Ph 12 (2001), 50-82.
Behold the Non-Rabbit: Kant, Quine, Laruelle
RAY BRASSIER
Introduction
This paper is about inuiviuuation, theory, and experience, and w i l l
examine the w ay i n which these concepts are intertwined i n the work o f
three very different philosophers. More precisely, 1 w ill b e fore grounding
the theme of i nd ividuation but only in order to use it as a lens through
which to focus on the way in which the relation between theory and
experience is understood by these three thinkers.
By 'inciiviuuation' I mean the problem that can be summarised in the
ques tion: how is it that somethillg c o mes to be counted as 'one'? I n this
regard, Leibniz' s famous claim according to which "That which i s not
one being is not a being" encapsulates an entire ontological t[aciition. Bu t
is it possible to think 'something' w ithout having thereby immediately
counted it as 'one' thing? Taking this question as a starting point, my aim
in considering the issue of individuation here is two fold. Fi[st, to look at
one way to which this traditional (bu t largely unstated) conceptu�tl
equi vale nce between 'being' and ' being-one' , or between entity and
unity, has figured as an unci[cumventable precondi tion for ontology.
Second, to suggest some of the w ays in which the assumption of that
precondition might be challenged or undernuned. In order to do this I
in tend to chart a trajectory through three distinct theoretical stances
concerning individuation. I will begin with the Kantian account,
according to w hich an invariable transcendental paradigm for objective
individuation is available. Then I shall move on to consider the more
sceptical Qui nean stance, whereby far from being universal and
paradigmatic, individuation is actually a matter of linguistic convention,
hence epistemically relative, and ultimately ontologically indeterminate,
Finally, I w i l l conclude by trying to elucidate the suggestion, formulated
51
Ray Brassier
hy w ay of an examination o f Fran<;ois Laruelle's 'non�philosophy', I that
(jnly a strictly transcendental determin ation of the singular can sever the
I Fran�ois Laruelle (born 1937) is arguably one of the most remarbble but also leasr
well known of all contemporary French philosophers (none of his numerous books
have been translated into English). In his formative work, covering the period 1971�
1981, which he now cbssifies under the hearJing PhilosoplJie J, Lamelle deliberately
synthesised an impressively heterogeneous variety of contemporary philosophical
int1uences (Nietzsche, Heidegger, Henry, Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida) the better to
construct a line of diagonalisation acceleraring beyond all available theoretical co�
ordinates. The result was a brilliantly disorientating exercise in anomalous conceptual
subversion; a philosop hical project that concurrently involved the mobilisation of
Nietzsche to effect a
'transvaluation of fundamental ontology'
from Husser! to
Heidegger (PlllillOllle lle et Difference, 1971; Nietzsche COil Ire Heidegge r, 1977); the
hybridisation of Deleuzean schizoan<llysis and Derridean grammatology through the
deployment of a 'machinic deconstruction' (Machines Textuelles, 1976; Le Declin de
L 'ecriture, 1977); and culminated in the elaboration of a 'generalised syntax against
the ideology of the signifier' (Au-delil du Prinripe de POl/voir, 1978); all in the name
of what Laruelle then described as a 'machinic materialism'. However, beginning
with 1981 's Prill�'ipe de Millorire, a significant reorientation in Laruelie 's thinking
occurs. In this work, and in the SLX snbsequem books published between 1981 and
1992 that go to make up Philosophie II (including Vile Biographie de I 'Homme
ordill aire, 1985, Philosophie er NOIl-Philosophie, 1989, and Theorie des Idemires,
1992), the central theoretical preoccupation underlying Philosophie 1's mililantly
"clectic modLis operandi finally becomes explicitly articulated. Lamelle sets out to
construct a rigorously abstract transcendental methodology endowed with a universal
explanatory power tbat would prove
pertinent
to every conceivable variety of
philosophical approach, regardless of the circumstantial vagaries of doctrine. Thus,
I'hilosophi e lJ painstakingly assembles the necessary theoretical conditions required
I'm a universal but non-systemic theory for philosophising, and begins to put into play
a conceptual apparatus of often unprecedented sophistication in the attempt to initiate
a type of thinking that would prove capable of processing utterly disparate instances
of
philosophical theorising. The
universal
transcendental theory sought for by
I.amelle is characterised as a non- Decisional theory for philosophical Decision, which
is to say, a transcendental but non-philosophical theory for philosophy. Yet as far as
l.aruelle himself is concerned, it is not until Philosophie III (1995�present), and
specifically until 1996's Pri/l(;ipes de la NOIl-Philosophie, that this ambitious project
finally reaches fruition. It is in the latter book that Laruelle works out the precise
lechnical details proper to the methodological apparatus of non�philosophical theory
as
transcendental
organon
philosophical
Decision.
philosophical
method,
for
Since
the
axiomatisation
having
achieved
LaruelIe's most
this
and
theorematisation
crystallisation
of
of
non
recent works apply that methodology to
various philosophical problematics. Thus, tthique de I'Elrwlger (2000) proposes an
a,iomatisation of ethical Decision on the' basis of 'radical misfortune' (Ie lIla/hellr
/"(/(/ica/) as 'first-name' for the Real's foreclosure to the ethical, while Introductioll all
N(JIl-Marxisllle (2000) attempts a transcendental universalisation of Marxism by
delineating a 'unified theory' of philosophy and CapitaL
52
Pli 12 (2001)
link between entity and unity, thereby guaranteeing the de-objectification
and de-phenomenologisation of the singular.
Implicit in this comparative analysis is the suggestion that the first alld
second of these theses concerning individuation can be roughly correlated
with certain more or less gelleric philosophical postures, the better to give
some inkling of the peculiar way in which Laruelle's Own theoretical
stance
which he somewhat notoriously describes as
n011philosophical' - constitutes neither a negation !lor a synthesis of the
Kantian and Quinean postures, but something like their railicalisatioll and
ge'lIe'raiisatioll. Thus, in the first section of the paper, we will see how
Kant, the idealist, mobilises an invariant transcendental criterion
guar�lllteeing the objective unity of individuation. In the second, we shall
examine the way in which Quine, the physicalist, undermines the
assumption that any such transcendental guarantor for individuatiolI
exists. In the third and final section, however, I hope to show how
Laruelle - circumventing both the idealist and physicalist schemas effectively generalises Quine's physicalist subversion of objective unity
by radicalising Kant's transcendental method. It is this concurrent
radicalisation of transcendental detennination and generalisation of
empirical under-determination that, I would like to suggest, enables
Laruelle to effect a transcendental un;versalisatioll of materialism in a
way that definitively severs the idealist's presumption of a link between
entity and unity.
Consequently the 'non-rabbit' mentioned in the title of this piece is
neither an 'anti-rabbit' nor a 'not-rabbit' but an entity without unity. The
prefix 'non-' in the expression 'non-rabbit' - or 'non-philosophy' for that
matter - is not be understood negatively or privatively. It has a very
specific technical sense in Laruelle' s work as an abbreviation for 'non
Decisional', which in turn is also shorthand for 'non-auto-positional' and
'non-auto-clonational'. Thankfully, for present purposes, these somewhat
cumbersome locutions can be usefully compressed into the far more
economical 'non-thetic': it will be a 'non-thetic rabbit' that is in question
here. One of the key claims r would like to make in this paper is that
although a 'non-thetic rabbit' is effectively unobjectifiable, it is neither
ineffable nor inconceivable. Laruelle insists that neither objectification
nor phenomenologisation exhaust the entire available spectrum of
immanent phenomenal manifestation. So not only does the 'non-the tic
rabbit' remain entirely immanent, precisely articulated within the bounds
of conceptual thought, it also remains available to perception - albeit only
with the crucial proviso that the empirical parameters of the human
sensory apparatus become theoretically reconfigured in accordance with
Ray Brassier
53
certain transcendental strictures (we will return to this latter point in the
final section).
Hence the use of the word ' behold' in the title of this piece: the non
rabbit is entirely immanent, entirely manifest, in spite of the fact that is
neither a unitary nor an intentional phenomenon. In this regard, the
plausibility of our entire enteqJrise hinges on the final section ' s de gree of
success in rendering intelligible Laruelle's fu ndamental distinction
between a phenomenological and non-phenomenological definition of
phenomenality. To anticipate very briefly: in Husserl ' s case, the
phenomenological definition designates a mode of manifestation defined
in terms of intentional consciou s nes s ' s 'transcendence-in-immanence ' ,
while i n (the early) Heidegger's, it designates an apophantic mode of
manifestation defined in terms of the 'ekstatic' structure of ontological
� 2
transcendence
articulated
through
Dasein' s
being-in-the-wo rld
Laruelle ' s non-phenomenological definition, however, re fers to a non
intentional, non-apophantic, and non-worldly mode of phenomenal
manifestation defined exclusively in terms of its inm1anence 'in' theory.
It describes an immanently theoretical mode of phenomenality. So
because it is an intrinsically theore tical phenomenon - one, moreover,
entirely devoid of apophantic intelligibility, intentional unity or worldly
horizonality by virtue of its cons titutively theoretica l s tatus - the non
rabbi t will only become manifest according to the strictures of a non
empirical, non-intuitive, or theoretically determined phenomenality, as
opposed to those of consciousness, sensibility, or being-in-the-world.
Again, hopefully these points will become somewhat cle arer in the third
and final section of this paper.
Kant
In all three of the thinkers under c onsideration here, there ' s a complex
interrelation between individuation, theory and experience. But perhaps
most significantly, all three are concerned with undermining the basically
Cartesian notion that there exists some kind o f essentially pre-theoretical
immediacy through which 'consciousness' - supposing there to be such
a thing - enjoys privileged access to phenomena or 'things themselves ' .
2 Cf. for instance Edmund Husser!, Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to
a Phenomenological Philosophy. First Book, trans. by F. Kersten (London: Kluwer
Academic Publishers, 1982); and Martin Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. by
Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Oxford: Blackwell, 1962, p.56.
J.
