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Negative faith: the heretical writings of Valéry, Bataille and Laruelle 10.17863/CAM.91093 Le Gargasson, Mathias James, Ian The aim of this thesis is to outline a new concept: negative faith. Negative faith is an unsayable, unknowable faith without an object, a form of energeia that explains the existence of what can be called impossible texts. Negative theology, Valéry’s Cahiers, Bataille’s more mystical works and Laruelle’s non-philosophy all revolve around non-referents such as God, the One or the Real. Nothing can be said or known about these non-referents, and yet this corpus is written almost exclusively around them, creating a seemingly unsolvable paradox. This thesis argues these texts are completely empty in an epistemological sense, but that their essence resides beyond the words themselves, the texts undergoing a form of self-destruction upon being read. They are radical heresies that disregard the traditional framework of reason, logic and scientific positivism to explore what in humans does not belong to the World. Taking root in both theological and philosophical traditions, from Pseudo Denys to Meister Eckhart, from Plotinus to Derrida, this thesis attempts to translate into academic terms the mystical and unfathomable role of this negative faith that unites these authors in what can be called an idempotent, immanent community. University of Cambridge 2021-09-30 Thesis Doctoral Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) eng https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/343668 https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/1c7723f4-64e1-4689-885c-c44effae4a50/download 0f3ebe15a3547b837697362a09cba7b0 https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/ Negative theology Philosophy Laruelle Bataille Valéry Heresy Metaphysics Pseudo Dionysius Meister Eckhart