Philosophy Notes Index

Francois Laruelle is emeritus professor at the University of Paris Ouest, Nanterre La Defense (Paris X), and lectures at the College International de Philosophie. He is the author of more than twenty books, including Philosophies of Difference: A Critical Introduction to Non-philosophy (2011) and Christo-Fiction: The Ruins of Athens and Jerusalem (Columbia, 2015), and is the director of L'Organisation Non-Philosophique Internationale. Alyosha Edlebi is a translator and Ph.D. candidate at Yale University. He has published articles on Deleuze, Laruelle, Meillassoux, and Simondon in Deleuze Studies, Theory Culture & Society, Qui Parle, and Parrhesia.

Reviews for Theory of Identities

Theory of Identities is essential for those who work in Laruelle studies or whose work departs from the fundamental presuppositions of non-philosophy and non-standard philosophy. Indeed, this book constitutes the most illustrative proof that non-philosophy is a synthesis of quantum theory and Marxism. It is a testimony of the dense complexity of Laruelle's genius combining methodologically uncompromising scientific rigor and transgressiveness of a mystic's glance into what most of us would choose to avert eyes from: the point where the comfort of neurosis ceases to exist, which is also the place where neurosis necessarily always already reestablishes itself. -- Katarina Kolozova, Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities, Skopje Laruelle offers a way to bring together philosophy and science that actually respects the practice of science. Aiming to provide a new practice of philosophy by engaging with scientific concepts in a philosophical way, Theory of Identities opens up a space for truly interdisciplinary projects to develop. Rather than paying mere lip service to interdisciplinary, Laruelle practices it here in the midst of profound reflections on identity, science, and ethics. -- Anthony Paul Smith, Assistant Professor of Religion, La Salle University