Philosophy, the oldest superstition
Philosophy, the oldest superstition

Summary/Abstract: The article examines the history, essence, and current state of philosophy, based on the views of François Laruelle, the founder of non-philosophy, who believes that philosophy is the oldest superstition. The article is divided into five parts: Closure, Impossibility, Imma-nence, Vertigo of Immanence, and Spectral Dialectics. In the first section, titled Closure, the article discusses the origins of philosophy in ancient Greece, its assimilation into metaphys-ics, and the implications this has had for the fate of philosophy in the Western tradition. Additionally, the article raises questions about the essence of philosophy and the possibility of a non-metaphysical philosophy. The second section, titled Impossibility, explores the no-tion that it is impossible to conceive of anything truly distinct or foreign to philosophy, such as what might be considered transcendent or beyond it. The third section, Immanence, fo-cuses on the transition of philosophy towards immanence, using the philosophies of Michel Henry, Gilles Deleuze, and Alain Badiou as examples. The fourth section, Vertigo of Imma-nence, explores the prospect of surpassing philosophy, drawing from Martin Heidegger’s late philosophy (the phenomenology of the inapparent) and Laruelle’s non-philosophy. Building on the preceding sections, the final part of the article suggests a way of conceiving contem-porary thought as spectral dialectics, comprising three elements: spectral phenomenology, spectral theory, and spectral performativity.

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