Papers by Adrian Razvan Sandru
Open Philosophy, 2024
Graham Harman's Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) emphasizes the autonomy of objects, positing a wit... more Graham Harman's Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) emphasizes the autonomy of objects, positing a withdrawn surplus of being that resists reduction to its parts or the sum of its parts. However, Harman's framework faces conceptual tensions, including challenges in reconciling epistemological and ontological dimensions, explaining the formation of compound objects, and ascribing determinate features to experientially inaccessible objects. I argue that these issues arise mostly due to Harman's over-commitment to a withdrawn substantial core of objects. To address these issues, I propose turning to Jean-Luc Nancy's postphenomenological materialism and Alain Badiou's mathematical realism. Both Nancy and Badiou offer alternatives to Harman's substantialist core, emphasizing a local, contextually bound identity of things, which describes a restricted domain from the endlessly broader horizon of relations and situations in which each thing is or can be involved. They thus account for the surplus of being in each thing and consequently their ontological autonomy without recourse to a substantive grounding. I argue such a relational-friendly account of pluralism avoids the conceptual issues Harman's OOO runs into. Lastly, I emphasize the value of OOO as an advocate for ontological equality that seeks to avoid the emergence of privileged actors or centralized discourse. This dialogue between Harman, Nancy, and Badiou thus seeks to advance the possibility of pluralistic ontologies within relational frameworks, combining the perspectives of OOO with post-phenomenological theories to explore the complexities of relationality without recourse to non-relational substrata.
Wittgenstein-Studien, 2022
Wittgenstein talks in his Philosophical Investigations of a pupil engaging in a repetitive series... more Wittgenstein talks in his Philosophical Investigations of a pupil engaging in a repetitive series continuation who suddenly begins to apply a different rule than the one instructed to him. This hypothetical example has been interpreted by a number of philosophers to indicate either a skeptical attitude towards rules and their application (Kripke 1982; Wright 1980), an implicit need of knowledge and understanding of a rule accessible to those engaged in a given practice (McDowell 2002), or a certain normativity that guides our actions but is not cognitive, but processual in nature (Ginsborg 2020). I wish to support and extend Ginsborg’s account of primitive normativity from a novel perspective in a twofold manner: 1) by describing the mechanism of primitive normativity via Kant’s concept of aesthetical and epistemic pleasure and displeasure; 2) by applying the conceptual pair of expected and unexpected uncertainty from adaptive learning theories, which describe the fluctuation of lea...
Phenomenological Reviews, 2018
Wirapuru - Revista de Ideas Latinoamericanas, 2021
The article first examines the philosophical meaning of the Andean concept of "Buen vivir" and co... more The article first examines the philosophical meaning of the Andean concept of "Buen vivir" and contextualises it within the philosophical horizon of Latin America. It compares "Buen vivir" with Mexican existentialism and with the philosophy and theology of liberation in order to show that "Buen vivir" is not a local phenomenon, but is part of an anti-capitalist and anti-colonialist tradition inspired by indigenous concepts, which advocates, in dialogue with Western philosophy, a decentralisation of the subject and a positive openness (suspension of determinations) towards the world. This openness is understood in this essay as the communal, which first enables well-being. Well-being is understood as an individual responsibility, which is rooted in the ontological implications of the communal as such. In a second step, the essay aims to show how these Latin American resignifications of well-being can bring fresh air into the Western discourse of well-being and how a change can be brought about in what seems to be a monolithic landscape of political and philosophical thought. It draws on Badiou's mathematical realism to show how a "Buen vivir" approach can bring the individualistic approaches of Western thought into a substantial contradiction which, in turn, can generate a positive and essential shift towards an inclusive and just society. Resumen: El artículo examina en una primera etapa el significado filosófico del concepto andino de "Buen vivir" y lo contextualiza en el horizonte filosófico de América Latina. Compara el "Buen vivir" con el existencialismo mexicano y con la filosofía y la teología de la liberación, buscando mostrar que el "Buen vivir" no es un fenómeno local, sino que forma parte de una tradición anticapitalista y anticolonialista inspirada en conceptos indígenas, que aboga, en diálogo con la filosofía occidental, por una descentralización del tema y por una apertura positiva (suspensión de determinaciones) hacia el mundo. Esta apertura es entendida como "lo comunal", que primero permite el bienestar. El bienestar se entiende como una responsabilidad individual, con raíces en las implicaciones ontológicas de lo comunal. En un segundo paso, el ensayo pretende mostrar cómo estas resignificaciones del bienestar de América Latina pueden aportar aire fresco en el discurso occidental del bienestar y cómo se puede producir un cambio en lo que parece ser un paisaje
Kantian Journal, 2020