54
PI; 12 (2001)
If they have anything at all in COlllmon, it's this basic refusal to have any
t[L1ck with the homely phenomenological faith in the pre-theoretical
expe[ieJltial immediacy of 'the things themselves'.
Thus, Kant denies the fanciful notion that we have privileged intuitive
access to the contents of our own consciousness for the same reason that
he denies our ability to immediately grasp the nature of 'things in
themselves'. As far as the investigation into the conditions of possibility
for experience is concerned, phenomenological intuition prontises to be
about as helpful as wand-dowsing. The transcendental difference between
'phenomenon' and 'in-itself cuts all the way into the subject: inner sense
-which is to say, consciousness - is just as conditioned, just as
determined, as every other kind of objective phenomenon. Moreove[, as
the ultimate ground for the possibility of transcendental synthesis, pure
apperception maintains a formal, impersonal and objective status which
precludes its identification with the personal subject of empirical
consciousness; although transcendentally immanent to experience it is
never given in experience, it remains external to inner sense: "The
transcendental unity of apperception [...J is therefore entitled objective,
and must be distinguished from the subjective unity of consciousness,
which is a determination of inner sense" (Critique of Pllre Reasoll, trans.
by N. K. Smith, London: Macmillan 1929, B139, p.157). Consequently,
the experience into whose conditions of possibility Kant is investigating
is neither the 'lived' experience of phenomenological consciousness, nor
the putatively private realm of subjective qualia, but the universal
cognitive experience whose structures are mapped out in the theories of
Euclid and Newton. Kant is laying out transcendental conditions for the
possibility of a single, universal but ultimately impersonal objective
experience as theoretically articulated by Euclid and Newton, rather than
as phenomenologically apprehended or 'lived' by a conscious subject:
There is one single experience in which all perceptions are
represented as in thoroughgoing and orderly connection, just as
there is only one space and one time in which all modes of
appearance and all [elations of being or not-being occur. When we
speak of different experiences, we can refer only to the various
perceptions. all of which, as such, belong to one and the same
general expenence. This thoroughgoing synthetic unity of
perceptions is indeed the form of experience; it is nothing else than
the synthetic unity of appearances in accordance with concepts.
(Ibid., AliI, p.138).
Ray Brassier
55
For Kant, this 'synthetic unity of appearances in 3ccordance with
concepts' provides the transcendental basis for the universal cognitive
experience whose invariant features are deline3ted in Euclide:m geometry
and Newtonian physics. These inv3riants constitute the universal laws in
conformity with which all possible appe3mnces are woven together into
one unified, cohesive whole. Moreover, K3nt c13ims that "The unity of
apperception is thus the transcendental ground of the necessary
conformity to law of all 3ppe3rances in one experience" (Ibid., A127,
p.148). If this is so, it follows th:ll pure apperception, the indivisible
integer of categorial judgement and transcendental synthesis, is the
form31 principle grounding the synthetic unity of appearances, and
ultimately the universal, impersonal, and objective principle in which the
nomological consistency of all appearances finds its basis. vVhich is to
say that pure apperception is in fact the subject of Euclidean and
Newtonian theory: it is the transcendental guarantor for the possibility of
the nomological consistency of appearances as set out in geometry and
physics. Thus, Kant is attempting to define conditions of possibility for
experience in acco"rdance with a specific set of theoretical strictures
which carve out certain necessary and law-like invariances through which
th3t experience is structured. Pure apperception, the wellspring of the
synthetic a priori, is the cardinal hinge bridging the divide between the
empty logical necessity of the analytical a p riori amI the contentful
empirical contingency of the synthetic a pos teriori. In doing so it ensures
the transcendental isomorphy of theory and experience. But how then
does pure apperception serve to articulate the link between theory,
experience, and individuation'?
To answer this question, it is imperative we bear in mind Kant's
crucial distinction between combination or VerbindzlIlg as function of the
transcendental imagination, and unity or Einheit as rooted in the pure
3
understandings. Thus, Kant writes: "Combination is representation of the
synthetic unity of the manifold. The representation of this unity cannot,
therefore, arise out of the combination. On the contrary, it is what, by
adding itself to the representation of. the manifold, first makes possible
the concept of the combination" (Ibid., B 131, p.152). The synthesizing
function Kant ascribes to the transcendental imagination would not be
possible, he argues, unless that combinatory activity was rooted in an
J For a brilli<lntly innovative reading of Kant exploring the ramifications of this
fundamental distinction between Verbilldllllg and Eillheit, cf. Alain Badiou's
'L'ontologie sOLlstractive de Kant" in his Court Trnite d'Ont% gie Trnllsiroire (Paris:
Seuil. 1998). pp. 153-165.
56
Pli12 (2001)
essentially pre-synthetic or indivisible integer of transcendental unity
proper to the pure understanding. This unity, of course, is providecl by
transcelldental apperception. And it is precisely insofar as it first makes
possible the a priori combillation of the manifold in pure illtuition that
apperception
provides
the
transcendental
ground
binding
together
subjective individuation and individuated objectivity. This is why, as
Kant famously maintains: "the conditions of the possibility of experience
in general are likewise conditions of the possibility of the objects of
experience"
(Ibid.,
A
ISSIB
197,
p.194).
Because
apperception
is
indissociably cOITelated with the pure and empty form of objectivity in
general - the transcellliental object
=
x - it yields the isomorphic
reciprocity between representing subject and represented object which
grounds the possibility of empirical experience. It is thereby the universal
synthetic
principle
individuation
are
out
of
crystallized.
which
both
For
although
subjective
'unity'
and
is
objective
one
of
the
categories of quantity and hence one of the twelve deternunate modalities
of objective synthesis, it is finally apperception which furnishes the
qualitative unity from which objective synthesis originarily arises as a
mode of categorial judgement. In this regard, pure apperception is the
ultimate determining instance for individuation, and the schematism and
the principles of the pure understanding merely provide supplementary
details concerning the a priori stmctures of spatio-temporal combination
into which appearances which have already been individuated through
apperception become woven in order to produce an intra-consistent
network for cognitive representation.
comes
as
no surprise
individuation
It
is
basically
then
to
find
hylomorphic.
that
Pure
Kant's
account
apperception
is
of
the
indivisible paradigm of formal unity stamping an essentially amorphous
manifold of spatio-temporal presentation with its individuating seal. It
would be a rnistake, however, to regard that unity as merely subjective in
character, for as Kant repeatedly insists, it is from the indivisibility of
pure apperception that the representing subject and the represented object
both derive.
Thus,
Kant's account
of
individuation necessitates
a
transcendental isomorphy between subjective and objective unity. In fact,
subjectivation,
objectivation,
and
individuation all
become
virtually
indistinguishable processes inasmuch as apperceptive synthesis exhausts
the
possibilities
of
phenomenal
manifestation.
As
far
as
Kant
is
concerned, to be sometlung is to be an object of possible experience, and
pure apperception is the ultimate transcendental determinant for all
possible experience. Consequently, although Kant's transcendentalism
critically undermines the idea that consciousness is the domain of a
57
Ray Brassier
privileged pre-theoretical immediacy - for that idea cOlltlates conscious
experience of phenomena with experience of 'things-in-themselves' not only does Kant fail to critically examine the link between entity and
unity, he reinforces it by identifying the notions of phenomenon and
object, thereby subordinating both to the indivisible transcendental bond
between subjective and objective unity. In shon, the Kantian rabbit-entity
is one with which we are all perfectly familiar: it is an objectively
individuated, three dimensional physical phenomenon persisting in time
and locatable by reference to an entirely-determinate system of spatio
temporal coordinates, its objective contours fixed through a stable set of
spatial boundaries and a homogeneous segment of temporal continuity.
What then can we conclude about the relation between individuation,
theory and experience in Kant? We have already mentioned how, because
of
its
universal,
impersonal
and
objective
character,
the
unified
experience cOlTelated with pure apperception is that whose invariant, law
like features are jointly delineated by the theories of Euclid and Newton.
Clearly then, Kant's entire transcendental project is intimately bound to
the
presupposition
of
an
immanent,
already
constituted
system
scientific theory. The substantive character of the synthetic
{l
of
priori
judgements whose formal possibility Kant is trying to uncover is, to all
intents and purposes, defined by Newton and Euclid. The empirical
immanence of an experience whose universally necessary features are
jointly described in Euclidean geometry and Newtonian physics defines
the parameters of possible experience for which Kant seeks to provide a
transcendental ground. Borrowing a useful schema from Deleuze and
Guattari, we might say that the transcendental and the synthetic {l priori,
critical
philosophy
and
science,
are
wedded
together
and
doubly
articulated in a relation of reciprocal presupposition. Thus, Kant's Critical
project
presupposes
an
empirically
immanent
scientific
theory
of
experience, for which he then tries to provide an {l priori but nevertheless
transcendentally immanent epistemological footing.
