Maxim V. SpivakovInstitute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences
Goncharnaya Ulitsa, 12 стр.1, Moscow, Russia, 109240
PhD student, department of aesthetics
e-mail: textandpictures@gmail.com
ORCID: 0000-0003-1786-8941
Intelligent Mold, Sprawled on the Rocks of Distant Planets. Ewald Ilyenkov’s Philosophy and Inhuman ReasonAbstract: This article analyzes the elements of Ewald Ilyenkov's philosophy in the context of contemporary debates on the problem of the inhuman. Ilyenkov's earlier “The Cosmology of Spirit” (written in mid 1950s), which was only published posthumously (1988), explores the phenomenon of thinking in the horizon of entropic processes and universal self-destruction. The radical hypothesis of the “Cosmology of the Spirit” is analyzed in the light of the essential connection between the project of Enlightenment humanism and a planetary finitude (Ray Brassier). Ilyenkov's political cosmology links the communist project with the logic of the becoming and decay of the universe. The treatise may be read as an anticipation and antithesis of the key theses of “speculative realism” (Quentin Meillassoux). As he addresses the prehuman (and thus nonhuman) past of the universe, Meillassoux argues for the possibility of speculation of a world devoid of thinking. By contrast, Ilyenkov’s hypothesis contends thought as an indispensable attribute of matter from the cosmological perspective of a nonhuman future. The problematization of the planetary finitude of humanity allows us to turn to discussions of the machine implementation of reason as the necessary inhuman accomplishment of Enlightenment humanism (Reza Negarestani). In this respect, it is possible to link the radical conclusions of Ilyenkov's “The Cosmology of Spirit” with his later texts devoted to a critique of cybernetics and the project of artificial intelligence. Despite the apparent divergence in expectations about the possibility and necessity of machine implementation of reason, Negarestani's and Ilyenkov’s initial premise and argumentations in many ways overlap and can be thus read as mutually complementary.
Key words: Evald Ilyenkov, Reza Negarestani, Quentin Meillassoux, Inhuman, Speculative Realism, Neorationalism, Artificial Intelligence, Cybernetics.
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For Citation: Spivakov, M. Intelligent Mold, Sprawled on the Rocks of Distant Planets. Ewald Ilyenkov’s Philosophy and Inhuman Reason. International Journal of Cultural Research, 4 (45). 21–34. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2021_4_21
DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2021_4_21
