The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism

by Levi Bryant (Editor), Nick Srnicek (Editor), Graham Harman (Editor)

Continental philosophy has entered a new period of ferment. The long deconstructionist era was followed with a period dominated by Deleuze, which has in turn evolved into a new situation still difficult to define. However, one common thread running through the new brand of continental positions is a renewed attention to materialist and realist options in philosophy. Among the leaders of the established generation, this new focus takes numerous forms. It might be hard to find many shared positions in the writings of Badiou, DeLanda, Laruelle, Latour, Stengers, and i ek, but what is missing from their positions is an obsession with the critique of written texts. All of them elaborate a positive ontology, despite the incompatibility of their results. Meanwhile, the new generation of continental thinkers is pushing these trends still further, as seen in currents ranging from transcendental materialism to the London-based speculative realism movement to new revivals of Derrida. As indicated by the title The Speculative Turn, the new currents of continental philosophy depart from the text-centered hermeneutic models of the past and engage in daring speculations about the nature of reality itself. This anthology assembles authors, of several generations and numerous nationalities, who will be at the centre of debate in continental philosophy for decades to come.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory, Nonfiction, Essays

430 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2010

About the author

Levi Bryant, born Paul Reginald Bryant, is a Professor of Philosophy at Collin College in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. Bryant has also written extensively about post-structural and cultural theory, including the work of Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Lacan, Jacques Rancière, and Slavoj Žižek.

Reviews

[Jan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a bit of a hodge-podge. On the editorial side, the job could be better. Other than conventional editing slips like typos and grammar, some of the essays don’t quite fit the volume as a whole. Contributions vary from very strong to being depressingly bad. Overall, the speculative turn has its powerful moments: Ray Brassier’s Concepts and Object, Reza Negarestani’s Drafting the Inhuman, Quentin Meillassoux’s Potential and Virtuality, Gabriel Catren’s Outland Empire and Nick Srnicek’s Capitalism and non-Philosophical Subject. I also find the quality of production atrocious (small fonts, bad typesetting, fuzzy letters, thin paper). Lengthy philosophical volumes like this should be at least printed in a decent way so they don’t give readers unnecessary headaches.

[David Peak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not great, but not terrible either. A lot of thought clearly went into sequencing the essays and, as a result, there's an impressive range of opinion. Standouts here include Ray Brassier's phenomenal "Concepts and Objects"; nearly half a dozen readings of Meillassoux's After Finitude; Steven Shaviro's "The Actual Volcano: Whitehead, Harman, and the Problem of Relations" (followed by Harman's persuasive response); and John Protevi's "Ontology, Biology, and History of Affect." Negarestani is here talking about something he terms "organic necrocracy" (Google it and you'll find the complete essay online--it's pretty great). The rest of the bunch--especially the stuff that leans closer to politics and science--is hit or miss, but never as fun or fresh as the essays exploring speculative realism and metaphysics. Complaints regarding the book's production quality, which put me off buying it for nearly a year, are grossly exaggerated. That being said, I do have to agree with another reviewer here that inserting random Greek words into your essay for no readily discernible reason is just...such wankery.

[Alex Obrigewitsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection, like the intellectual trend that it seeks to explicate or provide a structural expression for, is polarizing not only externally, amongst its readers, but also internal to the "movement" itself - which differing and non-complementary agendas, varying levels of credability and utility or value, etc. The collection is of value in that it contains some works (not to be found elsewhere) of excellent scholarship and important speculative questioning. The rest is either superfluous or absolute fodder for the flames of the academic inferno.

