Reza Negarestani is an Iranian philosopher. He has contributed extensively to journals and anthologies and lectured at numerous international universities and institutes. His current philosophical project is focused on 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. He is the author of Cyclonopedia (re.press, 2008) and Intelligence and Spirit (Urbanomic/Sequence Press, 2018).
Articles
SUPPORT THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION 2026!
SIGN THE STATEMENT HERE The past several weeks have borne witness to a bloodbath in Iran amidst images of systematic massacre and horrific abuses of power by the Iranian government against its own people. As a united front, we stand together to uphold the following convictions: 1- That the Islamic Republic of Iran must come… Read More »
The Human Centipede II: Qatar & the Broker’s Cut
If my first The Human Centipede: A View From the Art World (2013) traced the art world as a closed alimentary circuit, this sequel begins where that circuit was sublimated into brokerage as a state-form with unmistakable political aspirations.[1] The same logic is now in the open for everyone to witness, wearing the grimace of… Read More »
ایران، بزرگترین دردسر: دربارهٔ سکوتِ مزمنِ بخشی از چپِ معاصر
با چیزی آغاز میکنم که در نگاه اول شبیه یک حاشیهروی است، یک خاطرهٔ قدیمیِ تلویزیونی که زمانی لبخند روی صورتِ ما میآورد. اما همین خاطره، مدلِ فشردهای از یک واکنشِ سیاسی است که مدام در ایران تکرار میشود. وقتی جوانتر بودم، سریالی بود به نام «روزی روزگاری». یک پدیده شد و واقعاً هم عالی… Read More »
Iran, the Greatest Inconvenience: On the Eternal Silence of a Contemporary Left
I begin with what looks like a detour, an old television memory that used to put a smile on our faces. It is also a compressed model of a political reflex that keeps repeating in Iran. When I was younger there was a series called Roozi Roozegari (Once Upon a Time). It became a phenomenon,… Read More »
Rational Inhumanism Vs Landian Anti-Philosophy*
This response is written for oral presentation and it is not going to be polite. It is intentionally polemical in places. The polemic is not affective garnish but a diagnostic instrument. When a position immunizes itself against reasons, politeness becomes a candid form of complicity. 1. Why return to an old essay now? I was… Read More »
The Human Centipede: A View From the Art World*
In time for the opening of Art Basel on June 13 and the release of Eduarda Neves’s Minor Bestiary next month as a more recent critique of contemporary art, we are publishing Reza Negarestani’s “The Human Centipede: A View From The Artworld.” Only delivered once in lecture format at e-flux, New York, in November 2013,… Read More »
A Vertiginous Enlightenment
(On James Webb Telescope)
In tandem with the launch of James Webb Space telescope and its journey to Lagrange point 2, we decided to republish this essay by Reza Negarestani from 2012. It was originally published in Savage Objects, ed. Godofredo Pereira (Guimarães: 2012). __ The James Webb Space Telescope (sometimes called JWST) is a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter… Read More »