Abstract
In this paper, I provide the outlines of an alternative meta philosophical orientation for Continental philosophy, namely, a form of scientific naturalism that has proximate roots in the work of Bachelard and Althusser. I describe this orientation as an "alternative" insofar as it provides a framework for doing justice to some of the motivations behind the recent revival of metaphysics in Continental philosophy, in particular its ecological-ethical motivations. In the second section of the paper, I demonstrate how ecological-ethical issues motivate new metaphysicians like Bruno Latour, Jane Bennett, Timothy Morton, Ian Bogost, and Graham Harman to impute to objects real features of agency. I also try to show how their commitments lead to deep ambiguities in their metaphysical projects. In the final section, I outline a type of scientific naturalism in Continental philosophy that parallels the sort of naturalism championed by Quine, both conceptually and historically, and suggest that it might serve our ecological-ethical purposes better.
Recommended Citation
Gamez, P. (2018). Metaphysics or Metaphors for the Anthropocene? Scientific Naturalism and the Agency of Things. Open Philosophy, 1(1), pp. 191-212. De Gruyter.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1515/opphil-2018-0014
Department(s)
Arts, Languages, and Philosophy
Publication Status
Open Access
Keywords and Phrases
Althusser; Bachelard; Continental philosophy; environmental ethics; non-anthropocentrism; speculative realism; vital materialism
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2543-8875
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2024 The Authors, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Sep 2018