Climate Change Is Not a Problem: Speculative Realism at the End of Organization

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 725-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norah Campbell ◽  
Gerard McHugh ◽  
PJ Ennis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New World ◽  
Organizational Forms ◽  
Philosophical Idea ◽  
Organizational Challenges ◽  
Speculative Realism ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Quentin Meillassoux

In this paper, we trace the compounding and escalation of frames to try and encompass the reality of climate change. These frames capture significant aspects, revealing new contours and extreme organizational challenges. However, what if climate change is unframeable? We locate three ontological dimensions of climate change – its unboundedness, incalculability and unthinkability – that make this case. This means that climate change is not a problem that organizations can encompass, divide or draw lines around – some ‘thing’ that can be recuperated into existing institutional, infrastructural and interpersonal frameworks. Instead, it is calling forth forms of organization without any precedent. We argue that the philosophy of speculative realism, specifically the work of Quentin Meillassoux, reveals climate change as a new World for which we do not have categories. We deploy Meillassoux’s concepts which are non-human and rational to think through what climate change is ontologically. Meillassoux’s work is characterized as the reintroduction of the old philosophical idea of the absolute, and we use it as a possible way to overcome the equivocal status of climate change without succumbing to despondency and passivity. Rather than a negative, overwhelming threat, climate change gives us what we call a bleak optimism: the realization that climate change has already happened, and that human civilization must learn how to die in a way that is a creative and just foreclosure of the Earth’s organizational forms.

scholarly journals Speculative Fetishism

Konturen ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Tracy McNulty
Keyword(s):  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Speculative Philosophy ◽  
Alain Badiou ◽  
Speculative Realism ◽  
Negative Judgment ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
A Charge ◽  
Quentin Meillassoux

Quentin Meillassoux, like his mentor Alain Badiou, is sometimes accused by his critics of “fetishizing mathematics.” Without embracing the negative judgment implied in such a charge, this essay asks: what might be gained by taking seriously the link between fetishism and speculative philosophy? The claim that Meillassoux “fetishizes” mathematics potentially reveals something fundamental not only about the formalism at the heart of his speculative realism (whose “glaciality,” inanimacy, or inhuman character might sustain a certain disavowal, namely of “finitude” or castration) but about fetishism itself, whose philosophical character is attested not only by its ideality or relation to the absolute, but by its concern with thought or construction. The aim of this essay is thus not to dwell at length on the work of Meillassoux, but rather to think about the “speculative realism” specific to fetishism itself, and its unique contribution to speculative philosophy.

scholarly journals QUENTINAS MEILLASSOUX IR RADIKALI MENO (NE)GALIMYBĖ

Problemos ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 153-166
Author(s):  
Kristupas Sabolius
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Speculative Realism ◽  
Problematic Relationship ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Quentin Meillassoux

Šiame straipsnyje nagrinėjamas spekuliatyviojo realizmo ir meno santykis. Teigiama, kad nors naujasis judėjimas išpopuliarėjo kuratorių ir menininkų kontekstuose, vieno jo pradininkų Quentino Meillassoux knygoje „Po baigtinybės“ siūloma pozicija nepalieka galimybių paties meno legitimavimui. Spekuliatyvieji realistai stengiasi įveikti koreliacionizmo prieigą, pagal kurią tarp mąstymo ir būties egzistuoja būtinas ryšys. Kartu tokia pozicija nenumato galimybės meninėms praktikoms pasiekti realybės sferą – sukurdamas ką nors nauja, menininkas nuolatos pažeidžia absoliutaus pasaulio autonomiją. Tačiau atmetus spekuliatyvųjį realizmą grindžiantį reduktyvų racionalizmą, Meillassoux postuluojamas „kontingencijos būtinybės“ principas gali tapti meninės prieigos orientyru. Kūrybinėse praktikose įgyvendinamas kontingencijų radikalizavimas gali pasiūlyti nespekuliatyvią akistatą su Hiper-Chaosu, virtualybės plotmėje aktualizuodamas „virsmo kitu“ perspektyvą.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: spekuliatyvusis realizmas, menas, kontingencija, virtualumas. Quentin Meillassoux and Radical (Im)possibility of ArtKristupas Sabolius AbstractThis paper addresses the problematic relationship between Speculative Realism and art. Although the newly-born movement became popular among curators and artists, one finds no space left for legitimization of creative practices in Quentin Meillassoux’s “After Finitude”. By criticizing the so-called correlationism which privileges the necessary binding between being and thinking, Speculative Realism would not grant art a possibility of the access to the reality of things-in-themselves. By creating something new, artistic practices constantly violate the absolute autonomy of the world. On the other hand, if rejected the reductive rationalism of speculation, the principle of “the necessity of contingency”, as postulated by Meillassoux, could provide some guidelines for artistic take on the issue of reality. Through the radicalization of contingency in creative practices and the restitution of the value of the virtual, one could perform the transformation into Otherness and not-speculative confrontation with the realm of Hyper-Chaos.Keywords: speculative realism, art, contingency, virtuality.

