Philosophy, the oldest superstition

Abstract

The article examines the history, essence, and current state of philosophy, based on the views of François Laruelle, the founder of non-philosophy, who believes that philosophy is the oldest superstition. The article is divided into five parts: Closure, Impossibility, Immanence, Vertigo of Immanence, and Spectral Dialectics. In the first section, titled Closure, the article discusses the origins of philosophy in ancient Greece, its assimilation into metaphysics, and the implications this has had for the fate of philosophy in the Western tradition. Additionally, the article raises questions about the essence of philosophy and the possibility of a non-metaphysical philosophy. The second section, titled Impossibility, explores the notion that it is impossible to conceive of anything truly distinct or foreign to philosophy, such as what might be considered transcendent or beyond it. The third section, Immanence, focuses on the transition of philosophy towards immanence, using the philosophies of Michel Henry, Gilles Deleuze, and Alain Badiou as examples. The fourth section, Vertigo of Immanence, explores the prospect of surpassing philosophy, drawing from Martin Heidegger’s late philosophy (the phenomenology of the inapparent) and Laruelle’s non-philosophy. Building on the preceding sections, the final part of the article suggests a way of conceiving contem-porary thought as spectral dialectics, comprising three elements: spectral phenomenology, spectral theory, and spectral performativity.