Parasitic Jedi

Abstract

The article clarifies the status of philosophy’s “dark turn.” The dark is positioned as a kind of principle of what is “non-” - as non-environmental (Timothy Morton), non-joyous (Andrew Culp), non-affirmative (Benjamin Noys) etc. - and is deprived of a dark model for its own production and regarded as a “distortion” of existing types of philosophical endeavor such as the production of concepts (Gilles Deleuze). The article develops a dark method for production of philosophy by focusing on techniques that permit switching between the light and the dark rather than invoking the conflict between them. Philosophy’s crossing over to the dark side indicates an economy of the meme incorporated into it, which leads to a reiteration in philosophy of the theme of confrontation between the dark and light sides. To deal with this, philosophy must attend to the meme itself and make a choice not between the light and dark side, but between various memes about the dark and the light. Diverse memes dedicated to the confrontation between the dark and the light refer to distinct ways of arranging the two sides. The demarcation is based on different attitudes toward thought and the external. The author argues that the main memological tension in philosophy is centered on a “Jedi” version of the confrontation, on the one hand, and a reflexive model of thought derived from it, on the other. The reflexive model is grounded in a harmonious (transcendental) relationship between Jedi and the Force that exists in the Star Wars universe. The author presents the possibility that the Jedi version of light may be superseded by a dark model for the meme about the two sides which makes reference to the “Night Watch” and “Day Watch” books and movies franchise, as well as to parasitic, more sub-reflexive than non-reflexive relations with the Twilight.