Principles of Non-Philosophy is a treatise on the method, axioms and objectives of non-philosophy. The book represents François Laruelle's mature philosophy, bringing together all the elements of his thought developed over the preceding twenty years and laying the foundations for his later work. Arguably Laruelle's magnum opus, the book contains a history of the development of non-philosophy, a novel conception of science, a discussion of non-philosophical causality, and new theories of the subject and object of thought.

As well as presenting the method and principles of non-philosophy, the book introduces Laruelle's novel theory of 'non-epistemology' or 'unified theory of thought'; in other words his transformation of what is normally referred to as epistemology or philosophy of science. Here philosophy and science are used to challenge each other and are used in the creation of new theories that break out of the trap of philosophy's narcissistic practices and the narrowness of scientific research. This allows Laruelle to develop a new practice of thought, from the Real rather than a realism, that changes the way we think about the traditional philosophical problem of subject and object.