However, as subsequent scientific developments have all too clearly
shown, this relation of presupposition remains fatally one-sided. It is
Kant's
transcendental
philosophy
immanence of scientific theory
which
presupposes
the
empirical
and a scientific delineation of
the
synthetic {l priori in the shape of an already extant system of apodictic
mathematical and scientific truths; not, as Kant mistakenly believed,
empirical science which presupposes a transcendental basis. This one
sidedness is a consequence of the unmistakeably transcendent character
of Kant's transcendental
{l
priori. And given the extent to which the
internal coherence of the critical project as a whole hinges on the first
58
Ph 12 (2001)
Critique's cmcial distinction between the transcendental and the
4
transcendenL this is deeply problematic for Kant More than one
5
commentator has remarked ho w, by simply tracing transcendental
condi tions from the empirically conditioned, and superimposing the
presumed unity of pure apperception onto the synthetic combinations o f
the empirical manifold, Kant merely cons tlUc ts a redundant, second order
abstraction which, far from explaining them, simply reproduces the
formal features of empirical generality at a higher leveL Conseq uently,
the supposedly transcendental reciproc i ty between critical philosophy and
the scientific mapping of experience is only operative fro m the
perspective of the former,
The trouble with Kant's tran scendentalism can be summarized in the
following way: in principle, the empirically immanent bounds o f possible
experience, its universal, law-like features as laid out ill the theories o f
Euclid and Newton, are supposed to b e transcendentally girded,
necessarily rooted in the cons titutive stlUctures of cognition by those
forms of a priori synthesis grounded in the immanence of pure
apperception, But in fact they are not, as the discoveries of Lobatchevski,
Riemann and Einstein (among others) showed only too clearly, revealing
to what extent Kant's transcendental girding was tlimsy, make shift, and
expedient, its foundations far too shallowly excavated, It is only by
presupposing science as empirically given that Kant is able to posit the a
priori conditions through which the emp irical comes to be constituted as
given, Consequently, Kant' s transcendental a priori ends up tloundering
in
extraneouS
metaphysical
transcende nce:
neither
rigorously
transcendental, 1I0r authentically immanent vis a vis the empirical domain
of possible experience mapped out in scientific theory,
4 Kant, op. c it . , A29S-6/B352-3.
5
Mikel Dufrenne, Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault have made this particular
criticism almo s t ubiquitous i n recent years, but Miklos Vetd reveals the extent t o
which it had already been more o r less explicitly formulated by many o f Kant's
cont emporaries and immediate successors: e.g. Haaman, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel.
Cf. Ve t d , De Kallt II Schellillg. Les deux voies de I'IdealislIle allemalld, two volumes,
(Grenoble:
Jerome Millon,
1998
and
2000).
In
view
of the now
elephantine
proportions o f seco ndary literature on Kant, many more names probably could b e
added to this list.
59
Ray Brassier
Quine
Interestingly enough, this relation of double articulation and rec iprocal
presupposition between phil osophy and science is also one of the most
striking features of Quine's work, alb e i t reconfigured in a viglOrously
naturalistic, anti-transcendental fashion. QUine ' s demolition of the
analytic-synthetic distinction O inval idates the Kantian conception of the
transcendental ::md liquidates the very notion of the synthetic a priori. FlOr
7
Quine, trurh is immanent and d isqllotational, while reference remains a
strictly intra-theoretical relation; thus, there is no difference in kind
between truths of logic and truths o f fact, only a diffe rence of degree
measured in terms of their susceptibility tlO empirical refutation.
Consequently, there is 110 gap to bridge between logic and fact, essence
and existence, judgement and experience; and no justification whatsoever
for pos iting a transcendental isomorphy between representing and
repres ented through the good offices of a synthetic a priori. Quine's
dissolution of the analytic/synthetic d istinction necess itates abandoning
the idea that the possib ilities of empirical experience can be delimited
through certain a pri o ri episternic structures possessing an inviolable
formal necessity. As far as Quine is concerned, there simply are no purely
a priori formal structures constraining the bounds of possible experience.
Which is to say that the possibilities of scientific theory are continulOusly
being reconfigured in accordance w ith real occurrences in the world,
rather than eternally fixed accord ing to ideal structures in the subject.
Thus, although Quine ' s empiricism operates on the basis of a
presupposition of immanence defined i n terms of an already extant body
of scientific theory, in a manner initially analogous to Kant ' s , he refuses
the Kantian dissociation of philos ophical epistemology fro m science in
the shift to a transcendental epistemological register. This is QUine ' s
s
thesis of the reciprocal containment of epistemology and ontology. With
6
Cf. 'Two Dogmas of E mpiricis m' i u From A Logical Poim of View, 2nd, revised
edition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961), pp. 20-46.
7 "Where
it makes sense to apply 'true' is to a sentence couched in terms of a g iven
theory and seen from within that theory, complete with its posited rea l ity . . . To say
that [he statement 'Brutus killed Caesar' is true, or that 'The atomic weight of sodium
is 23' is true, is in effect simply to say that Brmus killed Caesar or that the atomic
weight of sodium is 23." (Word and Object [Cambridge, MA.: M.LT Pr ess , 1960], p.
24).
8 For an account of this
thesis' fund ameutal importance in QUine's thought, and for an
exemplary
and
exposition
defence
of
Quine's
philosophy
in
its
syste matic
consistency, see Roger Gibso n ' s, Enlightened Empiricism. An examination of W. v.O.
60
Pli 1 2 (2001)
the denial of the analytic/s ynthetic dis tinction and the dis solution of the
synthetic {l priori goes the idea that there can be a first philosophy
providing transcendental grounds for scientific theory. Not only does
philosophical epis temology presupposes scientifIc ontology - ultimately
the ontology of microphys ical states provided by ph ysics - the
epistemological investigation into the genesis of scientific ontology must
be carried out w ithin the conceptual framework provided by that
fundamental physical ontology. There can be no transcendental
bracketing or suspension of the natural scientific attitude . Thus, the
fundamental
methodological
presupposition
underlying
Quine's
empiricism is the espousal o f an uncompromisingly physicalist ontology.
And the physicalist holds that there can be no difference in the world that
would not ulti mately prove reducible to some physical difference
explainable in terms of the distribution of elementary particles.
As a physicalist, Quine insists that "nothing happens in the w orld, not
the flutter of an eyelid, not the flicker of a thought, without some
redistribution of microphysical states." (Theories alZd Th ings, Cambridge.
MA: Harvard University Press, 1981. p. 98) Consequently. although
epistemology can investigate the process of scientific theory formation, it
must do so from a vantage point included within that scientific theory.
The ontological framework provided by the physical sciences provides
the basis for epistemology even as the latter investigates the genesis o f
the former. TIms, for Quine. science' s empirical immanence functions
like a kiud of transcendental presuppos ition for epistemology. Where
Kant sought to ground scientific ontology in transcendental ep i s temology.
Quine grounds a naturalized epis temology in the transcendentally
immanent ontology provided by phy s ics: "my position is a naturalisti c
one; I see philos ophy not as a n a priori propaedeutic o r groundw ork for
science, but as continuous with science. I see philosophy and science as
in the same boat - a boat which, to revert to Neurath ' s figure as I s o
often d o , w e c a n rebuild only a t sea while staying afloat i n it. There i s n o
external vantage point, n o first philosophy." (,Ontological Relativity' in
Ollt% gic{l/ Re/{ltivity (ll1d Oth e r Essays, New York: Columbia
U ni vers ity Press, 1969, pp. 126-127)
It is this idea that the boat of empirical science functi ons as an
inalienable presupposition for philosophy - in other words, that it
functions as a real, rather than ideal, condition of possibility - which
permits us to qualify i t with the otherwise resolutely un-Quinean epithet
of 'transcendental ' . But note that what we are calling 'transcendental '
QUine's theory of know/edge (Tampa, Florida: University Presses of Florida, 1988).
Ray B rassier
61
here, in the context of QUine ' s allusion to Neurath ' s boat, is neither the
wood from which the ship ' s planks have been hewn, nor any specific
feature concerning the shape and structure of those planks: this was
Kant's mis take. It is si mply the fact that philosophy begins as 'always
already' i nscribed within a complex global network of intricately
in terre lated conceptual presupposItIons. There is always
some
fundamental theory of the world keeping the possibility of philosophical
investigation ailoat. Without it, philosophy could not even begin to
operate.
Moreover that global web of belief, that intricate network of
conceptual presupposition, is irreducible t o the perspective of first-pers on
subjectivity. For although the fabric and tissue of the web are woven - via
intricate micrological processes of probably unimaginable complexity in the course of a vast and ongoi ng collective cultural enterprise, it is
scientific praxis that constructs and articulates its interconnecting nodes.
Scientific theory furnishes the abstract logical filters, syntactical
connectives, and conceptual joints that ensure the cohesive artic ulation of
the whole. And science, as an impersonal theoretical praxis i ntrinsically
embedded w ithin a collective socio-cultural enterprise, is too variegated,
heterogeneous and complex a phe nomenon to be ascribed a unique and
invariable essence. The structure of scientific praxis remains irreducible
to the sum of individual scientific subjectivities that compose its parts.
Thus, science as abstract, impersonal socio-historical structure cannot be
phenomenologically encompassed. To attempt to bracket or reduce
science, to try to ground our global theory of the world, painstakingly
accumulated through millennia of c ollective cultural evolution, in
individuated subj ectivity would be like trying to reduce the whole to the
sum of its parts; or trying to generate the whole, along w it h its
inconceivably intricate structural articulation, on the basis of one of its
microscopic parts. From a Quinean perspective, to try to ground science
in subjectivity is not just to indulge i n asinine philosophical s o l ipsism; it
is to commit a rudimentary category mistake.
Accordingly, for Quine, it is scienc e that functions as an irreducible
sine qua 1l01l for philosophical subject i v i ty, and not the reverse. In this
regard, it may be that Quine's cloctrine of disquotational truth, his intra
theore tical account of word-world correspondence, and his commitment
to the methodological primacy of a physicalist ontology, although all
resolutely anti-Kantian in inspiration, amount to something like a
reconfiguration of the notion of transcendental immanence, rather than its
simple obliteration. What is certain is that it is QUine' s radical empiricism
and his physicalism that underlie t wo of his most provocative doctrines:
62
PI; 12 (2001)
indeterminacy of translation and ontological relativity. It is not unusual to
see both uoctrines dismisseu in a somewhat summary fashion, often by
philosophers who fail to appreciate the way in which they are
underwritten by the quasi-transcendental methodological primacy Quine
ascribes to his presupposition of an unequivocally physicalist ontology.
