[-empyre-] Meillassoux / Harman

Timothy Morton timothymorton303 at gmail.com
Wed Jun 27 14:12:28 EST 2012


Hi---each entity (a thought, an amethyst geode, a bartender) emits spacetime just as Einstein argued . Graham's The Quadruple Object and my not yet out Realist Magic go into this. 

Each entity "times" in the way Heidegger reserves for Da-sein and Derrida reserves to the trace. 

Time and space are not neutral containers but are emergent properties of beings. 

Tim



http://www.ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com

On Jun 25, 2012, at 3:15 PM, davin heckman <davinheckman at gmail.com> wrote:

> You are right....  I should do more reading.  I find the thoughts
> engaging and, since I am in transit, I am eager to get more
> information where I can.
> 
> Ultimately, underneath my questions, I suppose, are some thoughts on
> relationality and time.  You have all of these things that have to do
> with chairs, but only the chair is the chair.  And there are these
> things that have to do with chairs, but which are real in their own
> right.  But an idea about a chair kind of flickers in and out of
> consciousness, never having a discrete edge, and only become something
> definitive when their edges are marked out in some way. It's tempting
> to think that one's writing about a thought is separate from the
> thought itself, but typically the act of writing or performing a
> thought tends to calcify and reinforce it through a feedback loop.
> Every time one thinks about a chair, one does not invent a new object.
> Similar to a computer program pulling modular entities and reusing
> them again and again, our thoughts repeat the concept in our
> imagination.  On the other hand, imaginary iterations are not the same
> as digital iterations.  Less like a computer, we pull the modular
> concept into action and interpret it with a variety of tones.  I
> wouldn't want to say these singular thoughts don't exist, but on the
> other hand, they don't have the same reality as those thoughts which
> are articulated and taken up into collective discourse....  and even
> still, a discursive "thing" gains a level of significance when it
> represents some empirical process.
> 
> I care about this because a chair changes from one moment to the next.
> It becomes materially altered as time unfolds, yet we are comfortable
> saying that the chair on day one is that chair on day five.  In other
> words, each moment does not unleash a separate chair.  In my mind,
> "weight" might be its subjective intensity, its empirical durability,
> its social hegemony, its procedural utility, its digital ubiquity, its
> aesthetic elegance....  though none of these qualities are directly
> analogous to the other, suggesting that there are a variety of types
> of being.
> 
> All these thoughts are a jumble....  I'll take your advice and do some reading.
> 
> Davin
> 
> On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 11:28 AM, Ian Bogost <ian.bogost at lcc.gatech.edu> wrote:
>> A chair is a chair. A picture of a chair is a picture of a chair. A
>> definition of a chair is a definition of a chair. None are all chairs, but
>> all have something to do with chairs. At least, that's the OOO contention.
>> There are no planes of existence… except for Harman (and Tim, to some
>> extent), who distinguishes sensual from real objects. For Graham, the idea
>> of a chair is different from the real chair, which recedes from all
>> encounters. I think this is maybe the conclusion you arrive at in your
>> second paragraph below.
>> 
>> NOTHING about OOO privileges the material (i.e., the tangible, physical)
>> chair primacy over the others. As for "the same weight" — well, that depends
>> on what you mean by "weight." What do you mean?
>> 
>> I hate to say it, but it's maybe not possible to make further progress
>> without reading some of this material in depth…
>> 
>> Ian
>> 
>> On Jun 25, 2012, at 3:13 AM, davin heckman wrote:
>> 
>> Ian and Tim,
>> 
>> Do the differences with which we treat objects syncs up with
>> ontological difference, and thus, is there something to some of the
>> different categorizations we could possibly develop for objects?
>> 
>> I do think there is plenty of room to see these things from a fresh
>> perspective, but I also wonder if not, for instance, Kosuth's chairs
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_and_Three_Chairs> highlight the ways
>> that discrete objects can differ from each other, but also the ways in
>> which there are consistencies that can yoke them together in odd ways.
>> A picture of a chair is not a chair, a definition of chair is not a
>> chair, instructions about a chair is not a chair, a chair as a
>> sculpture is not necessarily a chair.....  yet, in some fundamental
>> way, all are chairs.... in a general sense of their concept and
>> recognition.  Put all three things together, and you have a "chair"
>> which occupies all three planes of existence simultaneously.  On the
>> other hand, they can occupy niches within conceptual frameworks (a
>> chair within a game, for instance, can be very "real" to the other
>> objects in the game).
