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Home , Nick Land, Ray Brassier, Speculative realism

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cal constitution of thought, and the nature of sub- and Heresies ject-independent objects.1

Anna Longo First of all we have to notice that Speculative Université Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne Realism is not a doctrine, nor a school, nor a (France) movement, but an “umbrella term”2 gather- ing together heterogeneous thinkers who share nothing but a common enemy: corre- lationism. This name was given by Meillas- 1. Speculative Realism soux to indicate every philosophy that since Kant has considered that knowledge must be peculative realism is the title of a entangled within the relation between hu- workshop held on April 27th 2007 at man subject and object: the first organizes the Goldsmiths University in Lon- the given impressions in order to represent don.S Four participants were on the program the latter. For Correlationism we cannot of that unforgettable event: , know things as they are in themselves, in , and their autonomous being, but we have to limit . All the debate was re- knowledge to things as they are for us: we corded and transcribed in a special issue of cannot access reality beyond our experience Collapse, the journal that has been support- of it. In other words, thanks to a priori struc- ing Speculative Realism since the beginning tures, it is possible to organize sense data in and that is still following its developments. coherent representations, but it is not possi- This is a quote from the introduction by the ble to know if the objects determining our editor Robin Mackay: impression are actually like they are given to us. After Kant, philosophy stopped ques- Rather than announcing the advent of a new theo- tioning about the metaphysical reason for retical ‘doctrine’ or ‘school’, the event conjoined the adequacy of knowledge and started to be four ambitious philosophical projects – all of which interested in finding the best conventional boldly problematise the subjectivistic and anthropo- centric foundations of much of “continental phi- rules for representing phenomena. Thus the losophy” while differing significantly in their re- only feature shared by Brassier, Grant, spective strategies for superseding them. It is pre- cisely this uniqueness of each participant that al- lowed a fruitful discussion to emerge. Alongside the 1 Brassier, Grant, Harman, Meillassoux, “Specula- articulation of various challenges to certain idealistic tive Realism”, in Collapse III: Unknown Deleuze, premises, a determination of the obstacles that any Robin Mackay editor, Urbanomic, London 2007, p. contemporary realism must surmount was equally 307. in effect. Accordingly, some of the key issues under 2 Graham Harman used this expression in the intro- scrutiny included the status of science and episte- duction of Speculative Turn (Briant, Harman, mology in , the ontologi- Srnicek editors, Re.Press, Victoria 2011).

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Harman and Meillassoux’s speculation is the lows to dismiss the metaphysical belief in the effort to overcome correlationism in order to necessity of this world’s order and in God as access the subject independent reality of the reason for the world being like this things in themselves, beyond representation, rather than otherwise. To reach this absolute beyond the way they are given within the re- and subject independent truth about any vir- lation with human subjects. This does not tually possible fact, Meillassoux starts ques- mean to go back to a pre-critical metaphysi- tioning correlationism and its anti-dogmatic cal thinking, rather the project aims to de- achievements. Since correlationist philoso- velop a new embracing the ra- phers have to admit that the correlation tional anti-dogmatic achievements of criti- could be destroyed and that there is no way cism. In this paper I will outline the different of demonstrating the necessity of a specific a strategies proposed by the Goldsmiths’ priori organization, Meillassoux claims that workshop’s participants , then I will offer an the correlation must be assumed as contin- overview of the more recent developments gent. This implies that it is not possible to of Speculative realism by introducing more prove the necessity of the causal connection recent tendencies like Object Oriented Ontol- that we apply to link the impressions in or- ogy and . der to predict future effects. Thus, from a correlationist point of view, it is not possible to prove the necessity of natural laws, like 2. Quentin Meillassoux: After Fini- Hume already knew. The question, then, tude becomes: why has nobody claimed that the laws are contingent, although nobody suc- uentin Meillassoux’s Après la fini- ceeded in demonstrating their necessity? It is tude, translated in English by Ray because we experience the stability of the Q Brassier as After finitude3 provoqued laws of physics, because we see that the same the wave of anti-correlationist awareness causes are regularly followed by the same ef- that brought about the meeting of the Gold- fects. Accordingly, we have the tendency to smiths. The book presents a brilliant ration- believe that laws cannot change and that alistic demonstration of the absolute contin- there is reason making them to be thus gency of reality which is attained by over- rather than otherwise. If laws were contin- coming correlationism from the inside. Con- gent, in fact, we would expect to see them tingency is assumed to be an absolute feature change frequently, thus the evidence of their of any possible fact that can be affirmed in- stability is assumed to prove their necessity dependently of experience. Moreover, it al- and to support the idea of a transcendent reason for the order of the world. But, Meil- lassoux claims, there is a mistake in this rea- 3 Q. Meillassoux, After Finitude. Essay on the neces- soning which consists in thinking that con- sity of contingency, Continuum, London 2008. tingent laws must change frequently. Refer-

