The Cave and The Stars: On the People and Democracy of Non-Philosophy
Abstract
This monograph dissertation explores the work of François Laruelle and the democratic nature of his non-philosophy. In four separate chapters, this dissertation argues for identifying non-philosophy as the introduction of democracy into thought and seeks to instantiate a necessary theoretical delimitation for its programme, which explores the relationships between people, thought, and power. Chapter One analyzes previous philosophical frameworks from thinkers such as Edmund Husserl, Max Horkheimer, and Louis Althusser on their respective stances toward philosophy’s role for people. Chapter Two investigates the work of François Laruelle for the past fifty years as the development of non-philosophy or “human philosophy.” Chapter Three situates Laruelle’s 1980 essay, “Homo ex machina,” alongside philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, Michel Henry, Michel Foucault, and Gilles Deleuze to lay out the stakes for emancipation from the destining of humanity under the existing dominant relations between technology, power, and biopolitics. Lastly, Chapter Four envisions the transfiguration of non-philosophy from human philosophy into a tool for human emancipation by inventing new non-political means, such as non-politics, the en-demic paradigm, futural democracy, and the generic will. If non-philosophy is the introduction of peace and democracy into thought, investigating the people and their rule or power is a necessary step toward inventing the future.