>> 
>> Each way of recognizing the chair (the picture, instructions, the
>> chair as chair, chair as sculpture, three chairs as conceptual work,
>> etc) would suggest that each is a distinct object in some sense, which
>> makes me wonder then, whether or not all other possible thoughts about
>> a chair have being, or if we afford the material object of the chair
>> primacy.  In which case, does a digital rendering of the chair carry
>> the same weight as an unexpressed idea about a chair, too.  At some
>> point, doesn't ontology lead into this thicket?
>> 
>> Davin
>> 
>> On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 9:08 PM, Ian Bogost <ian.bogost at lcc.gatech.edu>
>> wrote:
>> 
>> There is no reason why holding that everything exists equally entails
>> 
>> "reducing all that can be known about a being to a simple recognition of
>> 
>> being."
>> 
>> 
>> Ian
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Jun 24, 2012, at 5:44 AM, davin heckman wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> I agree, this is a good starting point....  that all things that exist
>> 
>> have being as their common condition of existence (that is, they are
>> 
>> not "not beings"), which is a sort of foundational ontological
>> 
>> similarity.  But if the only significant ontological claim we can make
>> 
>> about things is either yes or no, do they exist or not, then this
>> 
>> means all things carry this single quality, which is to say that there
>> 
>> is no difference between things.  If we admit difference, then we must
>> 
>> account for those differences in meaningful ways.  For instance,
>> 
>> waffle #1 differs from waffle #2 in a different way than waffle #1
>> 
>> differs from a toaster (or waffle #1 changes in the course of being
>> 
>> eaten, it is still in one meaningful sense the "same" waffle after it
>> 
>> has been bitten, but in another sense, it is a different waffle, too.
>> 
>> While both toasters and waffles are different from something like an
>> 
>> idea or a "memory" rendered in media (a waffle recipe or story about
>> 
>> waffles) or a process habituated in muscle memory (the habit of making
>> 
>> a waffle or eating one).
>> 
>> 
>> My concern is that if we reduce all that can be known about being to a
>> 
>> simple recognition of being, we commit to a kind of abstraction and
>> 
>> alienation from being of the sort that happens when markets try to
>> 
>> mediate everything through the common denominator of dollars.
>> 
>> 
>> Davin
>> 
>> 
>> On Sat, Jun 23, 2012 at 4:46 PM, Timothy Morton
>> 
>> <timothymorton303 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Hi Davin,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> We obviously treat different entities differently.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> But this is not the same as saying that these entities are ontologically
>> 
>> different.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Yours, Tim
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.ecologywithoutnature.blogspot.com
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Jun 20, 2012, at 5:51 AM, davin heckman <davinheckman at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Thank you Ian, for these thoughts.  My initial encounter with this
>> 
>> 
>> work came via a brief discussion of "flat ontology," which I found
>> 
>> 
>> somewhat offputting.  I followed up by reading through the re:press
>> 
>> 
>> book.  What I like the most, I suppose, is the sense that the
>> 
>> 
>> discussions are in motion with a lot of people participating.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Reading some of the discussion of mereology, I find they resonate with
>> 
>> 
>> one of my favorite passages from Hegel.  Pardon me for cannibalizing
>> 
>> 
>> another piece of writing (a draft of which can be found here:
>> 
>> 
>> http://isea2011.sabanciuniv.edu/paper/disturbed-dialectic-literary-criticism).
>> 
>> 
>> *
>> 
>> 
>> In The Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel describes the dialectical process:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> "The bud disappears in the bursting-forth of the blossom, and one
>> 
>> 
>> might say the former is refuted by the latter; similarly, when the
>> 
>> 
>> fruit appears, the blossom is shown up in its turn as a false
>> 
>> 
>> manifestation of the plant, and the fruit now emerges as the truth of
>> 
>> 
>> it instead. These forms are not just distinguished from one another,
>> 
>> 
>> they also supplant one another as mutually incompatible. Yet at the
>> 
>> 
>> same time their fluid nature makes them moments of an organic unity in
>> 
>> 
>> which they not only do not conflict, but in which each is as necessary
>> 
>> 
>> as the other; and this mutual necessity alone constitutes the life of
>> 
>> 
>> the whole." [1]
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Viewed from within the Hegelian process, the Real is positioned
>> 
>> 
>> outside its present manifestations, consisting, rather, of the dynamic
>> 
>> 
>> processes that comprise its totality.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> This insight, crucial to critical practice, requires revision in light
>> 
>> 
>> of technical change. By revision, I do not mean that we need to
>> 
>> 
>> fundamentally alter Hegel’s argument, I only mean to suggest that we
>> 
>> 
>> see this passage with respect to new temporal modalities that have
>> 
>> 
>> shaken up the pursuit of knowledge.