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ring to the set theory, in fact, he explains an absolutely contingent way: everything that the mistake derives from an erroneous can happen at any time, even nothing. Since application of the probability calculus to a the laws of this and all the other possible non-totalizable set, like the set of all the worlds can be exactly mathematically for- imaginable mathematical functions describ- malized, reality is absolutely contingent but ing possible laws of physics. Actually, we totally rational. This implies that we can are allowed to apply probability only to to- mathematically describe all the virtually pos- talizable sets, like the set of the six sides of a sible facts even if nobody is there to perceive dice. If a dice fell always on the same of its them. six sides, we are driven to think that there is a trick, a reason for the same number to be drawn at every throw. But it is not possible 3. Iain Hamilton Grant: Philosophy to calculate the probability of something in- of Nature after Shelling cluded in a non-totalizable set, like the set of the rationally acceptable physical laws: we ain Hamilton Grant’s subject independ- should not be surprised if a hypothetical dice ent reality has almost nothing in com- with a non-totalizable number of faces falls mon with Meillassoux’s, as every specu- always on the same side. In this way, the ob- Ilative realist elaborated his anti-correlationist served stability of laws does not exclude strategy from a very different starting point. their contingency: the fact that they do not Meillassoux’s references are Descartes, change frequently does not imply their ne- Hume, Kant and Badiou, by contrast Grant’s cessity. Thus Meillassoux can declare that, work is based on Shelling, and Deleuze although we do not observe them changing, and it aims to create a new realist philosophy natural laws are contingent: the fact that we of nature inspired by Idealism. In Philosophy cannot prove their necessity is not due to the of nature after Shelling4, Schelling is presented limitation of our understanding regarding as the who first understood na- the metaphysical reason for their stability, ture as having its own history that extends far but to their absolute contingency, to the ac- deeper into the past than was ever before ac- tual absence of a reason for them to be in a knowledged, while even now producing certain way or otherwise. Contingency be- forms in excess of what human understanding ing the only rational necessity that we must might make of them. Dispensing with the acknowledge to laws, we have to state that sharp separation between organic and inor- they can change at any time but also that ganic, Schelling unveiled in nature a material they do not have to change. This means that vitalism that rescues matter from the category we do not need a God to be the origin of the order of the world because the world we 4 make experience of is just one of the virtu- I.H.Grant, Philosophy of Nature after Shelling, London: Continuum 2008. ally infinite possible that can be actualized in

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of the inert and mechanical to which Kant and ops, is not simply a speculative physics but a Fichte had relegated it. For Grant, Ideas per- specifically Platonic physics that endeavors to tain to nature and must be considered as actu- understand that which is darkest and most ob- alities rather than mental subjective principles: scure: matter itself as the last instance of the they are the natural tendencies driving the real. For Grant reality is nature as condition flux of becoming whose thought and subject for production of everything, thought in- are nothing but products. Since there is only cluded, for this reason nature always exceeds one process always becoming according to our knowledge. The thinking subject is just a immanent nature’s ideas, thinking must be ac- product of the nature and he is part of the knowledged as a natural production taking process of becoming of everything, thus con- part into the production. That is the reason cepts are considered to be determined by na- why Deleuze is considered by Grant one of ture’s ideas rather that by subjective a-priori the few contemporary who de- structures. veloped Shelling’s philosophy of nature. To explain natural production, Grant introduces a special sort of causality, that cannot be 4. Ray Brassier : Nihil Unbound equated to a teleological one, nor to an effi- cient cause. The “becoming of being”, in fact, his inversion of the position of the is the becoming that being undergoes pre- transcendental, that becomes the cisely because becoming is dependent on an real’s determinant for the concept, is end that it cannot attain, this end is the Idea, Tshared by Ray Brassier’s transcendental real- whose function is similar to that of the attrac- ism that aims to explain how concepts differ- tors of dynamical systems. Grant’s philoso- entiates from the real and how it is possible to phy of nature is neither “pulled” by ends nor know the real despite its being the non- “pushed” by beginnings, so that the becoming conceptualizable condition of conceptualiza- of being must be considered as the being of be- tion. In other words, the question is: how is it coming. Grant’s surprising move is that he not possible to think what cannot be an object of only pits Schelling against both Kant and Ar- thought, the last instance of the real as non istotle, but he does so in the name of Plato. objectifiable condition of objectification? His evidence is a commentary on Plato’s Ti- How is it possible to think the immanent de- maeus written by a very young Schelling. terminant of the correlation allowing the de- Central to the text is the idea that the world termination of objects in thought? As Brassier had not only primal matter at its base, but explains in Nihil Unbound,5 the question can matter in movement, which indicates the exis- be answered only by a radicalization of nihil- tence of a world soul. Indeed, the entire earth can be understood as arising out of and 5 through the force of its own inner magnetism. R. Brassier, Unbound. Enlightenment and Extinc- tion, Palgrave Macmillan, London 2007. What Schelling offers, and what Grant devel-

