10 November 2015, Swedenborg Hall, Bloomsbury Way, London

What Can We Do With Non-Philosophy?
A Discussion with Alexander Galloway, Ian James, and John Ó Maoilearca

‘A great misunderstanding in fact threatens non-philosophy, that of its spontaneous definition as a theory or even as a practice. It is neither one nor the other, of course, neither practical theory nor theoretical practice or “of ” theory, but a future thought or in-the-last-instance, determining a subject for the (non-) relation of theory and practice’ (François Laruelle, Struggle and Utopia)

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Many philosophies claim to be practical: performativity, praxis, practice-based thought, truth procedures and enquiries, and even artistic performance have each been connected to various philosophical positions. So what, if anything, makes François Laruelle’s Non-Standard Philosophy different? ‘What Can We Do With Non-Philosophy?’ brings together three researchers whose work aims in part to elucidate the theoretical-practical uses of Non-Philosophy in a range of fields from science studies, through media studies, to animal and film studies. In each case they ask: how can this ‘future thought’ change the relation of theory to practice? What can be done with non-philosophy that changes what we do with anything, or everything, else?

Alexander R. Galloway is Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. He is also a writer and computer programmer working on issues in philosophy, technology and theories of mediation. Galloway is the author of Protocol: How Control Exists After Decentralization (2004), Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (2006), and The Interface Effect (Polity, 2012). His latest book is Laruelle: Against the Digital (2014).

Ian James is Reader in Modern French Literature and Thought at the University of Cambridge. His work is focused on twentieth-century and contemporary French philosophy. His latest research investigates the contemporary turn, within French philosophy, towards science and technology. He is the author of Pierre Klossowski: The Persistence of a Name (2009), The Fragmentary Demand (2006), Paul Virilio (2007), and The New French Philosophy (2012).

John Ó Maoilearca is Professor of Film and Television Studies at Kingston University, London. He has also taught philosophy and film theory at the University of Sunderland, England and the University of Dundee, Scotland. He has published ten books, including (as author) Bergson and Philosophy (2000), Post-Continental Philosophy: An Outline (2006), and Philosophy and the Moving Image: Refractions of Reality (2010). His latest book is, All Thoughts Are Equal: Laruelle and Nonhuman Philosophy (2015).

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