>> 
>> 
>> *
>> 
>> 
>> I come at many of the same issues, but my inclination lead me to
>> 
>> 
>> embrace a kind of "humanism," but one which cannot easily understand
>> 
>> 
>> as we continually muddle the conversations of humanism with an
>> 
>> 
>> ontology that is expressed in our metaphors.  One grip I have with the
>> 
>> 
>> use of Deleuze or McLuhan, is the idea that our capacity to
>> 
>> 
>> personalize prosthetics has a tendency to be reduced to a situation in
>> 
>> 
>> which it becomes possible to imagine that we see machines,
>> 
>> 
>> interpersonal relationships, people with tools, etc. as the same
>> 
>> 
>> thing.  When, in fact, my psychic investment in my bike or computer,
>> 
>> 
>> while deep, is not nearly as deep or as complex as my psychic
>> 
>> 
>> investment in my (which I can only refer to as mine with a sense of
>> 
>> 
>> obligation to, rather than ownership over) child.  If my bike decided
>> 
>> 
>> to bite me.....which it can't, even if it can hurt me....  I would not
>> 
>> 
>> feel so simultaneously restrained in my response AND emotionally
>> 
>> 
>> florid as I would if my 8 year old bit me for some crazy reason (but
>> 
>> 
>> with my three year old, I he is only a missed nap away from engaging
>> 
>> 
>> in something so obvious and horrible as biting someone).  A bike, on
>> 
>> 
>> the other hand, can hurt me a lot more than a bite from a toddler, and
>> 
>> 
>> I suppose I am not above kicking a bike and yelling....  but I have
>> 
>> 
>> very limited feelings about a bike malfunction or hitting my thumb
>> 
>> 
>> with a hammer.  On the other hand, a bike goes wherever I want it to
>> 
>> 
>> go (except when there's an accident).....  a toddler, not so much....
>> 
>> 
>> an eight year old, he usually comes with a counter proposal (and it is
>> 
>> 
>> a monstrous adult that would treat kids like a bike, insist that they
>> 
>> 
>> only go where told, speak when it is demanded).  A lot of really deep
>> 
>> 
>> thinking about human subjectivty simply does not go this far....  and
>> 
>> 
>> part of this has to do with a poor understanding of objects.  What is
>> 
>> 
>> worse is when this understanding infects interpersonal relationships
>> 
>> 
>> in the context of a Randian sort of world where there is "no such
>> 
>> 
>> thing as society, only individuals" (yet, bosses treat workers like
>> 
>> 
>> bikes and bad boyfriends treat their partners like robots).
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I am very excited to read more.  I feel like it is important to free
>> 
>> 
>> our thinking from patterns and habits of the past.  In particular, the
>> 
>> 
>> culture of academic citation has gone from being about finding good
>> 
>> 
>> ideas where they are to deriving authority from the aura of the great
>> 
>> 
>> figure.  I also have no problem with accumulations of wisdom that
>> 
>> 
>> translate into an inherited perspective, but this can't close us off
>> 
>> 
>> to thinking.  So....  thank you for this!
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Davin
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Ian Bogost <ian.bogost at lcc.gatech.edu>
>> 
>> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> Davin,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I'm about to disappear into a mess of meetings, but let me offer a brief
>> 
>> 
>> response:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> What you're touching on here is what Levi Byrant sometimes calls the "weird
>> 
>> 
>> mereology" of OOO. The song isn't "just" the sound waves (what Harman calls
>> 
>> 
>> an underming position) nor is it just the social context of creation and use
>> 
>> 
>> (an overmining position). A song is a song, and indeed, the song in an MP3
>> 
>> 
>> file is a different thing than the song as an abstraction in human culture.
>> 
>> 
>> Neither is more object nor more real (well, "real" has a different meaning
>> 
>> 
>> for Harman than it does for Levi and me).
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I talk about this a bit in the first chapter of Alien Phenomenology, and
>> 
>> 
>> Levi does as well in the mereology section of Democracy of Objects. Also,
>> 
>> 
>> here are a  blog post from Levi on the subject that weaves the two
>> 
>> 
>> together:
>> 
>> http://larvalsubjects.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/more-strange-mereology/
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I'm not answering sufficiently but wanted to get something out to you
>> 
>> 
>> rapidly.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ib
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Ian Bogost, Ph.D.
