Speculative realism

Speculative realists, who often disagree with each other regarding basic philosophical issues, are united by a criticism of the philosophy of human limb - a tradition dating back to Immanuel Kant. The four main participants in the movement are united by an attempt to overcome both correlationism , ^[5] and the philosophy of privileged access . In the essay “Time without becoming” ^[5], Quentin Meyasu gives a commentary on his work “After Finiteness,” explaining his definition of correlationism and justifying that all philosophy preceding speculative realism made the same mistake.

By correlationism (from Latin correlatio “correlation, interconnection”), speculative realists mean a subject-object relationship, a connection between consciousness and being . Quentin Meyasu is sure that “there are no objects, events, laws, entities that would not always be correlated with a point of view, subjective access” and that being is associated with thinking a priori: “Correlation is based on an argument that is both simple and strong, which can be to formulate as follows: there can be no X without a given X, and no theory about X without putting X. If you talk about something, then the correlationist will say that you are talking about what is given to you and is supposed by you. ” ^[6]

In “Time without becoming,” Quentin Meyasu pays much attention to the prehistoric problem, which, in his opinion, could be anti-correlationist. A speculative materialist models the situation from the past, proposing to trace the absence of any correlation at times when there was no life on Earth at all. Meyyasu claims that without a subject, the reality we knew could have completely different characteristics, that in this reality, space and time were different in essence: “How could we understand the meaning of time and space without a subject who is aware of the past, present and future, or the difference between right and left? And first of all, how could we find out about this if we are not able to see what the world is like when no one perceives it? ”

Privileged access philosophies are similar in essence to correlationist, since they mean those philosophical teachings that give a person privileges in comparison with other subjects. Thus, privileged access philosophies and correlationism are forms of anthropocentrism .

All four thinkers are trying to "turn" those philosophical teachings that give a person privileges; speculative realists advocate various forms of realism or materialism (Quentin Meyasu) against the forms of idealism that dominate for the most part in philosophy.

In his criticism of correlationism, Quentin Meyasu (he uses the term “speculative materialism” to describe his position) finds two principles that are basic to Kant's philosophy. The first is the principle of correlation, which, in essence, claims that we can only talk about the correlation between thinking and being; and what lies beyond is incomprehensible. The second principle of Meyasu is defined by the concept of contingency, by which he means pure “opportunity-thing-to-be-another,” which should not be confused with simple chance and transience. Correlation denies the concept of the Absolute, but according to Meyasu, only the factual nature of the correlation can be absolute, from which Meyasu derives the concept of absolute contingency. Kant adhered to the principle of correlation in his defense of "thing-in-himself" as unknowable but conceivable. We can imagine reality as something fundamentally different, even if we never know such a reality. According to Mayas, the defense of both principles leads to weak correlationism (for example, for Kant and Husserl), while the rejection of the thing-in-itself leads to strong correlationism (for example, for Wittgenstein and Heidegger).

The main principle of the object-oriented ontology of Graham Harman and Levy Bryant is that in philosophy the concept of an object was ignored in favor of a “radical philosophy” that tries to “undermine” objects, saying that the idea of ​​an entire object is only a form of folk ontology. According to Harman, everything is an object, whether it is a mailbox, electromagnetic radiation, curved space-time, or the Commonwealth of Nations; all things, whether physical or fictional, are equally objects. For Harman, there are two types of objects: real objects and sensory objects that allow interaction. The former are the things of everyday life, and the latter are caricatures that mediate interaction.

Ian Hamilton Grant defends the position that he calls transcendental materialism. He opposes what he means as “somatism” - the philosophy and physics of bodies. In his Philosophies of Nature After Schelling, Grant tells a new history of philosophy from Plato, based on the definition of matter. Aristotle made a distinction between form and matter, believing that matter was invisible to philosophy, while Grant advocated a return to Platonic understanding of matter, which is not only the main building material of reality, but also the force, energy that govern our reality. He cites the same argument for post-Kantian German idealists - Fichte and Schelling, arguing that the distinction between matter as an objective and useful invention remains to this day, and that we must stop refuting Plato, and instead refute Kant, return to "speculative physics" in Platonic tradition, that is, not to the physics of the body, but to the "physics of the whole."

Eugene Tucker investigated how the concept of “life” is defined in the framework of regional philosophy, and how this concept acquires metaphysical properties. His book “After life” shows how the ontology of life works by contrasting the terms life and living , making possible a “metaphysical bias” in which life is conceived using another metaphysical term, such as time, form or spirit: “every life ontology thinks of life from the point of view of something other than life ... that something other than life is most often a metaphysical concept, such as time and temporality, form and causality, or spirit and immanence. ” Tucker traces this topic from Aristotle to Scholasticism and mysticism, negative theology, Spinoza and Kant, demonstrating how this threefold bias is alive in modern philosophy to this day (life as time in process philosophy and Deleuzianism, life as a form in the study of biopolitics, life as a spirit in postsecular philosophies of religion). Tucker explores the relation of speculative realism to the ontology of life using the term “vitalistic correlation”: “for example, vitalistic correlation does not preserve the correlationist dual need for separation and inseparability of thought and object, I and the world, and does this on the basis of some ontologized concept of“ life ”.” Ultimately, Tucker advocates skepticism about “life”: “Life is not only a problem of philosophy, but also a problem for philosophy.”