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ism, which to him is the highest point attained subject and it must be conceived as being- by the rationalistic project of Enlightenment. nothing. Being-nothing, as the last instance of is not just a skeptical attitude to- the real, is the zero degree of being which ward values, but the idea that truth does not does not correspond to a negative non-being correspond to the meaning that humans pre- opposed to a positive being, but it is the im- tend to find in the world. Nihilism leads to as- manent condition of being from which any sume the indifference of the reality to any determined being differentiate, without the subjective need and pushes reason to follow former differentiates from the latter in retour. its own interests. In another words, a con- It is what Laruelle calls “non-dialectical uni- tinuation must be given to nihilism in order to lateral determination in the last instance”. accomplish the program of disenchantment Then, thinking cannot objectify the real, so it which is the authentic rational aim accompa- cannot actually “know” it, but it can recog- nying the understanding of the absolute inde- nize that objects in thought are effectuated in pendency of the real from any relation to hu- the same way as objects differentiate from the man subjects. That implies to reshape the im- real as being-nothing. In other words, age of man built by philosophy within the thought effectuates the objectification of ob- frame of a meaningful world. Thus, following jects without differentiating from these ob- , Brassier claims that philoso- jects, it is like the zero degree of objectifica- phy should stop to contribute only to the con- tion of objects in thought. struction of the manifest image of man to take Therefore, it is not possible to represent into account the scientific image, where hu- the real by objectifying it, but it is possible to man cognition can be analyzed like an object think according to the real: that means to imi- independent of the pursuit of meaning. tate it in effectuating determinations without Only this analysis would allow to under- differentiating from said determinations; it stand how cognition actually works and how means to be the immanent non-determined it is determined by the absolute indifference of condition of determination. Thus, thinking the real. But what is the real as subject inde- can grasp the real only thinking according to pendent? To answer this question Brassier it, recognizing itself essentially as being- follows François Laruelle’s Non-philosophy nothing, as the zero degree of being. Thus, which defines the real as what is situated out- thinking according to the real consists in rec- side the circle of philosophical decision, that ognizing that the will to know is actually a establishes the relation between subjective will to nothing, the will of equating the real as conditioning and conditioned objects. Thus, being-nothing: what Freud called . the real is the non-determined allowing every That’s why in Nihil unbound, Brassier claims determination, the non-conceptualizable al- that “Thinking has interests that do not coin- lowing any conceptualization. Since it is situ- cide with those of the living, indeed they can ated beyond the circle of determination, the real cannot be determined like a being by the

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and have been pitted against the latter”6 and that can be understood only by considering that “Philosophers would do well to desist it as a special whole, as a specific being. In from issuing any further injunctions about the Harman’s , which is populated only need to re-establish the meaningfulness of ex- by objects and where everything is an ob- istence, the purposefulness of life, or mend the ject, any object has the same rights as any shattered concord between man and nature. other and the same degree of reality: an Philosophy should be more than a sop to the atom, a cat, a stone, a mailbox, a tree, Santa pathetic twinge of human self-esteem”7. Be- Claus, a cloud, 10 Euros and Mona Lisa. In cause he states that traditional projections Harman’s ontology all the objects, inor- looking for a meaningful interpretation of the ganic, organic, big, small, visible, invisible, world should be dismissed as well as what Sel- simple, composed, concrete, abstract, living lars defined “Folk Psychology”, Brassier is an or dead, are on an equal footing. Not only allied of eliminativism, a reductionist position does Harman refuse the scientific idea that claiming that the manifest image of man can objects can be reduced to the simpler objects be explained analyzing the functioning of the composing them, like it happens in physics, brain and that many complex effects can be but he also refuses to consider objects as accounted for considering simpler and lower they appear to human subjects, or as they are levels of material organization. In other given within their relation to human sub- words, cognition must be explained as deter- jects, like it happens in phenomenology. mined by the real in a non-dialectical way as Realism, here, means to understand the differentiating unilaterally from being- specific way of being of any object nothing. independently from its composition and from any relation that can be established with human subjects and any other non- 5. Graham Harman : Guerrilla Meta- human object. From this point of view, physics Harman considers that the first object oriented philosopher was Heidegger, as it haracterizing Brassier’s speculative would be clear from his interpretation of the strategy, eliminativism and reduc- famous tool analysis of Being and Time. tionism are refused by Graham Despite the fact that the German CHarman, whose Object Oriented Philosophy philosopher was mostly interested in the (OOP) affirms that no entity can be ex- ’s existential condition, he stated that plained by reducing it to its simplest parts objects are different from the relations they because any object has a specific character can enter in: objects are in themselves what withdraw from all relations. This splits between the object and its relations, or be- 6 Brassier, op. cit., p. XI. tween the object as it appears in any interac- 7 Ibidem. tion (with humans and non humans) and the object as it is in its secret inaccessible inti- ISSUE VI – NUMBER 1 – SUMMER 2014 PHILOSOPHICAL READINGS 32 ARTICLES