>> 
>> 
>> Professor
>> 
>> 
>> Director, Graduate Program in Digital Media
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Georgia Institute of Technology
>> 
>> 
>> Digital Media/TSRB 320B
>> 
>> 
>> 85 Fifth Street NW
>> 
>> 
>> Atlanta, GA 30308-1030
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ibogost at gatech.edu
>> 
>> 
>> +1 (404) 894-1160 (tel)
>> 
>> 
>> +1 (404) 894-2833 (fax)
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Jun 15, 2012, at 4:11 AM, davin heckman wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Ian,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Since we are on the topic of OOO, I was wondering what the ontological
>> 
>> 
>> status of something like a song is?  I have to admit, I have a real
>> 
>> 
>> hard time swallowing a pure ontology that essentially defines the
>> 
>> 
>> subjective as outside of being, as a sort of on or off proposition, as
>> 
>> 
>> opposed to also a turning on (or is it being turned on? Or simply to
>> 
>> 
>> be turned or to turn?) (I am generally skeptical about a variety of
>> 
>> 
>> posthumanisms that go beyond a critique of a monolithic Humanism,
>> 
>> 
>> because I think that consciousness carries specific tendencies that
>> 
>> 
>> seem to fundamentally frame all possibilities for knowledge).  However
>> 
>> 
>> it is entirely possible that I am missing out on a discussion that has
>> 
>> 
>> been unfolding without me.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> But here's my thought:  With a song, you have something that can be
>> 
>> 
>> rendered in "objective" form....  maybe an mp3 file or a sheet of
>> 
>> 
>> notes or record or something.  If this is what we mean by a song,
>> 
>> 
>> then, fine, that's an object.  But a song only really starts doing
>> 
>> 
>> something when it is unfolding within the context of memory and
>> 
>> 
>> anticipation.  It only is a song when it is listened to by a subject,
>> 
>> 
>> which is to say it is an object that has a singular temporal being as
>> 
>> 
>> it is listened to, which is distinct from how it is being listened to
>> 
>> 
>> and replayed even by the same user.  (And we aren't even beginning to
>> 
>> 
>> talk about non-recorded music).  The only way a song becomes a purely
>> 
>> 
>> discrete object is when it is removed from its temporal existence and
>> 
>> 
>> understood as a totality, and detached from an audience.  And while we
>> 
>> 
>> can sit around and all talk about, say, "Another One Bites the Dust,"
>> 
>> 
>> after we squeeze it into a conceptual file type and label it, the fact
>> 
>> 
>> that we can discuss something that can only mean something if is
>> 
>> 
>> experienced as a process AND an object within the context of a
>> 
>> 
>> experience, suggests that sometimes being is realized by the relations
>> 
>> 
>> of things, rather than the things themselves.  My suggestion is that
>> 
>> 
>> the ontological nature of the song cannot be described in objective
>> 
>> 
>> terms without missing what a song is.  Without the non-objective
>> 
>> 
>> component of its being, a song is just sound.  If we say, well, "Hey,
>> 
>> 
>> when this sound occurs, people do X, Y, and Z," we can find ourself
>> 
>> 
>> thinking that these effects are produced by the object, but this sort
>> 
>> 
>> of thought experiment only gives us half an understanding of the
>> 
>> 
>> object's being.  You also have to think of that song in relation to
>> 
>> 
>> the current context, to itself over time, to the individual and
>> 
>> 
>> collective experience of its audience, to the culture, etc. Again, a
>> 
>> 
>> great means to produce estrangement, but not the complete account of
>> 
>> 
>> what the thing is.  At the risk of sounding chauvinistic, I can see
>> 
>> 
>> that it might be expedient to regard a distant moon without regard to
>> 
>> 
>> its historical relationship to the human.  It's useful to think of a
>> 
>> 
>> distant moon as a quantity of data.  But the closer we get to human
>> 
>> 
>> existence, the more likely we are to encounter types of things that
>> 
>> 
>> exist, but that cannot be understood properly as a bundle of discrete
>> 
>> 
>> data.  Maybe there are some texts that address precisly these sorts of
>> 
>> 
>> concerns.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> This is where I think ontology cannot simply be objective.  It must,
>> 
>> 
>> of course, be able to establish the differences between things, to
>> 
>> 
>> render those things it claims to understand in discrete form, insofar
>> 
>> 
>> as they can be considered as such.  On the other hand, we know that
>> 
>> 
>> most of what the world is made of is common and that the laws of
>> 
>> 
>> physics, for instance, harness discrete things under a kind of
>> 
>> 
>> continuity.  So, along with the conditions of radical difference that
>> 
>> 
>> a philosophy of objects implies, there are the conditions of radical
>> 
>> 
>> connectivity.  Both features are equally present, which is to say they
>> 
>> 
>> offer us little in the way of productive knowledge EXCEPT insofar as
>> 
>> 
>> we can bind and sever, cut or tie, digitize or analogize within this
>> 
>> 
>> framework of matter.  The 21st century loves digitizing things.....