Nevertheless, it is this methodological presupposition that provides tbe
theoretical basis for Quine's epistemological behaviourism. According to
the latter, a scientific theory is primarily a structurally intraconsistent
system of sentences, and the appropliate focus of epistemic analysis as far
the empiricist philosopher is concerned is linguistic utterJnce as instance
of publicly observable behaviour. Consequently, a rigorously naturalistic
epistemology will, as a matter of principle, forgo all references to
subjectivity, whether it be in the shape of appeals to phenomenological
introspection or latent mental processes, in order to recast epistemology
in a explicitly behaviourist mode. It will then be seen to consist for the
most part in a study of the relation between patterns of sensory
stimulation and dispositions to overt verbal behaviour as observable in a
particularly sophisticated species of biological organism - i.e. homo
sapiens. More precisely, it will seek to establish a correlation between the
various modalities of sensory input and the various patterns of linguistic
output exhibited by those organisms. In the context of a behaviourist
epistemology, the cognitive subject is merely the functional black box
relaying input and output, and the precise nature of the mechanisms
mediating between sensory input and linguistic output, or between
stimulus and science, remains a matter for neurophysiological
investigation rather than phenomenological speCUlation.
The
startling
and
far-reaching
consequences
of
Quine's
epistemological be haviourism become apparent in the test case of radical
translation. The radical translator has to decipher what is presumably an
instance of ostensive definition in the case of an entirely alien language.
Thus, the alien utters the phrase 'Gavagai!' while ostensively indicating a
passing rabbit. But as far as behavioural evidence is concerned, the
translator is no more empirically justified in concluding that the alien is
indicating an individual rabbit, than he would be in concluding that it was
actually pointing to an undetached rabbit-part, or a temporal segment in
the history of a rabbit, or the instantiation of rabbithood, and so on. The
alien's behavioural disposition to utter the phrase 'Gavagai!' and point a
tentacle whenever a rabbit hops by will be the same whether he 'means'
to indicate a rabbit, a rabbit-segment, or an undetached rabbit-part.
Consequeutly, Quine argues, there is nothing in principle to prevent a pair
of rival translators from constructing two mutually conflicting manuals of
Ray Brassier
63
translation for the alien tongue, both of which would be completely
comp::tt ible with the totality of the alien' s speech-dispositions, providing ;)
smooth sentence to sentence mapping between English and alien
sentences, yet both entirely incompatible with one another, inasmuch as
one translates 'Gavagail' with 'Lo, a rabbit!' , while the other translates it
with 'Lo, an undetached rabbit-part!'.
Now the point, Quine argues, is not that radical translation is
epistemologically underdetermined and that we lack enough evidence to
discover what the alien 'really' means. It is that translation is
ontologie ally indeterminate and that there is nothing to discover about
meaning, no fact of the matter about what the alien 'means' for the
translator to be right or wrong about: "The discontinuity of radical
translation tries our meanings: really sets them over against their verbal
embodiments, or, more typically, finds nothing there."(Word and Object,
Cambridge, MA.: M.LT. Press, 1960, p.76)
If 'Gavagai!' doesn' t mean anything, Quine insists, it' s because 'Lo, a
rabbitl' doesn't mean anything either. There simply are no such things as
'meanings'. For the truth is that indeterminacy of translation begins at
home. Thus, QUine's epistemological behaviourism and his principled
disqualification of the 'first person point of view' applies even in the case
of our own native language: we could suspend our habitual practice of
homophonic translation when conversing with other English speakers
and, by systematically reinterpreting words and sentential constructions,
construe utterances sllch as 'there' s a rabbit' as being 'about' rabbithood
or undetached rabbit parts while still respecting all the available empirical
facts about behavioural predispositions.
Moreover, this holds even in the case of the individual speaker: I
could systematically reconstrue even my own utterances and conclude
that the word 'rabbit' as I use it is actually true of rabbit parts or rabbit
stages. Or, and perhaps even more interestingly, that the word T as 'I'
use it actually refers to some other entity. Quine's hostility to the
phenomenological superstitions enshrined in 'the first person point of
view' is unerly uncompromising: not even my own utterances can have
any determinate meaning for me. The assumption that speakers enjoy
privileged access to their own phenomenological states is no more than a
widespread but scientifically unwarranted cultural prejudice. Since truth
is disquotational and the reference scheme governing a language's
ontological commitments remains relative to a translation manual, the
ontological commitments of my own assertions remain inscrutable even
to myself.
64
PI; 12 (2001)
This is Quine's doctrine o f the inscrutability of reference, which
shades off ind iscernibly into that of ontological relativity. The latter
provides the basic theoretical underpinning for the thesis of translational
indeterminacy. It states that on tologies are not fixed and absolute but
aleatory and relative : different theories will have different ontological
co mmitments insofar as the range of bound variables over which the
sentences of a theory must quantify will vary according to the kind of
entities required to stand in as values of those variables in order for the
sentences of the theory to be true. Rabbits and undetached rabbit parts are
alike, Quine suggests, insofar as the question of their exis tence or non
existence only makes sense within the context of the relevant world
theory. But it is important to stress that as far as Quine is concerned, there
can be no fact of the matter co ncerning 'what there really is'
independently of any or all theory. The criterion according to which
rabbits afford greater epistemological convenience as theoretical posits in
the context of our own particular world-system remains a n instrumental
one : i t so happens that we, as b iological organisms striving to organize
the raw nux of sensory input, have so far found it simpler and more
profitable to formulate our accounts of those sensory stimulations and
successfully predict their future occurrence by explaining the m in terms
of rabbits rather than undetached rabbit-parts. Beyond this purely
instrumental criteria and the immanence of the world-theory we happen
to inhabit, there is no higher c ourt of ontological appeal, and ultimately
no answer to questions about whether the world ' really' consists of
rabbits or rabbit-stages since "it makes no sense to say what the objects of
a theory are, beyond saying how to interpret or reinterpret that theory in
another." (,Ontological Relativi ty', op. cit., p. SO) Accordingly, there is
no right or wrong way in which to carve up the world independently of
the best available theory, and what counts as the 'best' theory for a n
organism i s simply a functi on o f adaptive efficiency.
Moreover, given that Quine believes the best ontology to be that of the
best unified science, and that physics offers the widest-ranging avenue for
the projected unification of the natural sciences, it follows that, as far as
Quine i s c o ncerned, physics should be afforded pride of place at the heart
of our scientific system of the world. By systematically reconstruing and
reinterpreting quantificationa l predicates, apparent divergences in the
ontologies of the various sub-systems of science can be eliminated,
thereby maximizing the potential convergence of those discrete scientifi c
regions w ith a view to a seamlessly unified, uni versal physical theory.
Whenever possible, Quine maintains, we should strive for physical
reduction, or at least re-identificatio n: substi tuting a frugal ontology o f
65
Ray Brassier
microphysical objects for our luxurious ontology of bodies and
substances, eliminating these microphys ical objects in favour of regions
of pure space-time, and ultimately abandoning the latter in order to
replace them with conesponding classes of quadruple numhers as
specified within the bounds of arbitrarily adopted coord inate systems,
thereby aniving at the austerely minimalist ontology of set theory.
Given that our own scientific s y s tem of the world already exhibits this
high degree of functional plasticity, it would be churlish to impose fixed
on tological parameters onto the process of radical translation. When
confronted w ith an alien it may be more conve nient to assume that its
ostensive practices more or less co incide with our own, alld that it
individuates things in the world very much like we do. Quine's point is
that although s uch assumptions are pragmatically warrallted, they will
always remain ontologically indete rminable insofar as they exceed all
possible epistemological, which is to say behavioural, evidence - the
only empirically legitimate evidellce as far as Quine is concerned:
Such is the quandary over 'gavagai': where one gavagai leaves off
and another begins. TIle only difference between ra bbits,
undetached rabbit parts and rabb it stages is in their individuation.
If you take the total scattered portion of the spatiotempora l world
that is made up of rabbits, and that which is made up of undetached
rabbit parts, and that which is made up of rabbit stages, you come
out w ith the same scattered portion of the world each of the three
times. The only difference is in how you slice it. And how to slice
it is what ostension or simple conditioning, however persistently
repeated, cannot teach. (Ibid., pp. 31-32)
Thus, what the indeterminacy of translat ion really boils down to is an
indeterminacy of i ndividuation. Although the total scattered portion of the
spatiotemporal world comprising rabbits, rabbit parts and rabbit stages, is
ult imately 'one and the same' ,9 the fact remains that at the local level,
there w i l l always be a greater number of unde tached rabbit-parts present
9 Although, strictly speaking,
fro m a Quinean perspective, to say it remains 'one and
the same' is problematic insofar as it erroneously suggests we might have some
means of accessing this scattered p0l1ion of the spatiotemporal world independently
of our habitual practices of ostensive individuation as nested within the overarc hing
world-theory we happe n to inhabit. As we shall see,
it is
this possibility of
theoretically accessing a pre-individuated ontological realm which becomes feasible
in the context o f Laruelle's work, in spite o f the fact that it remains a strictly
incoherent notion for Qlline.
66
Pli 12 (200 1 )
than s i ngle rabb its , an even greater number of temporal segments in the
history of a rabbit than undetached rabbit-parts present, but conversely,
only a s i ngle rabbithood present w henever a multiplicity of rabbits, rabbit
stages or rabbit parts are present. The truth is that this
incommensurability at the global level of thal which ostension counts as
one remains i nscrutable at the local level of behavioural equivalence for
ostensive ind ication, in other word s , inscrutable at the level of the \\'{lY in
which ostension count something as one. 1l1is is because, for Quine, there
is no 'thing-in-itself, nothing left over once you've subtracted the ' ho w '
of ostensive i n dividuation [i'om the 'what' which i s supposedly being
pointed to. There simply are no fac ts of the matter - i.e. no behavioural,
and ultimately no phys ical facts - about what we 'intend' to single oul
when uttering 'Lo, a rabbit !' and pointing, or to tell us whether we are
indicating rabbits, rabbit stages, or rabbithood.
Individuation is indeternunate, and the reference of our singular terms
inscrutable, argues Quine, because there are no entities there for us to
scmte in the absence of a global theory fixing the conventions for
os tension and specifying determinate criteria for the individuation of
entities. Unless it's determined in the context of an overarc hing
background theory, reference is indeterminate and being inscrutable.
