2 CONTENTS SYNOPSIS ..........................................................................................................................5 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................5 MATERIALISM, SCIENCE, PHENOMENOLOGY.........................................................5 PHILOSOPHY AND NON-PHILOSOPHY........................................................................................................................ 5 ALIEN THEORY WHY MATERIALISM? ............................................................................................................................................. 10 The Decline of Materialism in the Name of 1.The empirical contingency of materialism's philosophical necessity.......................................................... 10 Matter 2.The transcendental necessity of materialism's non-philosophical transformation...................................... 22 MAN AS NON-MATERIALIST IDENTITY OF PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE.................................................................... 27 PART I...............................................................................................................................28 THE DECLINE OF MATERIALISM AS SUCH.............................................................28 Ray Brassier CHAPTER 1......................................................................................................................29 MATTER: COMME TELLE OR TELLE QUELLE? ........................................................29 Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree MATERIALISM AND MATERIOLOGY ........................................................................................................................ 33 of Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy CHAPTER 2......................................................................................................................36 University of Warwick, Department of Philosophy MICHEL HENRY: MATERIAL PHENOMENOLOGY .................................................36 April 2001 EN-STASIS/EK-STASIS ............................................................................................................................................. 36 HENRY AND HUSSERL ............................................................................................................................................ 37 THE UR-IMPRESSION AS COINCIDENCE OF PHENOMENON AND PHENOMENALITY .................................................. 39 ‘THE HISTORIALITY OF THE ABSOLUTE’: ETERNAL SUBJECTIVE LIFE .................................................................... 40 IMMANENCE/TRANSCENDENCE: TWO VERSIONS OF THE UNOBJECTIFIABLE .......................................................... 43 THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL IDEALISATION OF IMMANENCE..................................................................................... 44 THE RELATIVE ABSOLUTE...................................................................................................................................... 46 THINKABLE/UNTHINKABLE .................................................................................................................................... 48 IMMANENCE ‘ITSELF’ OR IMMANENCE ‘AS SUCH’?................................................................................................. 49 CHAPTER 3......................................................................................................................54 DELEUZE & GUATTARI: ABSOLUTE HYLETICS.....................................................54 MATERIALIZING THE TRANSCENDENTAL ................................................................................................................ 54 THE DELEUZEAN CRITIQUE OF REPRESENTATION .................................................................................................. 55 MACHINIC CONSTRUCTIVISM ................................................................................................................................. 58 THE HYLETIC CONTINUUM..................................................................................................................................... 60 THE PLANE OF IMMANENCE ................................................................................................................................... 62 3 4 PARALLELISM AND ASYMMETRY............................................................................................................................ 66 KANT ................................................................................................................................................................... 167 NOMADIC DISTRIBUTION ........................................................................................................................................ 75 QUINE .................................................................................................................................................................. 171 HYLETIC IDEALISM................................................................................................................................................. 81 LARUELLE ............................................................................................................................................................ 179 TRANSCENDENTAL MATERIALISM VERSUS EMPIRICAL REALISM........................................................................... 84 CHAPTER 8....................................................................................................................192 CHAPTER 4......................................................................................................................96 PHENOMENOLOGICAL PLASTICITY AND EPISTEMIC CHAOS .........................192 FROM MATERIALISM ‘AS SUCH’ TO MATTER ‘ITSELF’ ......................................96 ELIMINATIVISM AND FOLK PSYCHOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 193 ‘MATERIALISM’/ ‘IDEALISM’.................................................................................................................................. 96 NEUROCOMPUTATIONAL PLASTICITY ................................................................................................................... 196 THE MATERIOLOGICAL AMPHIBOLY OF UTTERANCE AND STATEMENT ................................................................ 101 VECTOR CODING: FROM SUPEREMPIRICAL VIRTUE TO TRANSCENDENTAL A PRIORI.......................................... 200 THE DECLINE OF MATERIALISM ........................................................................................................................... 104 EPISTEMIC ENGINES AND THE TRANSCENDENTAL FUNCTION ............................................................................... 207 PHILOSOPHICAL SUMMARY AND TRANSITION TO NON-PHILOSOPHY .................................................................... 107 1. The natural science of epistemic engines ................................................................................................. 208 PART II ...........................................................................................................................110 2. From epistemic algorithms to the transcendental function ...................................................................... 213 THE NAME OF MATTER ITSELF...............................................................................110 CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................216 CHAPTER 5....................................................................................................................111 PHILOSOPHY, CAPITALISM, NON-MATERIALISM ...............................................216 LARUELLE’S RAZOR...................................................................................................111 PHILOSOPHY IS THE WORLD ................................................................................................................................. 216 THE WORLD IS CAPITALISM ................................................................................................................................. 218 ‘NON-’ ................................................................................................................................................................. 111 GNOSTIC SCEPTICISM VERSUS EPISTEMIC REALISM.............................................................................................. 220 THE STRUCTURE OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL DECISION............................................................................................. 114 CAPITALISM, INFORMATION AND UNIVERSAL NOISE ............................................................................................ 222 DECISION AS TRANSCENDENTAL METHOD ........................................................................................................... 120 THE NON-DECISIONAL CLONING OF DECISION ..................................................................................................... 127 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................226 SUSPENDING THE PARMENIDEAN AXIOM.............................................................................................................. 134 WORKS BY LARUELLE .........................................................................................................................................