macy, is the first fundamental trait of the ac- to both the questions is “vicarious causa- tual way of being of objects8. But for Har- tion”. This is a special cause that allows the man there is another fundamental rift sepa- communication between entities which are rating the object as a unity, as an intentional not directly communicating: it is a mediated object in Husserl’s sense, from the multiplic- causality that, like God in Occasionalism, ity of its traits and qualities. Because any ob- makes two objects change together as one ject results divided between its public and determined the change of the other without private life and between its unity and multi- any actual interaction between them. “Vi- plicity, Harman speaks of a quadruple phi- carious causation” is the answer to both the losophy, that has the merit of avoiding the questions because the way in which an ob- dualistic partition of classical metaphysics. ject enters into relation with another is not Traditionally, in fact, there is a separation basically different from the way in which an between a world of transcendent models en- object relates to the multiplicity of its parts joying a full reality, and a world of appear- in order to unify them. If there is nothing ances enjoying a lower degree of being. On but objects, then we must consider that the the contrary, for Harman any object is as multiplicity of traits and qualities of an ob- real as any other and the it is not ject are nothing but objects that are vicari- between an authentic world and a simulacral ously bounded together to make a new ob- one, but between any object and itself, be- ject, whose inaccessible core withdraws. tween its public and its private life, between Thus, vicarious causation explains how the its multiplicity and its unity. This ontologi- four poles of an object can cross, it explains cal frame given, what has to be explained is how an object enters into a relation with the way in which objects can interact despite other objects, including the objects which the fact that they always withdraw from any are its parts. As a consequence, any object relation. In other words the question is: how must be conceived as a multiplicity of ob- can objects touch without touching? Guer- jects vicariously bounded together to merge rilla Metaphysics9 deals with this problem in a new object showing its own style or spe- and with another not less difficult question: cial character as a unity. Vicarious causation how can an object unify the multiplicity of can be understood as the mediation allowing its traits? The answer provided by Harman objects to fusion in a new object, but how does it happen? It happens within the phe-

8 Harman deals with the issue concerning Heideg- nomena that Harman calls “allure”, when an ger’s approach to objects in his doctoral dissertation object perceives another object not just as a published in 2002 as Tool-Being: Heidegger and the variable surface of multiple traits and quali- Metaphysics of Objects (Chigago: Open Court) ties, but as a unity possessing special notes: 9 G. Harman, Guerrilla Metaphysics: phenomenology objects merge together by means of notes, and the carpentry of things, Open Court, Chicago interacting as sensuous intentional objects. It 2005. is just overcoming the disturbing noise of