>> 
>> 
>> it helps computers see the world, it helps them count us, predict our
>> 
>> 
>> behavior, weigh it, value it, direct it, etc.  But the digital is only
>> 
>> 
>> half of our existence....  the analog process is equally present in
>> 
>> 
>> language and cognition....  and it is just as equpped to help us
>> 
>> 
>> understand the world by creating categories of things and identifying
>> 
>> 
>> common qualities.  In "Notes on the Uncanny," Freud identifies this
>> 
>> 
>> struggle as productive of a kind of unsettling (the person that acts
>> 
>> 
>> like an object/the object that acts like a person)...  but it does not
>> 
>> 
>> simply have to be a "scary" process....  the move from discrete to
>> 
>> 
>> connected or from one into multiple can also be deeply satisfying and
>> 
>> 
>> reassuring of being.  If both processes are equally useful, then what
>> 
>> 
>> presides over these two tendencies?  Temporal consciousness that can
>> 
>> 
>> mobilize processes of digitization and analogy?  Another place to
>> 
>> 
>> think through this is in relation to a variety of attempts at
>> 
>> 
>> taxonomy.  At some point, a poodle has to be a poodle and a wolf has
>> 
>> 
>> to be a wolf, but in relation to squids, both can be canines.  We
>> 
>> 
>> could say that well, we are talking about layers of qualities that
>> 
>> 
>> enable us to categorize this object or that object.  But without the
>> 
>> 
>> history of the poodle we don't really know how one canine can be a
>> 
>> 
>> fashion accessory and the other is a part of a wild ecology, all of
>> 
>> 
>> which (domesticating work dogs, turning tool animals into fashion
>> 
>> 
>> animals, thinking about animals as people, killing wild animals,
>> 
>> 
>> restoring wildness, etc) radically alter the parameters of being based
>> 
>> 
>> on thoughts about being.  To take it back to queer thought, around the
>> 
>> 
>> bend of singular identities is the knowlege that such queerness does
>> 
>> 
>> not preclude deep relationality.  My reading is that the fruits of
>> 
>> 
>> this thought are an affirmation of the idea that the well-worn paths
>> 
>> 
>> of prescribed human behavior do not necessarily lead to earnest
>> 
>> 
>> relationships, it is not to reject relationship itself in favor of
>> 
>> 
>> individualism because capitalism has been doing this since the
>> 
>> 
>> transformation of labor into commodity.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Why does this matter?  I care about politics, but I am not going to
>> 
>> 
>> say that OOO cleaves to this or that kind of politics....  it doesn't
>> 
>> 
>> matter.  If a statement is discernibly true, then I have an obligation
>> 
>> 
>> to bend my ideas around the true statement.  And my sense, based on
>> 
>> 
>> very limited reading, is that OOO is trying to figure out what we can
>> 
>> 
>> know about being.  So, while it is worth considering the political
>> 
>> 
>> implications of speculative thought, I think Galloway is a bit wrong
>> 
>> 
>> to suggest that something is "bourgeois" or something just because
>> 
>> 
>> financial markets also offer a flat ontology via capital.  The only
>> 
>> 
>> thing that really matters is whether or not a philosophy can get us to
>> 
>> 
>> a mutually agreed upon knowledge of the world that can be transmitted
>> 
>> 
>> effectively from one context to another and continue to be useful.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I have been lazy about following this month's discussion, but I like
>> 
>> 
>> the idea of queering technology, of the productively broken tool.  It
>> 
>> 
>> is an area that has affinities with regards to my own reading of
>> 
>> 
>> electronic literature.....  taking Jakobson's discussion of poetics up
>> 
>> 
>> through Darko Suvin's discussion of "cognitive estrangement," and
>> 
>> 
>> looking at the ways that digital literary practices perform a similar
>> 
>> 
>> process with regards to instrumental languages. My thought is that OOO
>> 
>> 
>> is productive in that it asks us to engage in a thought experiment
>> 
>> 
>> about pure objectivitiy, and in doing so, reveals the critical
>> 
>> 
>> necessity of subjective and intersubjective aspects of human being
>> 
>> 
>> that are embedded in our broader assertions about being.  I think that
>> 
>> 
>> a lot of the "posthumanisms" try to simply go beyond something that we
>> 
>> 
>> have never understood in the first place: that being human is
>> 
>> 
>> essentially a kind of queer existence, all the much more so when we
>> 
>> 
>> insist that it is not. For my part, I want my human rights.  So while
>> 
>> 
>> I am sympathetic, generally, with many of the aims of the
>> 
>> 
>> posthumanists I encounter, I generally think that "Humanism" has yet
>> 
>> 
>> to adequately describe being human.  Like Habermas said of modernity,
>> 
>> 
>> it's daunting and messy and incomplete (like most things worth doing).