I show that Kant’s depiction of the christic figure in Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Rea... more I show that Kant’s depiction of the christic figure in Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason is not contingent but explains how this figure functions in two essential ways: as a representation of a maximum of morality that can ground our moral disposition and in so doing acts as a standard for morality. More precisely, the following argument is made: 1) the sublime nature of the image of Christ — as an image of universal respect for the law — awakens the moral feeling of subjects in the sense of the possibility of overcoming one’s perverted nature; 2) as moral perfection it provides immediate transparency to the end goal of morality; 3) just as in the case of associative construction of empirical concepts, the sublime provides the prototype for association through which empirical acts are determined as moral ones; 4) the image of Christ also acts as motivator by encompassing said transparency and standard in the idea of moral perfection. These four points show that the image of Christ functions in a dual manner. Points 1) to 3) address Christ as a prototype/archetype (Urbild) — awakening and making possible a moral redefinition of the subject — while point 4) addresses Christ as an example (Vorbild) — sustaining and entertaining the moral redefinition as a motivating model.
In the 13th edition of JoSch Kruchen & Linguiri (2017) describe three situations which require on... more In the 13th edition of JoSch Kruchen & Linguiri (2017) describe three situations which require one to be accustomed to intercultural practices and to take into account the principle of diversity. The following situations are described in the article: 1) A student already in their later semester seeks counsel. They receive an individual tutoring session from a student who is completing their third semester of Bachelors. The senior student feeling as they are superior to the tutor questions their competency. The tutor being aware of said doubt begins to question their own abilities and feels intimidated by the situation. This leads to a non-successful tutoring session. 2) A student comes to an individual session of tutoring. Said student has been brought up in a bilingual environment, Spanish and German. The tutor, confronted with a poorly written text, asks the counsel-seeking student, where they come from and for how long have they been studying German. Confronted with this question, the student may feel threatened and close themselves down to the possibility of tutoring, more so as they consider German to be their mother tongue. 3) Lastly, Kruchen and Linguiri (2017) describe a tutoring situation where a third party, not involved in the tutoring session, is discriminated against by the agency of a controversial subject. The authors conclude that situations 1 and 3 are difficult to overcome as the discriminatory actions are undertaken by the counsel seekers and not by the tutor themselves. Situation 2 however is easily dealt with as it goes hand in hand with the professionality of the tutor, which can be formed through workshops sensitizing to the problem of diversity and discrimination.
My paper shall try to find a solution which similarly suits all situations and also deals with the possibility of discrimination coming from a person seeking tutoring. In doing this, I shall resort to philosophy in order to get to the root of possible discrimination and starting from there, work on the structure of communication to avoid discrimination. More precisely I will rely on the theory of “situatedness” postulated by Henrich Rombach (1987, 1988, 1994). Building on this, I shall show that individuals are situationally determined and that through these determinations their identity is constructed. At the same time, the situations themselves become situations only as they stand in relation to a certain subject. Thus, a co-creative game emerges in situated relations. This paper shall argue 1) that all tutoring sessions are situationally determined, 2) that the main situation of a session is constituted by the text in question, 3) that the textual situation is related to all situations that otherwise determine the two subjects involved in the tutoring process and 4) that through the text, every other determining situation can be addressed without the danger of discrimination.
My goal in this paper is to investigate the role of the subject in Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenolog... more My goal in this paper is to investigate the role of the subject in Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenology aided by his interpretation of the Kantian categories in " Being Given " and " In Excess ". I shall relate Marion's hypothetical saturation of the Kantian categories to the suspension of the I-identity. The inner mechanism of this suspension will be shown to consist in a critical resistance to an excessive intuition that is defined by a failed attempt at the conceptualizing of intuitions. This failure shall manifest the saturated phenomenon as a counter-experience. The critical resistance to an excessive intuition acts as a temporary activity of the subject leading to its role as interpreter inscribed in an infinite hermeneutic. Based on this I argue that Marion's subject is not destroyed by an excessive intuition but is only called upon to investigate a phenomenon from a multitude of perspectives. I hold this to be of the essence for Marion, as it explains the possibility of interpreting and experiencing the given as a given during the encounter with the given in which both the subject as well as the given become manifest. I shall argue thus that the recourse to Kant further clarifies Marion's account of a critical, resistant subject. However, this does not mean that I am arguing for Kant's categories, but that I hold them to have an important explanatory role for Marion's phenomenology.