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the multiplicity of traits, which are immedi- point human access to objects does not enjoy ately perceived when an object encounters any privilege since vicarious causation inter- another object, that the two can access their venes mediating between every object. unified being and merge together. This the way in which two object can vicariously in- teract without touching: their cores with- 6. Other realisms: Object Oriented draw but their notes allow them to touch Ontology without touching. Anyway, since vicarious causation allows an object to bound other t is evident that the four described ways objects as its parts, we must conclude that of accessing the great outdoor are very objects always communicate on the interior different and they support heterogene- of another object, even when we do not con- ousI conceptions of what the real is. Because sider the product. For example, when I per- of this variety of strategies and solutions, it ceive an object, I encounter immediately the is clear that Speculative realism cannot be noise of the multiplicity of its surface quali- identified as a coherent movement or as a ties, but when allure happens, then I per- school, despite all the involved personalities ceive the object as a special unity, as an in- share the same enemy: correlationism. Since tentional or sensuous object and I recognize the workshop at the Goldsmiths, this already it as a unity whose intimacy withdraws. heterogeneous “speculative turn”10 has been Then, if I start thinking of what happened I rapidly spreading all over the world and to- realize that the object and me have entered day it can pride itself of a surprising variety into a relation producing another object: of contributions and developments, as well perception. Thus we can say that any object as of the involvement of an increasing num- interacts with any other object inside a third ber of thinkers. The debate has been increas- object. In fact, as there is nothing but ob- ing by the means of new medium, at least for jects, relations must be considered objects philosophical discussions, like blogs, inter- too: the relation of two sensuous objects net websites and non academic journals. A produces a third object, thus objects always lot of people all over the world started post- interact inside other objects. Harman’s real- ing their comments and suggestions, some- ity is made of objects which are always in- times offering clever and original remarks, side other objects, and, even if the interior of sometimes producing a sort of vulgarization an object always withdraws from any rela- tion, we are always inside objects. As a con- 10 Speculative Turn is the title of book edited by Levi sequence, in Harman’s reality there is no Bryant, Nick Srnicek and Graham Harman that in transcendence but a certain metaphysics is 2011 try to make a map of the different positions required to explain the vicarious causation raised after the workshop “Speculative Realism”, allowing objects to touch without touching. sharing the anti-correlationist inspiration and de- veloping original standpoints. It is also clear that from Harman’s stand-

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of the original ideas. That’s why Brassier re- Speculative Realism, Object Oriented Ontology fuses to recognize the existence of an interna- (OOO) is one of the most solid and followed tional and spread Speculative Realism Move- philosophical tendencies sharing the princi- ment. ples of Harman’s Object Oriented Philosophy. OOO is a compact movement based on some The ‘speculative realist movement’ exists only in the precise theoretical asumptions: ontology is imaginations of a group of bloggers promoting an made of nothing but all possible objects; all agenda for which I have no sympathy whatsoever: objects are on an equal footing; objects exist actor-network theory spiced with pan-psychist meta- physics and morsels of . I don’t independently of human perception; objects believe the is an appropriate medium for se- are not exhausted by their different relations. rious philosophical debate; nor do I believe it is ac- Since the publication of Tool being12, a num- ceptable to try to concoct a philosophical movement ber of theorists working in a variety of disci- online by using blogs to exploit the misguided enthu- plines have adapted Harman’s ideas, includ- siasm of impressionable graduate students. I agree ing philosophy professor , litera- with Deleuze’s remark that ultimately the most basic task of philosophy is to impede stupidity, so I see lit- ture and ecology scholar , tle philosophical merit in a ‘movement’ whose most video game designer Ian Bogost and French signal achievement thus far is to have generated an writer . To give an example of online orgy of stupidity.11 an object oriented approach different from Harman’s, we will outline the principles of It is certainly true that today is difficult to say Briant’s Onticology13. The first principle is what Speculatuive realism is since the already that “there is no difference that does not heterogeneous anti-correlationism of the be- make a difference”14, it means that any object ginning has been differentiating and it has is a difference in being. The second is called taken new forms developing in a variety of Principle of the Inhuman and asserts that the directions. What is sure is that we are experi- concept of difference producing difference is encing a major event in the history of phi- not restricted to human, since difference is losophy because of the non-academic internet independent of knowledge and conscious- based diffusion and because of the revolu- tionary anti-correlationist will: the concrete 12 G. Harman, Tool-being: Heidegger and the Meta- consequences can only be evaluated in the fu- physics of objects, Open Court, Chicago 2002. 13 ture. Levy Briant’s main book for understanding Onticol- Amongst the more recent developments ogy is The democracy of objects, available to download from the Open Humanities Press web site (openhu- demanding a place under the umbrella of manitiespress.org/democracy-of-objects.html). He also writes a blog called Larval subjects 11 Ray Brassier interviewed by Marcin Rychter in (http://larvalsubjects.wordpress.com) where he dis- Kronos, March 4, 2011. cuss the mains concepts of his philosophy and other http://www.kronos.org.pl/index.php?23151,896 topics related to OOO and Speculative Realisme. (visited on March 11, 2014) 14 The Speculative Turn, cit., p. 263.