Speculative Realism and Science Fiction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Willems
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Cormac Mccarthy ◽  
Doris Lessing ◽  
Speculative Realism ◽  
Neil Gaiman ◽  
The World ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Quentin Meillassoux

A human-centred approach to the environment is leading to ecological collapse. One of the ways that speculative realism challenges anthropomorphism is by taking non-human things to be as valid objects of investivation as humans, allowing a more responsible and truthful view of the world to take place. Brian Willems uses a range of science fiction literature that questions anthropomorphism both to develop and challenge this philosophical position. He looks at how nonsense and sense exist together in science fiction, the way in which language is not a guarantee of personhood, the role of vision in relation to identity formation, the difference between metamorphosis and modulation, representations of non-human deaths and the function of plasticity within the Anthropocene. Willems considers the works of Cormac McCarthy, Paolo Bacigalupi, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, Doris Lessing and Kim Stanley Robinson are considered alongside some of the main figures of speculative materialism including Graham Harman, Quentin Meillassoux and Jane Bennett.

scholarly journals A Deeper Union: From a Failed Project to the European Quality Lead

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 174-177
Author(s):  
Karl Aiginger
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
New World ◽  
World Order ◽  
New World Order ◽  
Welfare Indicators ◽  
Spheres Of Influence ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
The Us ◽  
Previous State

AbstractAfter President Trump’s departure, many expected that the transatlantic partnership would return to its previous state with the US playing a leading role. This article challenges that view. Instead, a new world order is foreseen, with different partnerships and spheres of influence. Europe can decide whether it wants to remain small and homogeneous or a larger but also more heterogenous Union that leads in welfare indicators such as life expectancy, fighting poverty and limiting climate change. Expanding this lead and communicating its uniqueness can empower Europe to combine enlargement and deepening, which appears unlikely without changes in governance and self-confidence.

scholarly journals Post-pandemic consumption: portal to a new world?

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 639-647
Author(s):  
RUSSELL WILLIAM BELK
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
New World ◽  
Expert Forecasts

Abstract Expert forecasts by consumer researchers and epidemiologists, consumer forecasts, and evidence from China are used to assess how consumer behavior will change after the pandemic subsides. Then hopes for bigger ideas are assessed including really addressing climate change, moving away from fossil fuels, addressing income inequality with a guaranteed income, and decoupling the economy from growth.

O Brave New World? The Union of England and Scotland in 1603

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Wormald
Keyword(s):  
New World ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Profound Impact ◽  
History Of ◽  
Brave New World ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
James Iv

This chapter discusses the drama and tension of the accession, and the history of the Union of the Crowns in the lifetime of James. James VI was proclaimed King of England when Elizabeth died. It was ruthlessly silent about James' Anglo-Scottish ancestry. But what James VI had inherited from his Stuart ancestors, most notably James IV and the even more effective James V, was a lofty vision of the diplomatic importance of the King of Scots and his ability to have an impact on other European countries. In 1603, the brutal fact was that the Scots and the English disliked one another intensely. The theme of Anglo-Scottish hostility is briefly outlined. The Union of 1603 did have a profound impact on his style of kingship. It was also noted that the dearth of Tudor heirs contributed to the absolute problem of finding different kings for England and Scotland. When celebrating the fourth centenary of that momentous event, the toast was certainly to King James.

Climate change and the new world economy: Implications for the nature and timing of policy responses

2008 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 380-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
P SHEEHAN ◽  
R JONES ◽  
A JOLLEY ◽  
B PRESTON ◽  
M CLARKE ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
World Economy ◽  
New World ◽  
Policy Responses

System and/as Contingency: Quentin Meillassoux and the Ethics of Chance

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-93
Author(s):  
Kevin Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Continental Philosophy ◽  
Universal Principle ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Model ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
Ethical Significance ◽  
Systematic Knowledge ◽  
Quentin Meillassoux

In recent years, the relation between contingency and systematic claims to the absolute has again come to play an important role in Continental philosophy. This essay takes a closer look at how this relation is developed in the works of French philosopher Quentin Meillassoux. It argues that a specific demand for systematic knowledge underlies not only Meillassoux's ontology, but also his ethics, which come into conflict with his own systematic aspirations in certain key areas, most notably in his attempt to derive an ethico-political model of subjectivity from his theory of contingency. The essay furthermore explores whether Meillassoux's monism of chance, by systematizing contingency and declaring it a universal principle, does not in fact deprive the contingent of its contingent character, introducing a reductive stability that condemns the subject to a passive waiting ultimately lacking in ethical significance.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document