Book Reviews by Adrian Razvan Sandru
Pänomenologische Forschungen, 2020
(Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)
Jean-Luc Marion’s new book Givenness and Revelation is a c... more (Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)
Jean-Luc Marion’s new book Givenness and Revelation is a collection of the four Gifford Lectures Marion delivered in 2014. The book reiterates the concept of a saturated phenomenon as a pure given, which has been a recurrent theme of Marion’s works since God without Being. In Givenness and Revelation, however, the saturated phenomenon is analysed in its tight connection to revelation thought as Trinity and thus provides us with a powerful insight into Marion’s religious thought.
Michael Barber investigates Alfred Schutz’s psychological phenomenology aiming at describing the ... more Michael Barber investigates Alfred Schutz’s psychological phenomenology aiming at describing the possibility of emancipation from the stress of everyday life through non-pragmatic regions of meaning. Barber believes that Schutzian phenomenology has the potential of emancipation even though Schutz was weary of committing society to normative determinations and he considered reason to be merely an explanatory instrument in determining the relation between means and ends.
Books by Adrian Razvan Sandru
The. book:
-Treats religious experience in the light of post-classical phenomenology
-Draws con... more The. book:
-Treats religious experience in the light of post-classical phenomenology
-Draws connections between the constitutive phenomenology and the naturalistic understanding of Homo religious
-Contributes towards an articulation of a descriptive psychology of religious experiencing
-Sets new directions for religious experience as a subject of philosophical research
draws connections between the constitutive phenomenology and the naturalistic understanding of Homo religious
For a long time, the philosophically difficult topic of religious experience has been on the sidelines of phenomenological research (with a notable exception of Anthony Steinbock, who focused on mysticism). The book The Problem of Religious Experience: Case Studies in Phenomenology, with Reflections and Commentaries brings together preeminent as well as emerging voices in the field, with fresh views on the topic. Originating from dialogues of the Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience, these two volumes cover a spectrum of phenomenological approaches, with a thematization of the field in the form of case studies. Contributions from theology, comparative religion, psychology and the philosophy of religion come together in the commentaries and meta-narrative written by Olga Louchakova-Schwartz (the editor). Volume I,The Primeval Showing of Religious Experience, examines religious experience with regard to its lived "interiority", in light of the problem of theego cogito, including the recent research on the embodiment of subjectivity and phenomenological materiality. Volume Ialso sheds light on religious experience in regard for the problems of its constitution, passive synthesis, the world, and otherness.Volume II, Doxastic Perspectives in the Phenomenology of Religious Experience, addresses the phenomenology of revelation, shows how different approaches treat the question of essence in religious experience (i.e., what is it that makes religious experience religious?), and demonstrates how religious experience contributes to the psychological horizon of meaning. The book identifies the "growing edges" in the phenomenological research of religious experience and is useful for psychologists, philosophers, and theologians alike.
Articles by Adrian Razvan Sandru
Handbuch Gemeinwohl, 2021
Cite this entry as:
Weidtmann N., Wirtz F., Sandru A.R. (2021) Nicht-westliche Gemeinwohlkonzepti... more Cite this entry as:
Weidtmann N., Wirtz F., Sandru A.R. (2021) Nicht-westliche Gemeinwohlkonzeptionen. In: Hiebaum C. (eds) Handbuch Gemeinwohl. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-21086-1_16-1
Conference Presentations by Adrian Razvan Sandru
Modern scientific endeavors are often guided by the positivistic ideal of obtaining a neutral, de... more Modern scientific endeavors are often guided by the positivistic ideal of obtaining a neutral, detached point of observation from which truths about the world can be deduced and believed to hold independently of the socio-political context in which they were obtained. Philosophical and sociological perspectives have however long highlighted that science and the contents of its discoveries are not to be separated from the context in which they are practiced, nor are they to ignore the impact that objects, artifacts, or natural events have in structuring our social, political, or physical realities. In the same spirit, Graham Harman argues that the human dimension of reality is just one of many, equally real non-human realities. Within this shared ontological space all beings-termed objects in Harman's system-have sensual qualities, i.e. the ones that define an object in relation, and real qualities, i.e. the ones that define the object withdrawn from all interactions and relations. Within this framework Harman distinguishes between two ways of knowing: a literal one that takes phenomena to be the sum of their features as they appear to us and a metaphorical one that hints at an infinite interiority of objects and brings about the awareness that there is always more to them than meets the eye. Harman argues that literalism is the mode by which science knows things, while the way that art and aesthetics approach objects is instead metaphorical. In contrast to literalism, "the metaphor seems to give us the thing in its autonomy from the other things to which it relates." In Harman's reading, the metaphor suspends the sensuality of the object and alludes to its real core. This workshop will explore whether Harman's assessment of science's method is apt and whether a dialogue between the two ways of knowing might benefit the endeavors of both aesthetic and scientific inquiry.
