Neofinalism

Raymond Ruyer (1902–1987) was a professor of philosophy at the UniversitÉ de Nancy. He was the author of over twenty books in French, including Elements of Psychobiology, The Genesis of Living Forms, and Cybernetics and the Origin of Information.Alyosha Edlebi is the translator of Theory of Identities by FranÇois Laruelle and Science Fiction and Extro-Science Fiction by Quentin MeillassouxMark B. N. Hansen is professor of literature at Duke University.

"Raymond Ruyer's work is remarkably prescient and provocative, providing a profound philosophy of life and evolution that deserves to be re-read today alongside contemporary vitalisms and new materialisms.  This is a significant text in the history and philosophy of science, skillfully translated by Alyosha Edlebi."-Claire Colebrook, Pennsylvania State University"Raymond Ruyer is a rare, unsung genius, equally at home in the biological, physical, and technical sciences as he is in philosophy and the humanities. Neofinalism is one of those books that change the way we think. He draws our attention to the fact that matter and life are not just random collections but are matter directed by an ideal, a memory that informs all primary forms, all forms of consciousness. More than any other thinker, he opens up the concept of consciousness to all its inhuman ingredients and orientations."-Elizabeth Grosz, Duke University

• ContentsIntroduction: Form and Phenomenon in Raymond Ruyer's PhilosophyMark B. N. Hansen1. The Axiological Cogito2. Description of Finalist Activity3. Finalist Activity and Organic Life4. The Contradictions of Biological Antifinalism5. Finalist Activity and the Nervous System6. The Brain and the Embryo7. Signification of Equipotentiality8. The Reciprocal Illusion of Incarnation and “Material” Existence9. “Absolute Surfaces” and Absolute Domains of Survey10. Absolute Domains and Bonds11. Absolute Domains and Finality12. The Region of the Transspatial and the Transindividual13. The Levels of the Transspatial and Finalist Activity14. The Beings of the Physical World and the Fibrous Structure of the Universe15. The Neo-Materialist Theories16. Neo-Darwinism and Natural Selection17. Neo-Darwinism and Genetics18. Organicism and the Dynamism of Finality19. Psycho-Lamarckism20. Theology of FinalitySummaryTranslator's Afterword: The Ends of ThoughtAlyosha EdlebiNotesIndex