Grant's pieces are excellent (as always), as well as Brassier's acidic critique of Latour and those associated with his problematic theory of networks. Srnicek provides a helpful overview of Laruelle's project, which translates the turgid prose of the latter so as to retain the questions' value without having to wade through neologicstic termanomania. Negarestani's essay follows a critical line via Freud through Land and Brassier, tending toward his contemporary thought of the inhuman (though yet to fully shed its skin and emerge as the analytic hybrid prose of Intelligence and Spirit). Žižek's piece was interesting, though in all still too Žižek, and Meillassoux in a similar position: as always with his thought, I am left agonized as to whether it is of radical purport or if it is absolutely superfluous and the kat' exochen instance of high academic wankery (in the most respectful way possible; not rubbish, but also totally contingent concerning whether you ever read it or not, ultimately spurqlling into a nihilistic abyss). De Labda offers some classic De Landa, and Protevi provides a reading of affect theory and developmental ontology spliced with developmental biology which establishes the pathway for interesting future thoughts of the human and non-human future and future-past to be mapped out philo-scientifically.

Finally, if nothing else, this volume is worth purchasing for Gabriel Catren's essay alone. Always the idiosyncratic thinker, here blending Hegelian speculative and absolute idealism with Physics, as well as utilizing poetic elements from the poetry of Rilke, Catren geographically explores the space of an earth freed from the shackles of the stable and sterile world - jettisoned from its derivative relation to the sun, subjected to its place beneath the sky, this revolution ruptures beyond the Copernican, into the open void of absolute space - the infinite Absolute which is reflectively inscribed upon the heart. Or, perhaps better, the blood which flows through, or around, the heart - the anonymous life which Empedocles marked out as thought. Thought, absolutely, is speculatively liberated from the human, and through the perverse epoché that Catren lays out, the sciences are opened onto a thought of the outside, absolved of perspective through perceiving and perceiving through the Absolute.

Ps. Unsure if the printing issues and quality were symptomatic of the earlier copies, for though I found multiple editing errors that were missed, the text size and clarity was not as much of a restrictive obstacle to reading as some other reviews suggest.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll write a review later but I agree with the other reviewers about the poor production quality of this book and inconsistent quality of contributions. The Latourian and panpsychist stuff are truly awful, new-ageish bourgeoisie metaphysics with a pinch of marxism to look responsible and a LOT of ego. The attempt of one of the editors to feign scholarly writing by riddling his essay with greek words is especially hilarious. It's continental philosophy at its worst. But I agree, there are some essays which redeem this book in-the-last-instance and exemplify the secateurs war cover image. Gabriel Catren against Laruelle and Heidegger, Ray Brassier against well we know who, Reza Negarestani versus Nick Land and Ray Brassier, Adrian Johnston against Quentin Meillassoux, the list doesn't go much further.

[Eric Phetteplace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had to put this on hold because I'm reading four other books and have no time for it. Not very impressed so far: font is tiny which is horrible in such a thoughtful work, and essays vary from trivial and uninteresting to excellent (Brassier's has so far been the best).

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una excelente compilación de textos de diversas corrientes vinculadas con los nuevos materialismos, el realismo especulativo y la OOO. Particularmente interesantes son las discusiones en torno a las obras de Harman y de Meillasoux, así como el hecho de que Badiou y Zizek, como una especie de "últimos" filósofos continentales (¿posestructuralistas?) legitimen, a su modo, el volumen. Como siempre ocurre, algunos capítulos son más interesantes que otros. Destaco:
- la defensa del materialismo especulativo de Meillasoux que hace Nathan Brown;
- la deriva política de Nick Srnicek a partir de Laruelle;
- el delirio cósmico de Reza Negarestani sobre Freud y Land.

[Slow Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brassier's Concepts and Objects is one of the best philosophical essays of the century so far. Rest can't help but be middling in comparison

[Zornitsa Dimitrova · Rating 4 out of 5]

i don't think it's terrible. there were some litanies and bits of unnecessary pomp, yet there's also this newness and sense of invention. and that's just the beginning, i believe. having read an electronic version, i never even had the chance to get angry about the printing quality of the volume.

[Filippo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A review can be accessed at
http://krisis.eu/content/2011-3/krisi...