Overview

Originally published in 1995, this book constitutes a turning point in the development of what Francois Laruelle calls non-philosophy, towards its democratic and emancipatory vision. In this work, Laruelle utilises his non-philosophical theory to develop unified theoretical analyses into philosophy's relationship with the humanities, politics and psychoanalysis. Centred on the figure of the Stranger, he argues for a democratic reformation of thought governed by human multitudes. The new field of thought is opened by this Universal Humanity, identified with three different pathways: a science of people and non-humanism, democracy and non-politics, and non-psychoanalysis as the development of a Universal Unconscious.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jeremy R. Smith ,  François Laruelle
Publisher:   Edinburgh University Press
Imprint:   Edinburgh University Press
ISBN:  

9781399549233

ISBN 10:   1399549235
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   31 January 2026
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Not yet available  
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Language:   French

Table of Contents

Welcoming the Stranger that One is: Translator's Introduction Programme: Which One is the Stranger? A New Idea Problematic: On Man as a Scientific Continent Homo Sive Scientia Unitary Theory and Unified Theory of Philosophy and the Human Sciences On Philosophy as the Superior Form of Bio-Technology On the Indivisibility of Man as a Theoretical Object On Man as a Cause For Science From Man as the Cause for Science to the Science of People Science and Meta-Science Chapter I: Principles of a Science of People as the Unified Theory of Philosophy and the Human Sciences The Principle of a Future Science That Would Present Itself as Human The Duality of the Givennesses of Man: the Human-Given-without-Givenness and Meta-Human Givenness The Non-Donative Ego or Vision-in-Man The Givenness of Meta-Human Knowledges and its Relative Autonomy The Object of Science: Universal Humanity or Strangers The Ego, The Stranger, Science On the Science of People as the 'Unified Theory' of Man The cogito sum of Man as Stranger The Stranger as the Subject of the Science of People and Democracy Against Dogmatism: A 'Non-Copernican' and 'Non-Rousseauist' Mutation On the Good Use of the Human Sciences: Meta-Language, Material, and Model From 'The Anthropological Demon' to the Stranger 'Non-Humanism' and the Critique of Humanist Imagery Transforming the Knowledge of Man, Rather Than Man Himself Chapter II: Principles of Democracy as the Unified Theory of Philosophy and the Stranger On the Science of the Essence of Man as the Science of Strangers: The Theorem of Democracy The Ego-Xeno-Logical Constitution of Philosophy: On the Stranger as Difference or Identity Philosophical Xenophobology and its Practical and Theoretical Difficulties The Principal Theorem of a Science of People as Strangers Demonstration of the Theorem of Being-Stranger On the Theory of Strangers as Mathesis Transcendentalis: The Real Axiomatic Against Egology The Stranger Within the Bounds of the Science of People The Identity of the Stranger The Two Concepts of the Stranger and the Dissolution of Their Amphibology The Body (of) the Stranger as a Subjective Body in-the-Last-Instance and Organon of the Ego The Stranger as Void, Law, and 'Multitudo Transcendentalis': The Concept of 'Human Multitudes The Stranger as Specifically Human Being 1. The Subject as Subject (of) the Stranger 2. The Identity of-the-Last-Instance of the Fundamental and Regional Chapter III: Principles of Non-Psychoanalysis as the Unified Theory of Philosophy and Psychoanalysis First Section: The Stakes of Non-Psychoanalysis First Terms and Algorithm of Non-Analysis The Non-Analytic Generalisation of Psychoanalysis: A Mathesis Transcendentalis of the Unconscious The Forgetting of the Real or the Joui 1. The Greco-Judaic Antinomy of Psychoanalysis 2. Psychoanalysis as Restrained Analysis The Universal Unconscious and the Phenomenon of Unilateral Loss The Unified Theory of the Unconscious as Non(-)Self-Signifying: From Analysis to Dualysis A Transcendental Pragmatics of Psychoanalysis as A Priori of Experience The Philosophico-Analytic Appearance of Psychoanalysis: The Non-Analyst as Analyst-of-the- Last-Instance Which One Resists? Indifference and Resistance Second Section: Explanation of the Theorem of Non-Analysis The Real or the Joui-sans-Jouissance Jouissance 1. As Organon of the Real 2. As Jouissance (of) the Other or Intrinsically Unconscious The Philosophico-Analytic Complex as a Symptom for Non-Analysis First Aspect of Jouissance: Non-Platonic Desire and the Solution to the Analytic Antinomy of 'jouissance' and 'Desire' Second Aspect of Jouissance: the Universal or Transcendental Unconscious as Jouissance (of the) Void The Essence (of) the Unconscious: The Dual or the Non(-)Self-Signifying Signifier The Dual Logic of the Unconscious Jouissance and Subject 1. The 'Subject of the Unconscious' as Absolute Subjectivity 2. Jouissance as Subject (of) the Unconscious 3. The 'Subject of the Unconscious' as the Foreclosure of Jouissance The Philosophical Triangulation of Psychoanalysis From objet a to objet m: The Unilateral Concept of Loss The Constitution of 'Phantasmatic Desire' The Identity of the Non-Analyst: the Sembled and the Semblant, and the Performational Identity of Theory and Practice The Non-Analyst's Phantasy: The Facticity of the objet m as a Support of Jouissance The Body (of) Jouissance: Analysis as the Incomplete Critique of Philosophy Unitary Narcissism and the Narcissism of Jouissance: System and Theory Non-Castration: Transcendental Incest and Detriangulation The Transcendental Phallic Identity: Saving the Phenomenon of Desire and the Pragmatics of Sexual Difference Transcendent Sublime and the Transcendental Sublime The Amphibology of the Concept of Identification: Identity and Identification Index

Reviews

At last, this key text by Laruelle has been made available to English language readers in this fine translation by Jeremy R. Smith. We, the strangers of non-philosophy, will be forever in his debt. -- Jonathan Fardy, Idaho State University A cornerstone for Laruelle’s non-standard philosophy, Theory of Strangers marks crucial interventions in current psychoanalysis, ethics, politics, and the human sciences. Jeremy R. Smith’s precise and knowledgeable translation brings Laruelle’s challenging and microscopically inventive text alive in English, giving new breath and spark to settled theory. -- Rocco Gangle, Endicott College

At last, this key text by Laruelle has been made available to English language readers in this fine translation by Jeremy R. Smith. We, the strangers of non-philosophy, will be forever in his debt. -- Jonathan Fardy, Idaho State University

Author Information

Jeremy R. Smith is an independent researcher and translator. He is the co-founder of Oraxiom: A Journal of Non-Philosophy. He has translated several articles by Francois Laruelle as well as Anne-Françoise Schmid. François Laruelle (1937-2024) was Emeritus Professor of philosophy at University of Paris X: Nanterre and instigator of the movement known as “non-philosophy” or “non-standard philosophy.” Laruelle was the director of L’Organisation Non-Philosophique Internationale. Author of over thirty texts, Laruelle’s work has been translated into English, Greek, Russian, Chinese, and Portuguese.

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