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ness. The third states that “if a difference is sumed by Brassier, in fact, implies the elimi- made, then the being is”15, which means that nation of all the non objective beliefs based to be means to be a difference, thus, there are on the human need of providing a sense for objects (differences) or there is nothing. For his existence in the world, productions that Briant all beings are real in the same sense — are not determined according to the real in including fictions, signs, animals, and the interest of rationality, but according to plants— as they are all differences. Moreo- meaningful narrations. This rationalistic ver, all objects are themselves composed of pursuit of the properness of reason beyond differences. Referring to its own ontology, humanistic perspectives, has been recently Bryant has also proposed the concept of embraced by the Iranian philosopher Reza “wilderness ontology”, in order to indicate Negarestani. Hosted on the Urbanomic that agency is shared by all objects and not website, his blog Deracinating effect16 gathers only by humans, that there is no ontological together the last talks and public interven- hierarchy nor any bifurcation between nature tions on the autonomy of reason and the and culture. process of its own becoming. Following ra- tional achievements of Enlightenment, it would be time to turn reason against human- 7. and Accelera- ism in order to acknowledge the process of tionism thinking itself merely to recreate the notion of “human”. This rationalistic turn in Ne- he interest in agency, the refusal to garestani’s thought comes with his forth- make distinctions between con- coming theoretical fiction novel The Morti- crete and abstract objects, and the loquist17, where “the history of philosophy is, Tmilitant anti -reductionism make of OOO barbarically and problematically, revealed to one of the targets of Brassier’s criticism. To be a differential form of arborescent empti- him, in fact, the goal is to pursuit the En- ness which is in the process of blackening its lightenment’s disenchantment of the world, vitalistic twists”18. This novel follows his following contemporary scientific achieve- first philosophical science-fiction novel, Cy- ments especially in the field of cognition. clonopedia19, which is partially inspired by Thus, for him the object oriented approach is just an indiscriminate extension of folk psychology (in Sellars’s sense) on entities that 16 http://blog.urbanomic.com/cyclon/ (08/03/2014) do not deserve to be considered real since 17 R. Negarestani, The Mortiloquist, Urbanomic, they derived from false subjective beliefs London 2014. and narrations. The reductionist credo as- 18 http://www.urbanomic.com/pub_mortiloquist.php (08/03/2014) 19 R. Negarestani, Cyclonopedia: Complicity with 15 Ibid., p. 269. anonymous materials, Re.press, Victoria 2008.

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Nick Land’s Geocosmic Theory of Trauma20 the reality of trauma as the subject inde- and aims to explain capitalism through the pendent determinant of subjectivity. reality of the traumas bringing about the dy- Negarestani and Brassier, whose interests namic of terrestrial economy. The latter toward a realist explanation of the autonomy would have been modeled according to the of rationality converge, are also involved in relation between the Earth and the Sun, the what Benjamin Noys called Accelerationism21 excessive energy of which demands the to criticize ’s deleuzoguattarian planet to manage the surplus that will even- approach of capitalism. Accelerationism is to- tually consume it and its living inhabitants to day one of most discussed and productive death. As a part of this solar economy, capi- branches which pride themselves of some talism appears as a thanatropic machine that sort of participation in the anti-correlationist unlocks the earth’s resources, especially fos- philosophical turn. A manifesto of Accelera- sil fuels, to make them available for dissolu- tionism has recently been published by Nick tion. Therefore capitalism can be seen as a Srnicek and Alex Williams22 and a big sym- process of acceleration of the consumption posium has been held in Berlin last Decem- of the Earth by the Sun. Negarestani’s pro- ber. The movement has the realistic aim to posal consists in suggesting that this model analyze capitalism as an autonomous entity, must be revised since the Sun is not the ab- as a subject independent system whose ends solute (i.e. the origin and the end of life), but are not necessarily humans’ ends. This point the relation between the Earth and the Sun is of departure can be found in Land’s writings part of a larger universal frame. In other which claim that matter is the last instance of words, we have to open the perspective that the real and that it must be conceived as has been transcendentally conditioned by the production of production: so capitalism is relation between the Earth and the Sun in part of this original flux. The problem is that order to be able to think the reality of uni- the functional dynamics of capitalism consist versal economy and to access the great out- in reterritorializing what it has deterritorial- side. Terrestrial economy should be open to ized, so that it slows down the intensification the cosmic economy of trauma to liberate process that should be liberated. In order in- thought from the slavery of solar economy’s tensify the process, that means to think ac- transcendental frame and to understand its cording to the absolutely deterritorialized actual reality and interests. That would al- low to overcome geocentric and anthropo- 21 B. Noys, The Persistence of the Negative: A Critique centric points of view and to take in account of Contemporary Continental Theory, Edimburg Uni- versity press, Edimburg 2010. 22 N. Srnicek and A. Williams, “Accelerate Mani- 20 N. Land, Fanged Noumena. Collecting writings festo for an Accelerationist Politics”, in Dark Tra- 1987 – 2007. Brassier and Mackay editors, Urba- jectories: politics of the outside, J. Johnson editor, nomic, London 2011. [name], Hong Kong 2013.