Hence the famous Quinean formula: 'to be is to be the value of a
variable'. Reference as a basic olJtological relation between word and
world cannot be construed in a transcendent and extra-theoretical fashion,
because only the presupposition of physics as the most fundamental and
all-e ncompassing available sys tem of global ontology can provide the
ilmnanent, empirically legitimate condition of possibility for defining that
relation. And herein lies the potent anti-phenomenological thrust of
Quine's radical empiricism: if prac tices of ostension and criteria for
individuation are relative to theory, so are all those perceptual or
phenomenological
expenenc es'
subsequently attributed
to
the
epistemological subject as a func tion of those theoretically .grounded
conventions and c riteria. Change the translation manual and the
customary rules of homophonic equivalence whereby your utterallces are
habitually mapped onto the familiar lexicon of standard English, their
reference fixed in conformity w ith the conventional criteria of ordinary
usage, and you effectively reconfigure the phenomenological furnishings
of your own being-in-the-world. Rabbit-s tage qualia will be substituted
for rabbit qualia.
Accordingly, Quine' s epistemological behaviourism and his sceptical
stance toward the conventions of propositional attitude ascription and the
on tological trappings of folk psychological discourse, as crystallised in
Ray Brassier
67
the indeterminacy of transla tion, /0 provide us with as an explicitly
materialist variant on what was most valuable in Kant: the transcende ntal
critique of the suppos ition that we possess unmediated access to our own
first-person phenomenological awareness as though it were something
immediate and ' i n - itself, and the latent implication that there simply is
no 'experience in-itself since 'experience' is conceptually defined anel
'always already ' theoretically articulated. Significantly, i t is this idea of a
transcendental
suspension
or
bracketing
of
the
realm
of
phenomenologically defined immediacy in its entirety, coupled with the
possibility of a subsequent theore tical reconfiguration of what counts as
experie nce, which links Larue lle ' s work to that of Kant and Quine.
Laruelle
Larue lle is interested in clarifying the notion of a transcendental
presupposition for philosophical thought. In other words, he 's interested
ill clarify i ng the notion of transcende n tal immanence that, we suggested,
was already operative in the thought of Kant anc! Quine. But unlike Kant,
Lamelle is trying to define this notion of transcendental immanence in
terms of a rect i rather merely ideal presuppos ition for experience. And
unl ike Quine, he refuses to identify this real pres upposition with an
already extant body of empirical sc ience. This is bec;]use he thinks that
both Kant ' s synthetic {l priori, as rooted in pure apperception, and
Qu ine ' s epistemological behaviouris m, as rooted in his physicalis m, are
u l timately equivalent ges tures of transcendence, that is to say,
lJ
philosophical Decisions
about what should count as an inevitable
presupposition for philosophy. Thus, what Laruelle is after is a
10
Of course, there are many who view the indeterminacy of translation as a redltctio
of QUine's epistemolo gical behaviourism, protesting that such a profoundly counter
intu i t ive doctrine could not possibly be correct. Appeals to the incontrovertible
obviollsness of first-person phenomenology invariably figure largely in protests of
this sort. An altogether more interesting and less question-begging critique comes
ti'om Donald Davidson, a philosopher mllch int1uenced by Quine. In 'On the Very
Idea Of a Conceptual Scheme ' , D avidson criticizes Quine for holding on to a ' third
dogma' of empiricism: the dualism o f conceptual scheme and sensory content which
he sees as perpetuating the Kantian dual i s m of concept and intuition. Cf. 'On the Very
Idea of a Conceptual Scheme ' , in Illquiries 11110 Tntlh and Interpretation (Oxford:
O . U . P . , 1984), pp. 1 8 3 - 1 9 8 .
Ii
For Lamelle, all philosophy is Decisional; which is to say that every philosophical
gesture, whether it be Hume's or Hegel's, K au t ' s or QUine's, is invariably rooted in a
minimal strllcture of auto-positional/auto-donational transcendence.
68
PI; 1 2 (200 1 )
precondition for philosophy that is real' without being empirically
determinate and capable of assuming a transcendental fu nction without
becoming ideally transcendent. The question then is: can we discover this
real but non-empirical presuppo sition, this unconditional immanence that
is always ;)lready presupposed b y philosophy, without h;)ving to make ;)
philosophical Dec ision about its char;)cter? For by immediately
char;)cterizing its own precondition philosophic;)lly, Decision institutes a
vicious circularity whereby philosophy ' s minimal precondition or sille
qua 1l01l always turns out to be already philosophic al. But is t here some
u ltimate presupposition for philosophical thought that would not turn out
to be posited as p resupposed tlu'ough Decision '?
Laruelle believes he has disco vered this non-Decisioml precondition
for philosophising, ;)nd that defining it ;)5 the authentically ineliminable
sine qua 11017 [or all philosophical thought is a matter of purifying tbe
notion of ill1m;)nence of every residue of ideal transcendence and
empirical detennin;)tion. For the philosophical presupposition o f
transcendental immanence, w hetber as ide;)l (Kant) or a s real ( Quine),
invariably renders i t immanent 10 something. Thus, for Kant, the
transcendental qua ideal synthetic a priori is immanent to possible
experience, while for Quine the tr;)nscendent;)l qua real physical theory of
the world is immanent to empiric;)l science. Acc ordingly, in order to
safeguard immanenc e ' s autonomy and prevent its contamination through
transcende nt ideality and empirica l reality, Laruelle must achieve a
seemingly impossible feat: he has to separate immanence qua immanence
from immanence qua transcendental without differentiating them as two
distinct ' things ' . Imm;)nence must b e capable of fu lfi lling ;)
transcendental function without becoming transcendental. The fun ction o f
the transcendental entails a relatioll of determination (whether this b e one
of conditioning (Kant), constitution (Husserl) or production (De leuze» , a
relation that would compromise the radical autonomy of the inunanence
Laruelle seeks. So in order not to render immanence relative to tha t
which i t transcendentally determines, Laruelle will c;)refully distinguish
inunanence as a necessary but negative condition, as sine qua llOll for the
relation of de termination, from its effectuation ;)s transcendentally
determining condition insofar as this is contillgently occasioned by the
empiric al instance which it necessarily determines. Immanence is a
necessary but not a sufficien t condition for the determination o f
philosophy because i t requires the supp lement of philosophical thought a s
a contingent occasion i n order t o fulfil its necessary determining function
vis a vis philosophy. Consequently, whereas transcende ntal inunanence is
merely posited-as-presupposed through philosophical Decision, Laruelle
Ray Brassier
69
w i l l separate or 'dualyse ' the two moments of Decis ion, so that non
Decisional immanence is first presupposed � without being posited � in
its radical autonomy as immanence, which is to say, as foreclosed to
Decision, the better to be occasionally posited � wi thout being
presupposed � as a transcendentally foreclosed but nevertheless
determining condition for philosophical Decision.
Accordingly, unlike Kant and Quine, Laruelle separates the gesture of
presupposition from that o f position at the same time as he separates
i mmanence from i ts transcendental effectuation. First, immanence is
presupposed (without-position) in i ts foreclosure to Decision as utterly
empty and transparent, void or any and every form of predicative conten t,
whether it be empirical or ideal. It is presupposed as the mini mally
necessary precondition for thought, as a negative or empty cond ition,
rather than a positive, ontologically sufficient or substantive state o f
affairs. Which i s t o say that it is presupposed a s foreclosed t o the advent
o f ontological Decision concerning that which i s or the way in which
what is ( i.e. foreclosed to the possibility of articulating the distinction
between essence and existence). Second, and only by virtue of being
presupposed a s this necessary but non-sufficient condition, ilmnanence is
posited (without-presupposition) on the occasional basis of Decision, as
transcendentally necessary for Decision. O nly on the occasional basis of
philosophical Decision can immanence be posited as twnscendental and
thereby become positively effec tuated as a necessary condition for
Decisional thought.
What are the consequences of this delicate procedure? The most
important for our present purposes is that whereas the Decisional mixture
of presupposition and position invariably hybridises immanence ' s
conceptual definition with its ontological c o nstitution, Larue lle manages
to charac terise it as foreclosed to definition as well as cons titution.
Immanence ' i tself ( l 'i111l11allence telle quelle; [ ' immanence ell chair et ell
os, as Larue lle likes to say) is a radically autonomous ins tance that s i mply
has no need for definition or constitution. Immanence 'itself remains
foreclosed to conceptual symbolisation and ontological predication, and
therefore independent of the Decisional mixture of description and
consti tution.
We might almost be tempted to say that in invoking i mmanence
'itself, Lall.lelle is defining it substantively, were it not for the fact that
once immanence is thought in and by itself, it can no longer even be
charac terised as substantively i lmnanent to i tself. What separates
Laruelle ' s non-philosophical project of thinking ill accordance with
i mmanence ' s foreclosure to thought from philosophies of absolute
Pli 1 2 (200 1 )
70
immanence o f the kind propounded b y Gilles Deleuze and Michel Henry
!2
in very different registers , is the conviction that once immanence has
been purged of every residue of transcendence, it is no longer possible to
say of it, as Deleuze and Henry do in their very different ways, that it ' s
immanent to itself, bec:.lUse that 'to' still maintains a modicum of
reHexive folding, a doubling up, a residual intentionality. /3 If immanence
is to be unconditional it must remain non-thetic: neither iml1lanence 'in'
itself nor immanent 'to' itself, but rather non-thetic-il1lmanence 'itself ,
jvIoreover, it is through this intransitive 'bracketing' or suspension of
intentional relatiollality and re Hexive doubling, tbat the non-thetic
suspends the premise of unitary ontological consistency, Because the
LaruellealJ invocation of imma nence is no longer defined as an identity
' to' something, not even to itself, it becomes the immanence of an
Identity without consiste ncy and without uuity, Laruellean immanence is
'given-without-givenness' as the radical, or the One-in-One, the One
without-Being ( I ' Un-salls - I ' Etre), rather than 'given-with-givenness' as
the absolute or transcendent immanence of the One-beyond-Being ( I 'au
dela de [ ' Etre or ep ekeillo tes ollsias). Accordingly, the non-thelic
immanence of what Laruelle c alls 'the One' or ' the Rear becomes an
index of radically singular but non-consistent Identity, an identity shorn
of the presumption of ontological unity. And it is this suspens ion of tbetic
positing, of intentional correlation and transitivity, which the 'non' in
'non-thetic immanence' imparts to thought insofar as it begins to think, as
Laruelle puts it, occordillg to, or all the basis of radical immanence as its
real, yet non-ontolo gical, presupposition. This has four very important
consequences as far as our consideration of the relation between
individuation, theory, and experience is concerned; consequences which
we shall now proceed to elaborate on in tU111.
