Laruelle François - Laruelle: a stranger thought

Key Contemporary Thinkers Series includes:

1. Jeremy Ahearne, Michel de Certeau
2. Lee Braver, Heidegger
3. John Burgess, Kripke
4. Claire Colebrook, Agamben
5. Jean-Pierre Couture, Sloterdijk
6. Colin Davis, Levinas
7. Oliver Davis, Jacques Rancire
8. Reidar Andreas Due, Deleuze
9. Edward Fullbrook and Kate Fullbrook, Simone de Beauvoir
10. Nigel Gibson, Fanon
11. Graeme Gilloch, Siegfried Kracauer
12. Christina Howells, Derrida
13. Simon Jarvis, Adorno
14. Rachel Jones, Irigaray
15. Sarah Kay, iek
16. S. K. Keltner, Kristeva
17. Moya Lloyd, Judith Butler
18. James McGilvray, Chomsky, 2nd edn
19. Lois McNay, Foucault
20. Marie-Eve Morin, Jean-Luc Nancy
21. Timothy Murphy, Antonio Negri
22. Ed Pluth, Badiou
23. John Preston, Feyerabend
24. Severin Schroeder, Wittgenstein
25. Susan Sellers, Hlne Cixous
26. Anthony Paul Smith, Laruelle
27. Dennis Smith, Zygmunt Bauman
28. James Smith, Terry Eagleton
29. James Williams, Lyotard
30. Christopher Zurn, Axel Honneth

Copyright Anthony Paul Smith 2016

The right of Anthony Paul Smith to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2016 by Polity Press

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ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-7122-2

ISBN-13: 978-0-7456-7123-9 (pb)

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Smith, Anthony Paul, 1982

Title: Laruelle : a stranger thought / Anthony Paul Smith.

Description: Malden, MA : Polity Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015037053| ISBN 9780745671222 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780745671239 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Laruelle, Franois.

Classification: LCC B2433.L374 S65 2106 | DDC 194dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037053

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J'clate. Je suis le feu. Je suis la mer.

Le monde se dfait. Mais je suis le monde.

La fin, la fin disions-nous.

Aim Csaire, Les armes miraculeuses

Aimer un tranger comme soi-mme implique comme contrepartie: s'aimer soi-mme comme un tranger.

Simone Weil, La Pesanteur et la grce

First I want to acknowledge Alexander R. Galloway for recommending this project to Polity, and John B. Thompson for commissioning it. This book is the result of a number of years of research and writing, and John has been supportive and patient throughout the process. Toward the end of the writing of this book, Alex's own book engaging with Laruelle was published, and thinking alongside of his reading helped me to get clarity on a number of important issues. My sincere gratitude also goes to Elliott Karstadt, editorial assistant at Polity, who guided me throughout the process in what is mostly a thankless task, and to George Owers who took over that task after Elliott's departure. Thank you to Leigh Mueller for her work as copyeditor. She has improved the text greatly.

This book was written concurrently with Franois Laruelle's Principles of Non-Philosophy: A Critical Introduction and Guide, a study of one of Laruelle's most important works. As with that book, I am thankful to the readers of drafts: Alice Rekab, Michael O'Neill Burns, and Marika Rose. My gratitude also goes to my colleagues in the Department of Religion at La Salle University, especially the support of the chair, Maureen O'Connell, and the encouragement of Jack Downey and Jordan Copeland. I acknowledge the financial support provided by Tom Keagy, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at La Salle University, which allowed me to participate in the colloquium held at Cerisy in September of 2014 on Laruelle's non-standard philosophy, where I presented aspects of were presented in New York at the 2014 Derrida Today conference, and I am thankful to Michael Naas for his comments and provocations. Alex Dubilet was also present at many of these events and I am thankful for the discussions we had in New York over trips to pizza parlors. These were but continuations of the many discussions we have had about Laruelle and related problems as we work along parallel but distinct paths.

This book is dedicated to Daniel Colucciello Barber. His intellectual creativity and insights are only matched by the loyalty and care he shows in friendship. Everything I have written feels indelibly marked by his thought, and even where we may differ it nonetheless feels like grace: a grace without any hope of achievement.