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matter which constitutes the last instance of day nobody is able to offer a solution to the the real, Land claims that it is necessary ac- crisis which is annihilating our society since celerate Capitalism beyond its limits. The the situation demands a realist analysis of the fact is that speeding capitalism in this way system as it is in itself: that would allow to implies to attain death: matter as the abso- acknowledge the underlying forces driving lutely deterritorialized zero degree of being. its becoming and the reason for the present That’s why Land conceives capitalism like a stagnation. For Snirneck and Williams, in force whose purpose lies beyond the interest fact, Land’s analysis is not totally correct be- of humanity and, to him, to approach capi- cause the speed of capitalism alone seems not talism in a realist way consists of under- to be enough to provoke the transition to standing its autonomous drive independ- another organization if the process keeps the ently of humans’ interests: the continuation same rules. Their accelerationist suggestion or intensification of the process demands the asserts that an experimentation of new rules elimination of humanity as a substrate for of developments is needed in order to make the process. Because in Land’s theory, mat- the becoming become. Capitalism, as Marx ter is the last instance of real as the limit of already noticed, cannot be considered the being or “zero degree”, because matter is agent of its own acceleration, but it must be what determines everything as production of overcome by producing a radical change of production, even thought, and because to the constraints of the present conception of think according to the real as matter’s pure value. This can be attained only by pushing intensity implies death, it is now clear why forward technological advancement in order Brassier is interested in Accelerationism and to solve social conflicts by eliminating the why he usually contributes to the discussion. necessity of labor: the paradox to be solved Moreover, it is clear that Negarestani’s theo- consists in the fact that everybody wants to retical approach aims to take further Land’s work less but, even if we have the technol- solar-economical conclusion to open capital- ogy to accomplish this dream, we are all ism to the great outside of the universe. working more. What prevents us from solv- Talking about Accelerationism, it is not ing the problem is the fact that capitalism possible to forget Snirneck and Williams’ constrained technology directing it towards Accelerate Manifesto. Starting from Land’s narrow ends rather than employing it to lib- positions, these young philosophers are cre- erate humanity from labor, which would be ating an original criticism of capitalism by the cause of social differences and abuses. accelerating the process that has been The goal of accelerationism, in its will to blocked by neo-liberalism. Rather than de- free all the power of technological and scien- nying the possibility of a future for human- tific advances, consists in unleashing latent ity, it would be necessary to liberate capital- productive forces in order to launch them ism’s creative forces and to allow a new fu- towards post-capitalism, towards a new pos- ture to come. Their starting point is that to- sible future bringing about a new, more

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equal end free society. As we read on the politics, this branch of Speculative realism is Manifesto: today the most alive and productive in many different domains like politics, aesthetics, art We want to accelerate the process of technological and economy. evolution. But what we are arguing for is not techno-utopianism. Never believe that technology will be sufficient to save us. Necessary, yes, but never sufficient without socio-political action. 8. Nuovo Realismo Whereas the techno-utopians argue for acceleration on the basis that it will automatically overcome so- efore concluding, we will comment cial conflict, our position is that technology should on Maurizio Ferraris’ Nuovo Real- be accelerated precisely because it is needed in order ismo which is trying to enter the in- 23 to win social conflict . Bternational debate. It seem to us that this

Italian tendency cannot be included in That project would need experimenting to- Speculative Realism since it does not share wards the future, considering the possible the only common feature to the variety of reality which is outside the narrow perspec- the described positions: anti-correlationism. tive of present capitalism. It would need a In fact Ferraris does not intend to access a social reorganization able to pursue Enlight- reality which is beyond the phenomenal ap- enment’s will for social self-mastery to be pearance which is given within the subject- achieved by rational programming. In other object relation, but he affirms that the ob- words, it is a matter of pushing reason be- jects that we perceive exist and that they are yond the limits that present capitalism im- immediately the real. His enemy is not cor- poses as a transcendental condition in order relationism – stating that the subject can to reach the Outside, a reality which is not only know the phenomenal world of experi- conditioned by the present market’s value ence by organizing senses data coming from restrictions. an unknown thing in itself that could possi- Accelerationism has been criticized, espe- bly be totally different from the way it is cially by Benjamin Noys, as it is nothing given to us – but a theory that would claim new but merely a prosecution of neoliberal that objects exists only in the mind rather politics. Anyway, it is has been able to cata- than outside the subject. The problem is that lyze a growing interest and an expanding in- nobody never affirmed such a theory. Nei- ternational debate, it meets a largely spread ther Descartes, nor Kant, and not even Rich- desire to renovate political thinking beyond ard Rorty have ever claimed that there is the limitations of present criticism. Because nothing outside the mind, but just that we it allows to discuss an effective application in apply some ideas or a-priori structures in order to build a coherent representation of 23 Srnicek and Williams, Accelerate Manifesto, cit., p. the perceived world. As everybody knows, 146. in fact, Descartes’ cogito is an experience of