Other philosophers who appeared in this group and united in their fidelity to what was designated as "process philosophy" follow the work of thinkers such as Schelling, Bergson, Whitehead and Deleuze. A recent example can be found in Stephen Shaviro's book “Without Criteria: Kant, Whitehead, Deleuze and Aesthetics.” These authors advocated an approach based on the philosophy of the process, which entailed an appeal equally to the ideas of panpsychism, vitalism, or animism. Another recent example can be found in Jane Bennett's book “Vibrant matter,” which states the transition from human relations to things to vibrating matter that crosses living and non-living, human and non-human bodies. Leon Nemochinsky in his book “Charles Sanders Pierce and the Religious Metaphysics of Nature” develops “speculative naturalism”: nature can afford to penetrate its infinitely productive “vibrating” soil, which the author identifies as Natura naturans .

In his Nihil Unbound: Extinction and Enlightenment, Ray Brasier defines his position as transcendental nihilism. He argues that philosophy avoids the traumatic idea of ​​the extinction of all living things, instead trying to find meaning in a world conditioned only by the idea of ​​its own decay. Thus, Brasier criticizes both the phenomenological and hermeneutic trends of continental philosophy, as well as the viability of thinkers such as, for example, Gilles Deleuze, who seek to bring meaning to the world and prevent the “threat” of nihilism. Instead, relying on thinkers such as Alain Badiou, Francois Laruelle, Paul Churchland and Thomas Metzinger, Brassier defends the view of the world as originally meaningless. That is, instead of avoiding nihilism, Brasier perceives it as the truth of reality. Under the influence of Badiou and Laruelle Brasier, he came to the conclusion that the universe arose from nothing, and then concluded that philosophy is the “organ of extinction," since life is caused by its own extinction. Thus, Brasier defends a radically anti-correlation philosophy, arguing that Thought is connected not with Being, but with Nothingness.

• Brassier, Ray, Iain Hamilton Grant, Graham Harman, and Quentin Meillassoux. 2007. "Speculative Realism" in Collapse III: Unknown Deleuze . London: Urbanomic. (unavailable link from 12-05-2013 [2299 days])
• Brassier, Ray. 2007. Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction . London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Brassier, Ray. 2007. “The Enigma of Realism” in Collapse II: Speculative Realism . London: Urbanomic.
• Brassier, Ray. 2001. “Behold the Non-Rabbit: Kant, Quine, Laruelle” in Pli 12: Materialism .
• Braver, Lee. 2007. A Thing of This World: A History of Continental Anti-Realism . Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
• Bryant, Levi, Graham Harman, and Nick Srnicek. 2011. The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism . Melbourne: Re.Press.
• Ennis, Paul J. 2011. Continental Realism . Winchester, UK: Zero Books.
• Ennis, Paul J. 2010. Post-Continental Voice: Selected Interviews . Winchester, UK: Zero Books.
• Grant, Iain Hamilton. 2008. Philosophies of Nature After Schelling . London: Continuum.
• Grant, Iain Hamilton. 2008. “Being and Slime: The Mathematics of Protoplasm in Lorenz Oken's 'Physio-Philosophy'” in Collapse IV: Concept-Horror . London: Urbanomic.
• Grant, Iain Hamilton. 2005. “The 'Eternal and Necessary Bond Between Philosophy and Physics'” in Angelaki 10.1.
• Grant, Iain Hamilton. 2000. "The Chemistry of Darkness" in Pli 9: Science .
• Huber, Tobias. 2011. Realismus Jetzt . Berlin: Merve Verlag.
• Harman, Graham. 2011. Quentin Meillassoux: Philosophy in the Making . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
• Harman, Graham. 2011. The Quadruple Object . Winchester, UK: Zero Books.
• Harman, Graham. 2010. Circus Philosophicus . Winchester, UK: Zero Books.
• Harman, Graham. 2010. Towards Speculative Realism: Essays and Lectures . Winchester, UK: Zero Books.
• Harman, Graham. 2009. Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics . Melbourne: Re.Press.
• Harman, Graham. 2008. “On the Horror of Phenomenology: Lovecraft and Husserl” in Collapse IV: Concept-Horror . London: Urbanomic.
• Harman, Graham. 2007. “On Vicarious Causation” in Collapse II: Speculative Realism . London: Urbanomic.
• Harman, Graham. 2005. Guerilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Carpentry of Things . Chicago: Open Court.
• Harman, Graham. 2002. Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects . Chicago: Open Court
• Meillassoux, Quentin. 2008. After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency . Trans. Ray Brassier. London: Continuum.
• Meillassoux, Quentin. 2008. Spectral Dilemma in Collapse IV: Concept-Horror . London: Urbanomic.
• Meillassoux, Quentin. 2007. "Subtraction and Contraction: Deleuze, Immanence and Matter and Memory" in Collapse III: Unknown Deleuze . London: Urbanomic.
• Meillassoux, Quentin. 2007. "Potentiality and Virtuality" in Collapse II: Speculative Realism . London: Urbanomic.

• Collapse is a magazine containing speculative realist publications.
• Speculations is a magazine dedicated to speculative realism.
• Speculative Heresy is a blog that posts a lot of directional content.
• Speculative Realism Guide (in English).
• Post-Continental Voices is a collection of interviews by various authors, including speculative realists.
•   - community in LiveJournal (in Russian).

• Graham Harman
• Ian Hamilton Grant