EVALUING LARUELLE: CRITERIA AND PROGRESS

François Laruelle has described his philosophical development in terms of successive phases, each of which represents an advance towards a more generic thought by means of the dissolution of philosophical obstacles. Looking back over these phases, we can see that Laruelle’s thought is self-correcting, evolving over time. Yet this error-correction, however praiseworthy, has another side. Laruelle has often absorbed the critiques made of his work by others, including those made by Derrida and Deleuze without acknowledgement. His replies to his critics are unconvincing attempts to ward off objections that he will later come to adopt in his own autocritique. For example, the critique of scientism. and more generally of all philosophical reductionisms. This refusal of dialogue is a serious defect in a system that valorises democracy. Judging Laruelle immanently, by his own criteria (genericity, non-arrogance, non-reductionism, democracy), we can conclude that his research programme has much room for progress and could usefully profit from democratic exchange. Recent attempts at validating Laruelle’s ideas in terms of the criterion of « performativity » actively hinder their immanent evaluation. Performativity is not infallibility, and needs itself to be evaluated.

Here

Publicité