12 Whereas both Gilles Deleuze and Michel Hemy define immanence philosophically
(Declsionally) as a n absolute, Laruelle defines immanence non-philosophically (non
Decisionally)
as
the radical.
Cf.
Gilles
Deleuze
and
FeIL'{
Guattari,
�v71a t is
Philosophy ?, trans, by H. Tomlinson & G. Burchell (London: Verso, 1994), pp.
35-
60; Gilles Deleuze, 'Immanence: A Life ' , trans. by N . Millet, in Theory, Culture &
Society,
Vol.
1 4 , No.
2,
1 997, pp.
3-9; and
Michel
Hemy,
Th e
Essence
of
Manifestation, trans. by G. Etskorn (The I-Iague: MaJtinus Nijhof), 1 9 7 3 , passim,
1 3 Cf. Fran<;:ois Larl1elle, 'Reponse
a Deleuze ' in Non-Philosophie, Le Collectif, La
NOII-Piziiosophie des Colltemporaills (Paris: Kime, 1995), pp. 49-80.
Ray Brassier
71
First conseguence: immanence - which is to say, the Real - through
its foreclosure to Decision, 'causes' U the phenomenological World to
distinguish itself as absolutely transcendent in relation to i t, while it
remains radically indifferent to the World' s transcendence. In so doing it
transforms the tic transcendence, or the phenomenological \V orld, into an
empirical occas ion, a neutral support on whose basis immanence models
itself non-thetically in thought. Although foreclosed to thought,
immanence becomes transcenden tally effectuated by thought as a non
thetic model of thetic transcendence. In other words, non-thetic
immanence has as its (non-intentional) c on-elate (or 'uni-late ' , as Laruelle
says) a fathomless well or abyss of non-thetic transcendence into which
the phenomenological World and e verything in it drops. This dimension
of non-the tic transcendence occasioned by the World articulates what
could be called 'the relation o f rel ation and non-relation ' and provides the
vehicle for a non-phenomenological theory of the phenomenon. Its
complex structure spans the 1I1lilmerai duality artic ulating the
Unse parated i mmanence whose ra �lical or relationless foreclos ure to
thought it now effec tuates as thought; and the equally indi vis i b le
Separation whereby immanenc e ' s relationless foreclosure is now
effectuated by thought as non-thetic transcendence 'relative to' the the tic
transcendence that serves as its occasion. This difficult ye t extraordinarily
fruitful idea can be more economically (but not necessarily more simply)
expressed in Laruellese: the forec losure of radical immanence clones
itself as thought on the occasional basis of the Worl d ' s the tic
transcendence; ' existing' as a unilateral duality compris ing an Identity of
immanence-w i thout-unity and a Duality of transcendence without
disti nction.
But what does this apparently unintelligible gobbledygook actually
mean? Well, for one thing, this transcendental effectuation or ' c loning' of
immanence as Identity-without-unity and Duality-without-distinction
engenders a practico -theoretical
rather than phenomenological instance of inunanent subjectivation. Thus, in being transcendentally
effectuated as unilateral duality, rad i c al immanence becomes the Subject
of transcendental theory without becoming immanent ' to ' empirical
subjectivity or phenomenological consciousness. It is effectuated in
thought in a way that engenders a defini tive estrangement of the
customary parameters of our phenomenological being-in-the-world. As
-
/.,
'Callses-only-in-the-last-instance ' ; i.e.
according to a novel,
non-me taphysical
characterisation of the notion o f cause as neither formal nor final, neither efficient nor
material.
72
Pli 1 2 (200 1 )
far as Laruelle i s concerned. the Identity and Duality constitutive o f non
thetic transcendence qua Subject o f non-phenomenological theory mean
that the latter can neither be an empirically given fact 'in' experience, nor
an ontologically necessary precondition 'of experience. The subject of
non-phenomenological theory is a Stranger to the World; an Aliel1subject: a purely transcellllental, practico-theoretical organon i(}/" the
determination of phenomenological experience, but an organon devoid o f
every residue o f intentional fa mi liarity with the realm o f i ntra-worldly
expe nence.
This last point is particularly crucial: the Alien-subject does not 'do'
theory as if it were a pre-existing agency pragmatically engaged ' i n the
world' prior to and independently of being a practico-tbeoretical instance
for the determination of the World. 011 the contrary, its 'being' is
exclusively performative; i ts articulation is exhausted by this practico
theoretical determination; and it is nothing apart from its ( practico
theoretical) effectuation as the Subject of non-phenomenological
/5
thought. For LarueIIe, the only authentically immanent articulation of
the Subject is effectuated in the struc ture of the transcendental clone
modelling, suspending and ultimately reconfiguring the WorId's thetic
transcendence. It is the World as stnlcture of phenomenological
transcendence ill toto that now becomes a determinable 'object' ; a merely
occasional support or material subject to a process of practico-theoretical
de terrnina ti on.
Second consequence: through this dimension of radical exteriority or
non-thetic transcendence which constitutes the structure of the Alien
subject, Laruelle e ffects a trans cendental dilation of the empirical realm;
one which, like Quine but for very different reasons, discontinues the
possibility of presupposing a phenomenological distinction between
experience and judgement, fact and essence, a posteriori and a priori. I n
elllancipatin g the pure and empty form o f the transcendental, Laruelle
extends the bounds of the empirical beyond the phenomenological
parameters of w hat it ' s possible to define as empirical relative to the
subject of consc iousness. Everything becomes indifferently empirical not just rabbits and rabbit-parts, but also the a priori criteria of
individuation for rabbits and rabbit-parts. Once the radically
transcendental viewpoint of the Alien-subject has been effectuated, then
according to the latter' s rigorously universalising perspective qua 'vision1 5 Cf. Fran�ois
Laruelle, 'A S u mmary of Non-Philosophy', trans. b y R. Brassier, in
Ph: The Warwick JOllmal of Philosophy - Philosophies of Nature, Vol. 8, 1 9 99, pp.
1 46-7.
Ray Brassier
73
in- One ' , all phenomenologically rooted distinctions between proprietary
proximity and exproprietary distance, or between a (so-called) concrete
subjective i mmanence and a (so-called) abstract objective transcendence.
become completely invalidated. Everything is at once u nivocally concrete
or equivalently phenomenal in its non-the tic i mmanence, and
ind ifferently abstract or utterly exeamate in its non-the tic transcendence.
Which is to say that accord ing to the Alien-subject' s radically non
worldly perspective, there is no d istinction in phenomenal or perceptual
status between being hit by a brick and constructing a proof for Cantor' s
continuum hypothesis. Envisaged acco rding to radical i mmanence, or
' seen-in-One' by the Alien-subject, a bunny-rabbit has exactly the same
phenomenal status as an axiom of set-theory, and a particle accelerator
has exactly the same pheno menal status as a too thache.
Third consequence: a thinking that effectuates immanence ' s
foreclosure t o the. World isn ' t 'about' anything - it is (as Beckett
fa mously remarked apropos of Finnegan 's Wake) that 'something' itself.
It is non-thetic: whicli is to say, non-intentional, intrans itive , rad ically
performative. Because transcendental theory is S ubj ect without being
dependent on any e mpirically given instance of subjectivity, non
phenomenological thinking is ne ither grounded in a conscious subject,
nor dependent on an intentional object. Like Kant, Lamelle includes the
subject of phenomenological consci ousness w ithin the realm of
empirically determinable objectivity. S o Laruelle 's non-philosophical
vers ion of transcendental theory does not depend on a subject of
consciollsness because it remains rooted in immanence ' s foreclosure to
thought as the non-conscious cause determining thought i n-the-last
ins tance. By the same token, it has no intentional object either becallse it
consti tutes itself on the occasional basis of those a priori theories of
objectivation (philosophical Decisi ons) that function as its empirical
/6
material , rather than relative to an already objectified, empirically
determinate phenomenological field. This is why it operates in all
exclusively transcendental as opposed to phenomenological register: it
relates to theo ries of objects rather than to objects themselves; the point
being that fro m the perspective of the Alien-subject, the possibility of
establishing a phenomenological distinction between 'obj ects' and
' theories of objects' becomes completely invalidated. That distinction is
now supplanted by a transcendental Identity of phenomenological-object
and objectifying-theory that is i tself radically phenomenal (yet non16
Cf. Franc;ois Laruelle, Prin,ipes de fa NOIl-Philosophie (Paris: P.D.F, 1 996), pp.32-
34.
74
P/i 12 (200 1 )
phe nomenological) o r non-tiJe tica lly i I11m anent in-the-las t-instance .