Books edited by Adrian Razvan Sandru
Open Philosophy, 2024
Open Philosophy (https://www.degruyter.com/opphil) invites submissions for the topical issue "Tow... more Open Philosophy (https://www.degruyter.com/opphil) invites submissions for the topical issue "Towards a Dialogue Between Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) and Science," edited by Adrian Razvan Sandru (Champalimaud Research, Portugal), Zach Mainen (Champalimaud Research, Portugal) and Federica Maria Gonzalez Luna Ortiz (Tuebingen University, Germany).
DESCRIPTION
While Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) has received much attention across diverse fields, it has remained somewhat overlooked in scientific discourse. The aim of this issue is to bring Graham Harman’s OOO into dialogue with contemporary perspectives on and from science. By doing so, we hope to bring to light novel dimensions of both OOO and scientific inquiry. We encourage interdisciplinary participation from a broad range of disciplines.
Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology proposes that knowledge comes in three forms: undermining (downward reduction to an underlying reality), overmining (upward reduction to a grounding system), and their combination in duomining (simultaneous reductions in both directions). Within this general framework, Harman makes a finer distinction between two styles of knowing that may inform a critical analysis of science, its practices, and narratives from a novel perspective. On one side, Harman speaks of a literal style of knowing that takes phenomena to be the sum of their features as they appear to us. On the other side, he describes a metaphorical one that hints at the infinite interiority of objects and brings about the awareness that there is always more to them than meets the eye. Harman argues that literalism is the mode by which science knows things, while the way that art and aesthetics approach objects is instead metaphorical. In contrast to literalism, which, according to OOO, ignores the tension between how an object appears in relation to other objects and what an object is, “the metaphor seems to give us the thing in its autonomy from the other things to which it relates" (Harman, 2018). In Harman’s reading, the metaphor suspends the sensuality of the object and alludes to its real core.
This topical issue will explore whether Harman’s assessment of science’s method is apt and whether a dialogue between the two ways of knowing might benefit the endeavors of both aesthetic and scientific inquiry. This dialogue may prove to be a fruitful and timely opportunity for both science and philosophy to make sense of novel phenomena such as global pandemics, climate change, or the advent of artificial intelligence, all of which pose challenges to classically rationalistic or subject-centric scientific and philosophical systems.
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Papers by Adrian Razvan Sandru
My paper shall try to find a solution which similarly suits all situations and also deals with the possibility of discrimination coming from a person seeking tutoring. In doing this, I shall resort to philosophy in order to get to the root of possible discrimination and starting from there, work on the structure of communication to avoid discrimination. More precisely I will rely on the theory of “situatedness” postulated by Henrich Rombach (1987, 1988, 1994). Building on this, I shall show that individuals are situationally determined and that through these determinations their identity is constructed. At the same time, the situations themselves become situations only as they stand in relation to a certain subject. Thus, a co-creative game emerges in situated relations. This paper shall argue 1) that all tutoring sessions are situationally determined, 2) that the main situation of a session is constituted by the text in question, 3) that the textual situation is related to all situations that otherwise determine the two subjects involved in the tutoring process and 4) that through the text, every other determining situation can be addressed without the danger of discrimination.
Book Reviews by Adrian Razvan Sandru
Jean-Luc Marion’s new book Givenness and Revelation is a collection of the four Gifford Lectures Marion delivered in 2014. The book reiterates the concept of a saturated phenomenon as a pure given, which has been a recurrent theme of Marion’s works since God without Being. In Givenness and Revelation, however, the saturated phenomenon is analysed in its tight connection to revelation thought as Trinity and thus provides us with a powerful insight into Marion’s religious thought.
