His project, known as “non-philosophy”, begins with the assertion that all forms of philosophy are structured around a foundational decision to split the world dialectically in order to approach it philosophically, but that one cannot grasp that decision itself using the same means. His work has ties to Marxism, psychoanalysis, Gnosticism, and science fiction; he has written extensively about aesthetics and the concept of “non-photography”

François Laruelle attended the École Normale Supérieure in Saint-Cloud, was a program director at the Collège International de Philosophie from 1986-1989, and taught at the Université Paris X – Nanterre. He has been called “the most important unknown philosopher working in Europe today.” His latest works, Struggle & Utopia at the End Times of Philosophy and Photo-Fiction, a Non-Standard Aesthetics, will be released by Minneapolis-based Univocal Publishing in October and November.

This event is made possible by Univocal Publishing, the Theory Reading Group, the Weisman Art Museum, Midway Contemporary Art, and the Dept. of French & Italian, U of M. Support for the artist and curatorial lecture series at Midway Contemporary Art is generously provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.