Abstract
In his recent Immaterialism, Graham Harman develops a theory of social objects based on his object-oriented ontology. Whereas some of the more mainstream theories in the humanities would dissolve such objects into their material constituents or their various effects on others, object-oriented social theory theorizes them as inert, resilient entities with a private reality that exceeds their components and actions. Harman’s theory focuses on what social entities are qua objects, and consequently says little about their specificity as social objects. A more complete social theory would also outline how human existence is to be understood in relation to a social world comprised of discrete and inert entities, as opposed to, for example, far more continuous material fields or networks of associations. We argue that an unexpected yet solid candidate for such an extension of object-oriented social theory already exists in Jean-Paul Sartre’s theory of practico-inert being and group formation. We first outline Harman’s and Sartre’s respective ontologies of social objects, and then discuss how their many complementarities make the latter a suitable extension of the former.
References
Bennett, Jane. Vibrant Matter - A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010.10.1215/9780822391623Search in Google Scholar
Coole, Diana and Frost, Samantha (eds). New Materialism - Ontology, Agency, and Politics. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.Search in Google Scholar
DeLanda, Manuel. Assemblage Theory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016.10.1515/9781474413640Search in Google Scholar
DeLanda, Manuel. A New Philosophy of Society - Assemblage Theory and Social Complexity. London: Continuum, 2006.Search in Google Scholar
Harman, Graham. The Quadruple Object. Winchester: Zero Books, 2010.Search in Google Scholar
Harman, Graham. Immaterialism - Objects and Social Theory. Cambridge: Polity, 2016.Search in Google Scholar
Harman, Graham. Tool-Being - Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects. Chicago: Open Court, 2002.Search in Google Scholar
Jeanson, Francis. Le problème moral et la pensée de Sartre, suivi de Un quidam nommé Sartre. Paris: Seuil, 1965.Search in Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. Pandora’s Hope - Essays on the Reality of Science Studies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.Search in Google Scholar
Latour, Bruno. Science in Action - How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.Search in Google Scholar
Margulis, Lynn. Symbiotic Planet - A New Look at Evolution. New York: Basic Books, 1999.Search in Google Scholar
Mumford, Lewis. Technics and Civilization. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934.Search in Google Scholar
Negri, Antonio and Hardt, Michael. Empire. Camridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.Search in Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Critique of Dialectical Reason - Volume I: Theory of Practical Ensembles. Translated by Alan Sheridan-Smith. New York: New Left Books, 1976.Search in Google Scholar
Sparrow, Tom. The End of Phenomenology - Metaphysics and the New Realism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014.10.1515/9780748684847Search in Google Scholar
© by Arjen Kleinherenbrink and Simon Gusman, published by De Gruyter
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