Books by Adrian Razvan Sandru
-Treats religious experience in the light of post-classical phenomenology
-Draws connections between the constitutive phenomenology and the naturalistic understanding of Homo religious
-Contributes towards an articulation of a descriptive psychology of religious experiencing
-Sets new directions for religious experience as a subject of philosophical research
draws connections between the constitutive phenomenology and the naturalistic understanding of Homo religious
For a long time, the philosophically difficult topic of religious experience has been on the sidelines of phenomenological research (with a notable exception of Anthony Steinbock, who focused on mysticism). The book The Problem of Religious Experience: Case Studies in Phenomenology, with Reflections and Commentaries brings together preeminent as well as emerging voices in the field, with fresh views on the topic. Originating from dialogues of the Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience, these two volumes cover a spectrum of phenomenological approaches, with a thematization of the field in the form of case studies. Contributions from theology, comparative religion, psychology and the philosophy of religion come together in the commentaries and meta-narrative written by Olga Louchakova-Schwartz (the editor). Volume I,The Primeval Showing of Religious Experience, examines religious experience with regard to its lived "interiority", in light of the problem of theego cogito, including the recent research on the embodiment of subjectivity and phenomenological materiality. Volume Ialso sheds light on religious experience in regard for the problems of its constitution, passive synthesis, the world, and otherness.Volume II, Doxastic Perspectives in the Phenomenology of Religious Experience, addresses the phenomenology of revelation, shows how different approaches treat the question of essence in religious experience (i.e., what is it that makes religious experience religious?), and demonstrates how religious experience contributes to the psychological horizon of meaning. The book identifies the "growing edges" in the phenomenological research of religious experience and is useful for psychologists, philosophers, and theologians alike.
Articles by Adrian Razvan Sandru
Weidtmann N., Wirtz F., Sandru A.R. (2021) Nicht-westliche Gemeinwohlkonzeptionen. In: Hiebaum C. (eds) Handbuch Gemeinwohl. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-21086-1_16-1
Conference Presentations by Adrian Razvan Sandru
Books edited by Adrian Razvan Sandru
DESCRIPTION
While Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) has received much attention across diverse fields, it has remained somewhat overlooked in scientific discourse. The aim of this issue is to bring Graham Harman’s OOO into dialogue with contemporary perspectives on and from science. By doing so, we hope to bring to light novel dimensions of both OOO and scientific inquiry. We encourage interdisciplinary participation from a broad range of disciplines.
Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology proposes that knowledge comes in three forms: undermining (downward reduction to an underlying reality), overmining (upward reduction to a grounding system), and their combination in duomining (simultaneous reductions in both directions). Within this general framework, Harman makes a finer distinction between two styles of knowing that may inform a critical analysis of science, its practices, and narratives from a novel perspective. On one side, Harman speaks of a literal style of knowing that takes phenomena to be the sum of their features as they appear to us. On the other side, he describes a metaphorical one that hints at the infinite interiority of objects and brings about the awareness that there is always more to them than meets the eye. Harman argues that literalism is the mode by which science knows things, while the way that art and aesthetics approach objects is instead metaphorical. In contrast to literalism, which, according to OOO, ignores the tension between how an object appears in relation to other objects and what an object is, “the metaphor seems to give us the thing in its autonomy from the other things to which it relates" (Harman, 2018). In Harman’s reading, the metaphor suspends the sensuality of the object and alludes to its real core.
This topical issue will explore whether Harman’s assessment of science’s method is apt and whether a dialogue between the two ways of knowing might benefit the endeavors of both aesthetic and scientific inquiry. This dialogue may prove to be a fruitful and timely opportunity for both science and philosophy to make sense of novel phenomena such as global pandemics, climate change, or the advent of artificial intelligence, all of which pose challenges to classically rationalistic or subject-centric scientific and philosophical systems.
My paper shall try to find a solution which similarly suits all situations and also deals with the possibility of discrimination coming from a person seeking tutoring. In doing this, I shall resort to philosophy in order to get to the root of possible discrimination and starting from there, work on the structure of communication to avoid discrimination. More precisely I will rely on the theory of “situatedness” postulated by Henrich Rombach (1987, 1988, 1994). Building on this, I shall show that individuals are situationally determined and that through these determinations their identity is constructed. At the same time, the situations themselves become situations only as they stand in relation to a certain subject. Thus, a co-creative game emerges in situated relations. This paper shall argue 1) that all tutoring sessions are situationally determined, 2) that the main situation of a session is constituted by the text in question, 3) that the textual situation is related to all situations that otherwise determine the two subjects involved in the tutoring process and 4) that through the text, every other determining situation can be addressed without the danger of discrimination.
Jean-Luc Marion’s new book Givenness and Revelation is a collection of the four Gifford Lectures Marion delivered in 2014. The book reiterates the concept of a saturated phenomenon as a pure given, which has been a recurrent theme of Marion’s works since God without Being. In Givenness and Revelation, however, the saturated phenomenon is analysed in its tight connection to revelation thought as Trinity and thus provides us with a powerful insight into Marion’s religious thought.
-Treats religious experience in the light of post-classical phenomenology
-Draws connections between the constitutive phenomenology and the naturalistic understanding of Homo religious
-Contributes towards an articulation of a descriptive psychology of religious experiencing
-Sets new directions for religious experience as a subject of philosophical research
draws connections between the constitutive phenomenology and the naturalistic understanding of Homo religious
For a long time, the philosophically difficult topic of religious experience has been on the sidelines of phenomenological research (with a notable exception of Anthony Steinbock, who focused on mysticism). The book The Problem of Religious Experience: Case Studies in Phenomenology, with Reflections and Commentaries brings together preeminent as well as emerging voices in the field, with fresh views on the topic. Originating from dialogues of the Society for the Phenomenology of Religious Experience, these two volumes cover a spectrum of phenomenological approaches, with a thematization of the field in the form of case studies. Contributions from theology, comparative religion, psychology and the philosophy of religion come together in the commentaries and meta-narrative written by Olga Louchakova-Schwartz (the editor). Volume I,The Primeval Showing of Religious Experience, examines religious experience with regard to its lived "interiority", in light of the problem of theego cogito, including the recent research on the embodiment of subjectivity and phenomenological materiality. Volume Ialso sheds light on religious experience in regard for the problems of its constitution, passive synthesis, the world, and otherness.Volume II, Doxastic Perspectives in the Phenomenology of Religious Experience, addresses the phenomenology of revelation, shows how different approaches treat the question of essence in religious experience (i.e., what is it that makes religious experience religious?), and demonstrates how religious experience contributes to the psychological horizon of meaning. The book identifies the "growing edges" in the phenomenological research of religious experience and is useful for psychologists, philosophers, and theologians alike.
Weidtmann N., Wirtz F., Sandru A.R. (2021) Nicht-westliche Gemeinwohlkonzeptionen. In: Hiebaum C. (eds) Handbuch Gemeinwohl. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-21086-1_16-1
DESCRIPTION
While Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) has received much attention across diverse fields, it has remained somewhat overlooked in scientific discourse. The aim of this issue is to bring Graham Harman’s OOO into dialogue with contemporary perspectives on and from science. By doing so, we hope to bring to light novel dimensions of both OOO and scientific inquiry. We encourage interdisciplinary participation from a broad range of disciplines.
Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology proposes that knowledge comes in three forms: undermining (downward reduction to an underlying reality), overmining (upward reduction to a grounding system), and their combination in duomining (simultaneous reductions in both directions). Within this general framework, Harman makes a finer distinction between two styles of knowing that may inform a critical analysis of science, its practices, and narratives from a novel perspective. On one side, Harman speaks of a literal style of knowing that takes phenomena to be the sum of their features as they appear to us. On the other side, he describes a metaphorical one that hints at the infinite interiority of objects and brings about the awareness that there is always more to them than meets the eye. Harman argues that literalism is the mode by which science knows things, while the way that art and aesthetics approach objects is instead metaphorical. In contrast to literalism, which, according to OOO, ignores the tension between how an object appears in relation to other objects and what an object is, “the metaphor seems to give us the thing in its autonomy from the other things to which it relates" (Harman, 2018). In Harman’s reading, the metaphor suspends the sensuality of the object and alludes to its real core.
This topical issue will explore whether Harman’s assessment of science’s method is apt and whether a dialogue between the two ways of knowing might benefit the endeavors of both aesthetic and scientific inquiry. This dialogue may prove to be a fruitful and timely opportunity for both science and philosophy to make sense of novel phenomena such as global pandemics, climate change, or the advent of artificial intelligence, all of which pose challenges to classically rationalistic or subject-centric scientific and philosophical systems.