In this respect, Larue lle can be seen to be radical ising the combined
Kantian and Quinean critiques of the idea that our experience is of things
in-themselves, defined indepe ndently of theoretical meuiatioll. There are
no pre-theoretical experiences of rabbits-in-themselves, only an
experience constructed through theories of rabbithood. But i n another
respect, Laruelle vigorously re i n s tates the thing- in-itself: for this is
exactly what non-thetic i mma nellce is - the only proviso being thn t it is
no longer a reifiable ' thing' at all. Once it ceases being defilled
privativel y as a limiting concept, and is characterised instead as tiJat
whose immanen t foreclosure to definition and consti tution allows for its
immanent effec tuation by thought, it becomes possible to redefine the
thing-in-itself positively as an u nconditionally immanent phenomenon, or
as the transcendental phenomenon-in-itself = x. J 7 It is this philosophically
·
oxymoronic definition of the Real that serves as the impetus for the
Larue llean shift to a non-philosophical register; that is to say, one which
takes philosophical accounts of objectivation themselves, rather than
objects, as its empirical material. And it is radical i nunanence' s
unconditionaHy positive phenomenal trallsparency as the p henoll1enoll -in
itself, rather than the kind of negatively defined noumenal opacity
characteristically ascribed to the in-itsel f by philosophers, which makes
of it the unknown but determin ing cause in accordance with which the
Real qua One or ' Individual-without-individuation' can be l imitlessly
redescribed using philosophical theories of individuation as a merely
occasional index. It is with this process of constant redescription that a
non-phenomenological theory of the phenomenon-in-itself concerns
itself.
Fourth consequence: the redescription at issue involves think i ng the
Identity-without-unity and the Duality-without-difference of the Real q/la
phenomenon-in-itself, or immanen t cause of thought, and of the Ideal q/la
phenomenological objectivation or individuating schema for the scattered
portion of the spatio-temporal world indexed by the "Gavagai !" or
"Rabbit!" occasioning occurrence.
In other worcis, the non
phenomenological redescription of phenomenologically articulated
cogni t ion strives to construct a theoretical clone of the "Gavagai !"
occasioning occ urrence by prociucing the concurre nt Identity (withoutJ 7 "The Real i s rather like Kant ' s ' thing-in-it self : unknowable and even unthinkable,
but with this difference: i t is constituted by a fo reclosed immanence rather than by
transcendence (it is the One rather than the Other), and consists in an experience or
cognition of the third kind; - the vision-in-One." (Laruelle, op. cit . , p. 2 7 1 ) .
Ray Brassier
75
synthesis) and Duality (withou t�dis tinction) of the latter ' s i n determinable
real i ty as a pre�individual 'Thing' or phenomenon�in�itself, and i t s
phenomenologically determinable ideality a s individuated entity. Thus,
the
non-phe nome nological
redescription
of
phenomenologically
articulated rabbithood will strive to liberate the rabbity�occ llrrence' s pre�
i n di vidual character, which is to say, its non�thetic essence, in terms of
the radically
immanent
Identity (without�unity) and rad ically
transcendent Duality (without�distinction) proper to the rabbity
occurrence as simultaneity of a determi nate but unobj ec t i fiable reality
and a phenomenologically determinable, objectivating ideality. In other
words, it is a question of, as Laruelle puts it, 'dmlysing' the
phenomenological hybridisation of individuating phenomenality and
indi viduated phenomenon - that is to say, reconfiguring it in terms of a
unilateral duality wherein an individual�w i thout-inC\ividuation now
determines the hylomorphic dyad of individuating form and indi viduated
matter as 'unidentity' and 'unilaterality' of a matter-w ithout�form, or
individual�without�individuation,
and
a
form-without-matter,
or
individuation-without-individual.
8
It is G ilbert S imondon who, in his seminal work / identified and
denounced the fundamental circu larity in all hylomorphic accounts of
individuation. That circularity derives from the latter ' s retroactive
imposition o f the characteristics of constituted individual unity back onto
the pre�individual condi tions of o nto logical individuation. Pre�individual
being will never be con ceptually conce ived, Simondon argued, so long as
the only available theoretical schema is that of the fundamentally Kantian
model according to which the unity of the subject is mirrored in the
object and that of the object in the subject, thereby presupposing the
isomorphy of thought and thing at the level of individuation. However,
S imondon not only diagnosed the problem, he also suggested an
alternative:
The individuation o f the real external to the subject is grasped by
the subject thanks to the analogical individuation of cogni tion i n
the subject; b u t i t i s through the individuation of cogni tion rather
than through cogn ition alone that the individuatio n of those beings
which are not subjects is grasped. Beings can be known through
the cogni tion of the subj ect, but the individuation of beings can be
grasped only through the individuation of the sUbject' s cognition.
18
C
f.
in particular L '/Ildividlt et sa Gellese Physico-Biologiqlle (Grenoble: Jerome
Millon, 1 995) [originally published by Presses Universit aires de France in 1 9 64].
76
Ph 1 2 (2001)
(L '/ndividu et sa Genese Phys ico-Biologique, Grenoble; Jerome
Millon, 1995, p. 34)
Thus, the only to way to grasp pre-individual singu larity, Simondoll
suggests, is through the pre-individual singularisation o f thoughl.
Simondon' s philos ophical quest to articulate the conditions for a thought
of pre-individual being provides us with a useful (albeit tangential as far
as LarueIIe himself is concerned) way of delineating some of the novel
conceptual possibilities opened up by Laruelle' s work. For it is in fact the
latter which furnishes us with lhe relevant methodological apparatus
required in order to effect the transfiguration of philosophical theory
demanded for the successful realisation of the fonner. What the
theoretical grasp of individuatio n as pre-individual ontological process
demands is a suspension of phenomenological in tuition, a dissolution of
intentional correlation, and a disarticulation C dualysatio n ' ) of the
hylomorphic synthesis of individual phenomenon and i ndividuating
phenomenality (insofar as it is phenomenality' s temporalising function
that individuates the temporal phenomenon). J9 The Laruellean apparatus
effects the relevant transformations by discontinuing all ves tiges of
merely analogical equivalence or representational isomorphy between
individuated cognition and individuated being, as well as all
phenomenological correlation between individuated consciousness and
i ndividuated phenomenon. TIus severance is effected through the medium
of non-phenomenological cognition as articulation of unilateral duality,
rather than unitary synthesis, between individuation and individuated.
Thus, by way of contrast to the u nitary intentional co nsistency of
phenomenological adumbrations (Abschattung), this duality is effectuated
in thought acc o rding t o the radical inconsistency of the phenomenon-in
itself
as
individual-without-individuation.
And
instead
of
phenomenologically presupposing the intuition or 'perception ' of the
individuated phenomenon as already encompassed within a unitary
horizon of intentional adumbration, it is the phenomenological
phenomenon as hylomorphic synthesis of individuated phenomenon and
individuating phenomenality that is ' dualysed' as a phenomenologically
unencompassable duality comprising the inmlanence of a phenomenon
wi thout-unity and the transcendence of a phenomenality-withont
difference, io accordance with the phenomenon-in-i tself as inclividual
without-individuation. Thus, the One ' s inconsistent transparency qua
phenomenon-in-itself dualyses the individuated phenomenon as a
1 9 Cf.
Michel Henry, Plltill onuhlOlogie Materielle (Paris: P.U.F., 1 990), pp. 1 3-59.
Ray Brassier
77
singularity:
an
Identity-without-synthesis
that
IS
simultaneously a Duality-without-distinction.
Perhaps we can illuminate these somewhat turgid ruminations by
reconsidering the case of radical translation. In order to grasp the
" Gavagai !" occasioning occurrence without presupposing that the alien
shares in our own familiar ostens ive practices or subscribes to om
conventional criteria for individuation, we would have to become capable
of accessing the "Gavagai ! " prompting event in its pre-individual
ontological heterogeneity. This w ould entail achieving a theoretical
access to the rabhity-occun'ence prior to the mobilisation of an
individuating schema; in other words, accessing it as equally and
simultaneously comp rising rabbithood, rabbit-parts, rabbit-segments, etc.
Such a feat of cognitive redescription would require the effectuation of a
non-intention:ll or non-unitary s yntax - a unilateralising syntax or ' ulli
tax' - at the level of the non-phenomenological theory that takes the
phenomenological hybridisntion of individunl and individuntion ns its
materinl, the better to extract from the latter the rabbity-occ mrence' s
unilnteralised or dispersive identity, its unidentity and unilntera lity as
phenomenon-in-itself: neither rabbit-object nor rnbbit-segment nor rabbit
part, but the transcendental prototype, the pre-individual condition for
these and all other rabbit-individuating schemas.
Thus, what Laruelle calls the 'indivi-dualysation' of theoretical
cognition in accordance with its cause (the One qua individual-without
individ uation) results in [he de-individuation or dualysation of its
empirical SUpp0i1 (the rabbit-individ uating schema) as unilateral duality
of individuated phenomenon and individuating phenomenality. Non
phenomenological thought grasps the rabbity-occurrence in its non-thetic
u niversality according to a mode of non-intuitive, or theoret ically
o
determined phenomenaJity / a phenomenality detennined independently
of any and every empirically determinate mode of perceptual intuition or
dispersil'e
phenomenological manifestation.
tvloreover, if the putatively invariant or pseudo-transcendental
parameters of pheno menological individuation remain entirely arbitrary
and contingent, and if there are as many possible modalities of immanent
phenomenalisation as there are possible transcendental redescriptions of
individuation, it is because the indivisible immanence of the Real qua
phenomenon-in-itself remains
commensurate
with
a
radically
20
Cf. Franc;ois Larue lle, . A Su mmary of Non-Philo sophy' . trans. by R. Brassier, in
Ph: The Warwick iotlmal of Philosophy - Philosophies of Nature. Vol. 8, 1999, p.
141 .
78
Pli 12 (200 1 )
hete roge neous, phenomenologically unencompassable manifold of
potential modes of individuation. That is to say, any given schema for
individuation, any given phenomenologic,ll hybrid of iudividuated
phenomenon and individuating phcnomemlity, can be dualyseu in
accordance with the Identity of the phenomenon-in-itself qlla inuividual
wi thout-individuation in a limitless variety of mutually incommensurable
ways, leading to an unencompassable manifold of alternative moues of
inuividuation - which is to say, of ' en tification' and phenomenalisation each o C them identical-in-the-last-instance with the One as individual-in
itself.
To understand this notion of a transcenuental manifolu of registers of
phenomenalisation entails making sense of Laruelle' s conception of an
immanent but theoretically malleable plurality of basically in-consistent
space-times. Unfortunately, however suggestive, Laru e l le ' s indications in
21
this regard are frustratingly sketchy.
