CFP: Oraxiom Journal of Non-Philosophy

This issue of Oraxiom seeks to interrogate the past and future trajectories of non-philosophy by better understanding its relationship to the history of philosophy. Put otherwise, for this issue, we seek to explore the possibility of a non-philosophical history of philosophy. Though Laruelle is broad in his reference to philosophers, theologians, mystics and scientists, he punctuates his history of philosophy by way of proper names in parenthetical remarks: (Plato), (Kant), (Nietzsche), (Husserl), (Heidegger), (Derrida), (Deleuze), etc.. With these graphic signatures, the philosophical pierces through the non-philosophical text. These parenthetical punctuations are ripe for analysis and rigorous explication.

But first: Quid juris? By what right can we ask to drag the non-philosopher back into the history of philosophy from which they fought so hard to escape?

“But to what end?” Laruelle asks himself in the introduction to his 1985 work Biography of the Ordinary Man. An assertion precedes this question, and it is an assertion that constitutes the core of all of Laruelle’s work: “There is every reason to revolt against philosophers”. It is this conviction that provides continuity throughout each phase of the non-philosophical project. The most prominent of the reasons for rebellion from philosophy have come to the fore in the vast majority of scholarship on Laruelle and Non-Philosophy: The Principle of Sufficient Philosophy that affirms philosophy’s auto-justifying self-assuredness; the Philosophical Decision that eviscerates immanence from itself resulting in fever dreams of transcendence; and of course, the systematic degradation of man-in-person that proliferates throughout and even propels forward the history of philosophical production. Though these answers to the question “why rebel” have been mulled over and developed upon, the content of the question that precedes them has not: Towards what end does one rebel from philosophy? In addition to examination of the tactics and essence of non-philosophical rebellion, we must develop a more detail-oriented understanding of that from which the non-philosopher rebels: Philosophy. The mechanics of the philosophical text may be generalizable, but the problem of the proper name, the problem of the philosophical signature, remains within the non-philosophical text. What is the non-philosopher to make of these lingering remains?

In our current issue we seek a return to the perilous landscape of philosophy in order to better understand philosophy as Laruelle reads it. This in turn clarifies Laruelle’s own rebellions while simultaneously contextualizing future Non-Philosophical pursuits. The idea is that better understanding the philosophy from which the non-philosopher rebels draws into sharper focus the positive program of the Non-Philosophical project. Our gamble is that working through the specificity of Laruelle’s readings of the history of philosophy can point toward a more robust discursive exchange between philosophy and Non-Philosophy.

Possible Topics

• Non-Philosophical methodology.
• Non-Philosophy, Plato, Neo-Platonism and the philosophies of Late Antiquity.
• Non-Philosophy and philosophies of immanence (Spinoza, Nietzsche, Deleuze, etc.).
• Non-Philosophy and German Idealism (Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel).
• Non-Philosophy and (Post-)Marxism.
• Non-Philosophy and phenomenology (Husserl, Heidegger, Levinas, Henry).
• Laruelle and his contemporaries (Derrida, Deleuze, Henry, Badiou).
• Laruelle and the Scientists (Euclid, Mandelbrot, Plank).
• Non-Philosophy, comparative philosophies (MacIntyre) and comparative historical analysis (Bendix, Skocpol)
• The philosophical “pre-history” of Non-Philosophy (e.g. philosophy in Philosophy I).
• Non-Philosophy, Theology and the history of religion.
• Non-Philosophy and philosophy of history.
• The possibility of a philosophical future of Non-Philosophy.

Essay submissions should be up to 5,000 words in length and formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style.

Oraxiom also invites creative and artistic material. Poetry, manifestos, visual arts, and other non-standard experiments related to Non-Philosophy are welcome.
We also invite high quality submissions on all topics relating to Laruelle and Non-Philosophy for inclusion in this issue. We also encourage authors who reach out regarding books on topics relevant to Laruelle and Non-Philosophy for possible review.

Please send papers prepared for blind review and short biographical note with contact information to [email protected] by Nov 1, 2021.