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thought that aims to eliminate any doubt want to access what is beyond impressions) about the existence of the res extensa. would not subsist. In other words, Specula- Moreover the French metaphysician’s goal tive realism aims to access the great outdoor consisted in elaborating a method that allows as the real which does not correspond to the the knowledge of things in an objective way, phenomenal world which is given to the by the means of mathematics: God being the senses and organized by a conscience, on the guarantor of the adequacy between mathe- contrary Ferraris seems to state that objects, matical ideas and the world. Descartes never as we perceive them, are immediately the states, as Ferraris seems to claim, that exter- real rather than a subjective perception of it. nal reality is nothing but a mathematical To Speculative realism, Nuovo realismo construction which has no actuality outside would look like a naive realist position un- the mind. There is difference, in fact, be- able to go beyond the relation between sub- tween using subjective schemas to organize ject and object, for Ferraris everything is the impression in a coherent representation given within the relation between a subject and to create a mental world independently and its environment and we do not need of the given impressions. Speculative real- more “speculation”. Thus, we would say ism’s antagonist is the first way of thinking: that Nuovo realism can be considered as a the goal consists in understanding if it is pos- reaction to certain extreme postmodern posi- sible to know things in themselves inde- tions, but it is not sharing the speculative pendently of the way they are given to our aim of accessing the real as the dimension a-priori schemas. Nuovo Realismo’s an- which is hidden beyond our relation to the tagonist would be the second theory, that he sensible world. thinks to find in Descartes or Kant and his realist statement consists in claiming that ob- jects exists outside the mind and the real is Bibliography what we perceive rather than our mental representation of it. If for speculative realists Ray Brassier, Iain Hamilton Grant, Graham Kant must be overcome because he limited Harman, and Quentin Meillassoux. knowledge to the constitutive relation be- “Speculative Realism” in Collapse III: tween a given phenomena and a subject by Unknown Deleuze, London: Urbanomic claiming that we cannot access things in 2007. themselves, for Ferraris Kant must be criti- Ray Brassier, Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment cized because it would consist in stating that and Extinction, London: Palgrave Mac- phenomena are not the real but subjective millan 2007. representations of it. So, according to Ferra- Ray Brassier interviewed by Marcin Rychter ris the problem of the possible difference be- in Kronos, March 4, 2011. tween appearances and things in themselves http://www.kronos.org.pl/index.php?23 (which is the reason why speculative realists 151,896

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Levi Bryant, Graham Harman, Nick Srnicek Quentin Meillassoux, “Potentiality and Vir- (editors), The Speculative Turn: Continen- tuality” in Collapse II: Speculative Real- tal and Realism. Melbourne: ism, London: Urbanomic 2007. Re.Press 2011. Reza Negarestani, Cyclonopedia: Complicity Levi Bryant, The Democracy of Objects, with anonymous materials, Victoria: Open Humanities Press 2011. Re.press 2008. Paul J. Ennis, Post-Continental Voice: Se- Nick Land, Fanged Noumena. Collecting writ- lected Interviews, Winchester, UK: Zero ings 1987 – 2007. Brassier and Mackay Books 2010. editors, London: Urbanomic 2011. Iain Hamilton Grant, Philosophies of Nature Benjamin Noys, The Persistence of the Nega- After Schelling, London: Continuum 2008. tive: A Critique of Contemporary Continen- Maurizio Ferraris, Manifesto del nuovo reali- tal Theory, Edimburg: Edimburg Univer- smo, Roma-Bari: Laterza 2012. sity press 2010. Maurizio Ferraris, Bentornata Realtà. Il nuo- J. Johnson (editor Dark), Trajectories: poli- vo realismo in discussione (a cura di), con tics of the outside, Hong Kong: [name] Mario De Caro, