Living and Nonliving Occasionalism
Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology has employed a variant of occasionalist causation since 2002, with sensual objects acting as the mediators of causation between real objects. While the mechanism for living beings creating sensual objects is clear,...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
De Gruyter
2020-04-01
|
| Series: | Open Philosophy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2020-0010 |
| id |
doaj-63e9f1bac59c4acb95f7e4f3710522dc |
|---|---|
| record_format |
Article |
| spelling |
doaj-63e9f1bac59c4acb95f7e4f3710522dc2021-09-22T06:13:18ZengDe GruyterOpen Philosophy2543-88752020-04-013114716010.1515/opphil-2020-0010opphil-2020-0010Living and Nonliving OccasionalismWeir Simon0School of Architecture, Design & Planning, University of Sydney, Sydney, AustraliaGraham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology has employed a variant of occasionalist causation since 2002, with sensual objects acting as the mediators of causation between real objects. While the mechanism for living beings creating sensual objects is clear, how nonliving objects generate sensual objects is not. This essay sets out an interpretation of occasionalism where the mediating agency of nonliving contact is the virtual particles of nominally empty space. Since living, conscious, real objects need to hold sensual objects as sub-components, but nonliving objects do not, this leads to an explanation of why consciousness, in Object-Oriented Ontology, might be described as doubly withdrawn: a sensual sub-component of a withdrawn real object.https://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2020-0010graham harmanontologyobjectstimothy mortonvicariousscreeningvirtual particleconsciousness |
| collection |
DOAJ |
| language |
English |
| format |
Article |
| sources |
DOAJ |
| author |
Weir Simon |
| spellingShingle |
Weir Simon Living and Nonliving Occasionalism Open Philosophy graham harman ontology objects timothy morton vicarious screening virtual particle consciousness |
| author_facet |
Weir Simon |
| author_sort |
Weir Simon |
| title |
Living and Nonliving Occasionalism |
| title_short |
Living and Nonliving Occasionalism |
| title_full |
Living and Nonliving Occasionalism |
| title_fullStr |
Living and Nonliving Occasionalism |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Living and Nonliving Occasionalism |
| title_sort |
living and nonliving occasionalism |
| publisher |
De Gruyter |
| series |
Open Philosophy |
| issn |
2543-8875 |
| publishDate |
2020-04-01 |
| description |
Graham Harman’s Object-Oriented Ontology has employed a variant of
occasionalist causation since 2002, with sensual objects acting as the mediators of
causation between real objects. While the mechanism for living beings creating
sensual objects is clear, how nonliving objects generate sensual objects is not. This
essay sets out an interpretation of occasionalism where the mediating agency of
nonliving contact is the virtual particles of nominally empty space. Since living,
conscious, real objects need to hold sensual objects as sub-components, but nonliving
objects do not, this leads to an explanation of why consciousness, in Object-Oriented
Ontology, might be described as doubly withdrawn: a sensual sub-component of a
withdrawn real object. |
| topic |
graham harman ontology objects timothy morton vicarious screening virtual particle consciousness |
| url |
https://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2020-0010 |
| work_keys_str_mv |
AT weirsimon livingandnonlivingoccasionalism |
| _version_ |
1717371752878702592 |