Reza Negarestani (born 1977) is an Iranian philosopher and writer, known for "pioneering the genre of 'theory-fiction' with his book" ''Cyclonopedia'' which was published in 2008. It was listed in
Artforum
''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ x 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...
as one of the best books of 2009. Negarestani directs the critical philosophy programme at The New Centre for Research & Practice.
Philosophical work
Negarestani has been a regular contributor to ''
Collapse
Collapse or its variants may refer to:
Concepts
* Collapse (structural)
* Collapse (topology), a mathematical concept
* Collapsing manifold
* Collapse, the action of collapsing or telescoping objects
* Collapsing user interface elements
** A ...
'', as well as other print and web publications such as ''
Ctheory''. On March 11, 2011, faculty from
Brooklyn College and
The New School
The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...
organized a symposium to discuss Cyclonopedia titled Leper Creativity. Later on in the year,
Punctum books published a book with the same title that included essays, articles, artworks, and documents from or related to the symposium. In 2011, he co-edited Collapse's issue VII with Robin Mackay titled "Culinary Materialism". In 2012, Negarestani collaborated with
Florian Hecker
Florian Hecker was born in 1975 in Augsburg, Germany. He was raised in Kissing, Germany and studied Computational Linguistics and Psycholinguistics at Ludwig Maximilian Universität, Munich and Fine Arts at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vi ...
on an artwork titled "Chimerization" that was included in the
dOCUMENTA (13) exhibition. He has since written librettos for a series of full-length albums based on Hecker's concept of 'chimerization'.
After being associated with the philosophical movement of
speculative realism
Speculative realism is a movement in contemporary Continental-inspired philosophy (also known as post-Continental philosophy) that defines itself loosely in its stance of metaphysical realism against its interpretation of the dominant forms of ...
for several years, Negarestani has since lectured and written about
rationalist universalism beginning with the evolution of the modern system of knowledge and advancing toward contemporary philosophies of rationalism, their procedures as well as their demands for special forms of human conduct.
After going through different philosophical phases starting with
Nick Land
Nick Land (born 17 January 1962) is an English philosopher, theorist, short story writer and blogger. He has been described as "the father of accelerationism", and his work has been tied to the development of speculative realism. He was a leade ...
and subsequently
speculative realism
Speculative realism is a movement in contemporary Continental-inspired philosophy (also known as post-Continental philosophy) that defines itself loosely in its stance of metaphysical realism against its interpretation of the dominant forms of ...
, Negarestani turned to rationalist inhumanism, according to which the concept of the human is under-explored and is a matter of theoretical and practical investigation, the results of which will lead to a thoroughgoing new conception of the human that stands in opposition to classical versions of
humanism
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
and human
essentialism. Research paradigms such as artificial general intelligence and neuroscience, according to Negarestani, provide insights as how the concept of the human is underdeveloped and must be understood as a subject of critical construction. Accordingly, Negarestani's philosophical project deals with what he calls a philosophy of intelligence as in contrast to the philosophy of mind. For Negarestani, the philosophy of intelligence goes beyond the philosophy of mind insofar as the concept of intelligence is beholden to a system of socially constituted thoughts and practices through which the intelligible is recognized. However, for Negarestani the term remains a philosophically vague concept, an
explicandum
Explication (german: Explikation) is the process of drawing out the meaning of something which is not clearly defined, so as to make explicit what is currently left implicit. The term ''explication'' is used in both analytic philosophy and literar ...
. With a nod to
Rudolf Carnap
Rudolf Carnap (; ; 18 May 1891 – 14 September 1970) was a German-language philosopher who was active in Europe before 1935 and in the United States thereafter. He was a major member of the Vienna Circle and an advocate of logical positivism. ...
's project of
explication
Explication (german: Explikation) is the process of drawing out the meaning of something which is not clearly defined, so as to make explicit what is currently left implicit. The term ''explication'' is used in both analytic philosophy and literar ...
, Negarestani instead proposes a conceptual engineering whereby the concept of intelligence is progressively replaced by its explicata, or refined concepts which methodically address different issues with regard to the question of "what is intelligence". For Negarestani, such issues span ontological, epistemological, methodological, technical and axiological concerns. Negarestani's emphasis on the necessary link between what we mean by intelligence and what it takes to render the world intelligible borrows elements from
transcendental philosophy
In philosophy, transcendence is the basic ground concept from the word's literal meaning (from Latin), of climbing or going beyond, albeit with varying connotations in its different historical and cultural stages. It includes philosophies, syste ...
,
German idealism
German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionary ...
and systematic
skepticism
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...
.
Negarestani's blog, Toy Philosophy, "focus
son various threads—some still loose and some already converged—of
isphilosophical research".
Bibliography
Books
*
Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials' (Re.Press, 2008)
*(edited with Robin Mackay)
Collapse Volume VII: Culinary Materialism' (Urbanomic, 2012)
*
Torture Concrete: Jean-Luc Moulène and the Protocol of Abstraction' (Sequence Press, 2014)
*
Intelligence and Spirit' (Urbanomic x Sequence Press, 2018)
*
Abducting the Outside: Collected Writings 2003–2020' (Urbanomic. Sequence Press, 2021)
*
Chronosis' (Urbanomic, 2021)
References
External links
"Toy philosophy", Reza Negarestani's blogInterview with Fabio Gironi at Nero EditionsConversation with Robin Mackay at UrbanomicThe Question of WillThree Nightmares of the Inductive MindInhuman Symposium at FridericianumCybernetics: Intelligence and Imagination at École normale supérieure
{{DEFAULTSORT:Negarestani, Reza
Continental philosophers
Living people
21st-century Iranian philosophers
1977 births
Weird fiction writers