Power, Possibility, and Agency: Speculative Realism and Whitehead’s Theory of Relations
At the turn of the twentieth century, the debate between supporters of internal and external relations showed how our assumptions on the nature of relations result in ontological, epistemic, and ethical commitments. In this debate, Alfred North Whitehead provided the most articulated and satisfying...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Warsaw
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture |
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| Online Access: | http://eidos.uw.edu.pl/power-possibility-and-agency/ |
| _version_ | 1818723456067305472 |
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| author | Christian Frigerio |
| author_facet | Christian Frigerio |
| author_sort | Christian Frigerio |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | At the turn of the twentieth century, the debate between supporters of internal and external relations showed how our assumptions on the nature of relations result in ontological, epistemic, and ethical commitments. In this debate, Alfred North Whitehead provided the most articulated and satisfying account through his “philosophy of the organism,” which holds relations to be internal yet vectorial, without excluding completely external relations. Today, the debate has become once again topical and constitutes a core issue for speculative realism. This paper aims to show how the theory of external relations endorsed by some leading figures of speculative realism (Meillassoux, Harman, Bryant) does not suffice to preserve the desiderata it was designed for, and how a more serious consideration of Whitehead’s theory would have beneficial effects on the ontological and ethical issues of this rejuvenated metaphysical discourse. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T21:10:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6546f616372644d4972c96d5e948f65a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2544-302X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T21:10:48Z |
| publishDate | 2020-11-01 |
| publisher | University of Warsaw |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture |
| spelling | doaj.art-6546f616372644d4972c96d5e948f65a2022-12-21T21:32:27ZengUniversity of WarsawEidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture2544-302X2020-11-014352210.14394/eidos.jpc.2020.0027Power, Possibility, and Agency: Speculative Realism and Whitehead’s Theory of RelationsChristian Frigerio0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2427-9889Department of Philosophy, University of MilanAt the turn of the twentieth century, the debate between supporters of internal and external relations showed how our assumptions on the nature of relations result in ontological, epistemic, and ethical commitments. In this debate, Alfred North Whitehead provided the most articulated and satisfying account through his “philosophy of the organism,” which holds relations to be internal yet vectorial, without excluding completely external relations. Today, the debate has become once again topical and constitutes a core issue for speculative realism. This paper aims to show how the theory of external relations endorsed by some leading figures of speculative realism (Meillassoux, Harman, Bryant) does not suffice to preserve the desiderata it was designed for, and how a more serious consideration of Whitehead’s theory would have beneficial effects on the ontological and ethical issues of this rejuvenated metaphysical discourse.http://eidos.uw.edu.pl/power-possibility-and-agency/whiteheadspeculative realismrelationsmeillassouxobject-oriented ontology |
| spellingShingle | Christian Frigerio Power, Possibility, and Agency: Speculative Realism and Whitehead’s Theory of Relations Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture whitehead speculative realism relations meillassoux object-oriented ontology |
| title | Power, Possibility, and Agency: Speculative Realism and Whitehead’s Theory of Relations |
| title_full | Power, Possibility, and Agency: Speculative Realism and Whitehead’s Theory of Relations |
| title_fullStr | Power, Possibility, and Agency: Speculative Realism and Whitehead’s Theory of Relations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Power, Possibility, and Agency: Speculative Realism and Whitehead’s Theory of Relations |
| title_short | Power, Possibility, and Agency: Speculative Realism and Whitehead’s Theory of Relations |
| title_sort | power possibility and agency speculative realism and whitehead s theory of relations |
| topic | whitehead speculative realism relations meillassoux object-oriented ontology |
| url | http://eidos.uw.edu.pl/power-possibility-and-agency/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT christianfrigerio powerpossibilityandagencyspeculativerealismandwhiteheadstheoryofrelations |