NeverU1eless, i n light of the
foregoing account, there are a fe w positive claims w e can make
concerning the nature of this malleable, inconsistent space-time within
which the non-thetic or pre-individua ted rabbit gaily capers and gambols.
Given the immanence of the phenomenon-in-itself, which is its callse-in
the-last-instance, and give n the various phenomenological schemas of
rabbit-individuation, which are
its empirical suppo rt, a non
phenomeno logical modelling of 'rabbithood' will strive to extract or
clone a non-thetic xenotype fro m the thetic schematisations of the
individuated rabbit-phenomenon that serve as its empirical s upport. The
complex structure o f this xenotype as transcendental clone spans its
unidentity as radically immanent indivision and unilatemlity as radically
transcendent division. Which is to say that the non-thetic or non
phenomenological essence of the rabbit-in-itself spans its radical
immanence
as
individual-without-individuation
and
its
mdical
transcendence as individuation-w ithout-individual. Thus, the rabbit
xenotype co mprises the pre-individuated or non-consistent essence of the
rabbit' s irmnanent phenomenal identity as simultaneously rabbit-part,
rabbit-segment, rabbithood, and so on. As a result, the rabbity
occunence ' s non- thetic xenotype indexes its singular but pre
individuated nature as inconsistent Entity
x ; a theoretically immanent
but unobjectifiable phenomenal e ntity which has been subtracted from the
retentional and protentional syntheses of temporal presentation, as well as
from all intuitive forms of spatial presence. It is as coincidence of an
=
21
See for instance the tantalising but inconclusive remarks in Tilliorie des IdelZtites.
Fractalite Gelleralisee et Philosophie ArtTficielle (Paris: P.U.F. , 1 992).
79
Ray Brassier
identity-without-unity and a duality- without-difference, of a singular
ind ivision and a universal division, that the rabb itty-occurrence
constitutes a dispersive singularity, nei ther homogeneous in space nor
continuous through time.
In Th eory of Identities, Laruelle characte rises this theoretical
reconfiguration
of
Decis ionally
circumscribed
spatio-temporal
phenomena in terms of a process of a priori jractalisatio lJ . The latter is to
be understood in terms of the proliferation of inconsistent, discontinuous
and mutually inco mmensurable phenomenalisations of the 'same'
occasional phenomenon; its reiterated ' irregularisation' as determined by
a transcendentally homothetic invariant rupturing the spatio-temporal
consistency in accordance with whic h intentional consciousness
continuously reinscribes phenomena within the horizon of a potential
phenomenological unity. 21 Yet paradoxically, it is the phenomenon-in
itself through its invariant but inconsistent non-phenomenological
transparency that conditions this fractalisation. Accordingly, insofar as
the severing of the bond between entity and unity is inseparable from the
theoretical effectuation o f the phenomenon ' s inconsistency as fractalising
a priori, it is the latter ' s non-phenomenological inconsistency that
l
guarantee s the transcendental equivalence or universal trans latabilit /. of
all these mutllally incommensurable instances of spatio-temporal
phenomenalisation. Thus, it is as a direct consequence of the dimension
of universality proper to non-intuitive phenomenality insofar as it
effectuates immanenc e ' s radically inconsistent univocity, that all
Decisionally c ircumscribed spatio-temporal phenomena can be subjected
to a process of theoretical fractalisation rendering them at once
stringently individual and universally translatable.
11
23
Cf. ibid., pp. I S 3 -232.
The idea of non-philosophy as universal
medium for the translation of all
philosophical languages into one another is a recurrent theme in Philosophie III. In
PriHl;ipes de In NOlJ-Philosophie, for instance, Lamelle writes: "It is thus through this
theoretical
usage,
through
this
transcendental
theory
of private
phi losophical
languages (these being at once general and total), and on the basis of this non
linguistic identity of language, that the problem of philosophical translation can be
posed in terms of a translation o f philosophical languages ' into' one another, which is
to
say,
'into-the-One-in-the-last-instance ' ,
rather than in terms of a translation
between philosophies canied out under the u ltimate authority of philosophy. Non
philosophy is this translation of Kant ' into' Descartes, of Descartes ' into ' Marx, of
Marx ' into' Husser!, etc . ; which is to say, under the condition of the vision-in-One as
un-translatable
Real."(p.273) More recently,
the
topic of the
non-philosophical
translation of philosophy has provided the theme for an unpublished co nference paper
entitled 'Translated From the Philosophical' [ TmdLlit dLl Philosophique].
80
PI; 1 2 (200 1 )
Consequently, non-phenome nological theory could be said to fUIlction
like a kind of transcenden ta l prosthetic for conceptual cognition,
emancipating i t from the functional specificities of the human sensory
apparatus and the constraints of empirical sensibility, the better t o provide
it with an authentically universal mode of cognitive access to the non
anthropocogni tive realm of pre-i nd ividual phenomena. Moreover, in
providing this nOll-phenomenological ampli ficatioll of cognitiou in
accordance w ith the Identity o f the phenomenon-in-itself, this
transcendental pros thetic might be said to operate somewhat like a
universal organo n for radic a l translation, allowing creatures with
otherwise utterly disparate sensory modalities and inconunclIs urate
iudividuation criteria to communicate via a cognitive vocabulary shorn of
all co ntarrllnatiou by empirically overdetennined conceptual schemes.
Thus , the non-phenomenological ' indivi-dualysation' of phenomenality
thro ugh transcendental theory liberates the phenomenal target of
cognition (e.g. the ' Ga vagai!' occasioning occurrence) from i ts
circumscription within the empirical ambit of a determinate set o f
basically anthropocognitive perceptual modalities. And if ' transcendental
materialism' is defined simply in terms of the auti-phenomenological
thesis according to which the realm o f materiality-in-itself exceeds the
amb i t of intentio nal consciousness and the anthropocentric parameters of
human being-in-the-world, then Laruelle allows us to radicalise and
generalise that thesis by providing the means for a 'metatranscendental
materialisatio n ' of the phenomneological a priori.
Accordingly, although the pers is tent use of the 'non- ' prefi x in
Larue lie ' s thought invites the suspicion that an entirely lIegative mode of
detennination has been substituted for positive characterisation, such
suspicion is misguided. It fails to bear in mind the way in which Laruelle
uses ' non-' as a kind of auxiliary tensor or index for non-thetic radic ality ;
one which always unleashes a d i mension of posi tive characterisation
already i mmanent in the terms and concepts to which it is applied. In this
respect, its function is best understood as akin to the lifting of a speed
restriction or the raising of a floodgate. Far from negating the term to
which it is affixed, i t actually suspends or disqualifies a precise set of
conceptual s tric tmes through which a detemrinate species of thinking ( i .e .
the thetic or Decisional k ind) superimposes certain s ystemically
stl1lctured conditions onto the ineradicable simplicity of a phenomenon
whose parameters of i mmanent man ifestation remain conceptually
uncircumscribable and phenomenologically unencompassable.
So although it seems to deny, Laruelle ' s 'non-' is ul timately a No that
performs the Ye s. What it suspends i s the self-imposed constriction of
81
Ray Brassier
philosophical thought's auto-Decisional sufficiency; the charmed circle
of its auto-pos itional and auto-donational autonomy. The suspension of
that autonomy actually diss imulates an affi rmation of the radically
unconditioned; that which frees Decision from its absolute self
s ufficiency by conditioning Dec is ion without being condi tioned by
Decision in re turn. Whenever it is used, Lamelle' s ' non-' reaffirms the
ineradicable immanence of the phenomenon-in-itself by suspending the
constrictive character of its attempted phenomenologisation at the hands
of philosophical Dec ision.
What then i s a ' non-rabbit' ?
It is a d ispersive singularity: the transcendental c o i n c idence of a
phenomenon that no longer pres upposes an individuating logos , and a
matter that is no longer pos ited on the basis of an individuated co ncept. It
ma nifests its e l f as the unilateral duality of an unobjecti fiably i mmanent
phenolllenun that has not been posited by means o f an ind ividuating
phenomenality, and an unobj ectifiably transcendent phe nomenality that
has not been presupposed through :In individuated phen omenon. It is a
xeno type : an unenvis ageable but rad i c a lly immanent theoretical entity.
And what is non-phenomellological theory that i t is able to reconfigure
the parameters o f perception so as to allow for the apprehension of such
phenomena?
u
A transce ndental adrenoc hro me .
74
' Adrenochronle ' :
nlythical
hallucinogen,
of
reputedly
(enifying
potency,
supposedly synthesized fro m the Jiving bod y' s p ituitary gland. The afte rmath o f an
adrenochrome binge is des cribed in Hunter S. Thompso n ' s Fear and Loathing ill Las
Vegas (London: Paladin, 1 972): "The room looked like the site of some disastrous
zoological experiment involving whiskey and gorillas. The ten-foot mirror was
shaltered, but still hanging together - bad evidence of that afternoon when my
attorney ran amok wilh the coconut
hammer, smashing
the mirror and
all the
lightbulbs [ . . . J The bathroom t100r was about six-inches deep with soap bars, vomit,
and grapefruit rinds
[ . . J crude pornogTaphic photos, ripped out of magazines like
.
Whores of Sweden and Orgies in the Casbah [ . . . J were plastered on the broken mirror
with smears of mustard that had dried to a hard yellow crust . . . and all these signs o f
violence, these s t range red and b l u e bulbs and shards o f broken glass embedded in the
wall plaster . . . No; these were not the hoofprints of your average god-fearing junkie.
l L was too savage, too aggressive. There was evidence in this room o f excessive
consumption of almost every type of drug known to civilized man since A.D. 1 544. It
could only be explained as a mo ntage, a sort of exaggerated medical exhibit, p u t
together v e r y carefully t o show w h a t might happen if twemY-lwo seriolls drug fe lons
- each with a different addiction - were pe nned up together in the same room for five
days and nights without relief."(pp.
1 67 - 1 72).