François Laruelle: Dictionary of Non-Philosophy (1998/2009)

15 July 2009, dusan

“Non-philosophy is a concept developed by French philosopher François Laruelle (formerly of the Collège international de philosophie and the University of Paris X: Nanterre) throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Laruelle’s non-philosophy, he claims, should be considered to philosophy what non-Euclidean geometry is to the work of Euclid. It stands in particular opposition to philosophical heirs of Jacques Lacan such as Alain Badiou.”

Keywords: occasionalism, performativity, non-philosophy, psychoanalysis, cloning, Husserl, epistemology, ontology, Heidegger, phenomenology, transcendence, Nietzsche, Kant, non-Euclidean geometry, metaphysics.

Originally published as Dictionnaire de la Non-Philosophie, Editions Kime, Paris, 1998.

Compiled by Nick Srnicek and Ben Woodard
All translations by Taylor Adkins unless otherwise noted.
Free for noncommercial use and distribution with proper attribution.

Review: Ian James (Parrhesia, 2014).

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PDF (updated on 2012-7-26)

Gilbert Simondon: On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects (1958–) [FR, EN, ES]

14 July 2009, dusan

“The purpose of this study is to attempt to stimulate awareness of the significance of technical objects. Culture has become a system of defense designed to safeguard man from technics. This is the result of the assumption that technical objects contain no human reality. We should like to show that culture fails to take into account that in technical reality there is a human reality, and that, if it is fully to play its role, culture must come to terms with technical entities as part of its body of knowledge and values. Recognition of the modes of existence of technical objects must be the result of philosophic consideration; what philosophy has to achieve in this respect is analogous to what the abolition of slavery achieved in affirming the worth of the individual human being.

The opposition established between the cultural and the technical and between man and machine is wrong and has no foundation. What underlies it is mere ignorance or resentment. It uses a mask of facile humanism to blind us to a reality that is full of human striving and rich in natural forces. This reality is the world of technical objects, the mediators between man and nature.” (from the Introduction)

French edition
Preface by John Hart
Afterword by Yves Deforge
Publisher Aubier, Paris, 1958, 1969, 1989
ISBN 2700718518

English edition, Part I
Translated by Ninian Mellamphy
With a preface by John Hart
Publisher University of Western Ontario, June 1980
98 pages

Commentary (EN)

Du mode d’existence des objets techniques (French, 1958/1969, added on 2014-4-21)
On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects, Part I (English, trans. Ninian Mellamphy, 1980, added on 2014-4-21). Different version (updated on 2012-8-23).
Du mode d’existence des objets techniques (French, 1958/1989, no OCR, updated on 2014-4-21)
El modo de existencia de los objetos técnicos (Spanish, trans. Margarita Martinez and Pablo Rodriguez, 2007, added on 2014-4-21)

Nicolas Bourriaud: Postproduction: Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World (2002–) [EN, ES, CZ, HU]

2 July 2009, dusan

“In this book, French writer and curator Nicolas Bourriaud discusses how, since the early nineties, an ever increasing number of artworks have been created on the basis of preexisting works; more and more artists interpret, reproduce, re-exhibit, or use works made by others or available cultural products.

This art of postproduction seems to respond to the proliferating chaos of global culture in the information age, which is characterized by an increase in the supply of works and the art world’s annexation of forms ignored or disdained until now.”

First published in French in 2002.

Translated by Jeanine Herman
Publisher Lukas & Sternberg, New York, 2002
Second edition, with a new preface, August 2005
ISBN 0974568899
96 pages

Publisher (EN)

Postproduction (English, trans. Jeanine Herman, 2005, updated on 2023-7-21)
Postproducción (Spanish, trans. Silvio Mattoni, 2004, added on 2023-7-21)
Postprodukce (Czech, trans. Petr Turek, 2004, added on 2014-2-25)
Utómunkálatok (Hungarian, trans. Jancsó Júlia, 2007, 55 MB, no OCR, updated on 2023-7-21)