>> 
>> 
>> Living in Norway right now (moving in a couple weeks, unfortunately),
>> 
>> 
>> humanism seems to be working out pretty well here.  The problems of
>> 
>> 
>> the world do not stem from a love of humanity, they stem from our
>> 
>> 
>> growing estrangment from humanity and increased clustering into
>> 
>> 
>> paranoid, exclusionary enclaves (Why do you think everyone watches
>> 
>> 
>> Zombie movies? Blasting away at legions of dirty anthropoidal morons
>> 
>> 
>> trying to eat what you have, a perfect gospel for post democratic
>> 
>> 
>> capitalism).  In a world of Darwinian evolution, we are not entirely
>> 
>> 
>> selected, we alter the landscape of an objective process through our
>> 
>> 
>> dialogue with an objective sphere that exists, that we inhabit, and
>> 
>> 
>> that we think about, but which does not simply constitute us.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I admit these thoughts are poorly formed....  and I am very busy these
>> 
>> 
>> days....  so I might not be able to reply as quickly as I would
>> 
>> 
>> normally.  But am very interested in these conversations.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Davin
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Thu, Jun 14, 2012 at 4:16 PM, frederic neyrat <fneyrat at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Hi,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> I would like - if possible - to get one or two examples about the
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> objects concerned by your statement:"all objects equally exist, but
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> not all objects exist equally." I guess - but I just guess - that the
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> first part of the sentence is ontological and the second part could be
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> political, but maybe I'm wrong. Thanks in advance.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Frederic Neyrat
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 2012/6/14 Ian Bogost <ian.bogost at lcc.gatech.edu>:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Ok, sigh, let me try this again.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> The "as much as" is not a judgement of value, but of existence. This is the
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> fundamental disagreement that played out in the comments to Galloway's work
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> and in the many responses elsewhere. The world is big and contains many
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> things. I've put this principle thusly: "all objects equally exist, but not
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> all objects exist equally."
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> It's possible that such a metaphysical position isn't for everyone. But if
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> your idea of "being political" is as exclusionary and deprecatory as both
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Galloway's post and my limited experience thusfar here on empyre, then
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> perhaps you can explain why that a model worth aspiring for? Why that is
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> virtuous and righteous?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Ian
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Jun 14, 2012, at 2:57 PM, Rob Myers wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 06/14/2012 07:02 PM, Ian Bogost wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> As for queer and feminist formulations, I agree with the spirit of what
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> you say, but I'll reiterate my observation that SR/OOO is moving in a
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> slightly different direction—one that concerns toasters and quasars as
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> much as human subjects (note the "as much as" here). Why not take this
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> work for what it is, at least for starters, rather than for what it
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> isn't?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> The "as much as" is precisely the problem.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Galloway's critique of OOO that Zach mentioned explains why:
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> http://itself.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/a-response-to-graham-harmans-marginalia-on-radical-thinking/
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> But I wouldn't lump Meillassoux in with Harman. I think Meillassoux's
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> philosophy can indeed be interesting for this debate because of its
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> embracing of contingency and possibility.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> - Rob.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> empyre forum
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> empyre forum
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> empyre forum
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> 
>> empyre forum
>> 
>> 
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> 
>> empyre forum
>> 
>> 
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> 
>> empyre forum
>> 
>> 
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> 
>> empyre forum
>> 
>> 
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> 
>> 
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> empyre forum
>> 
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> 
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> 
>> empyre forum
>> 
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> 
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> _______________________________________________
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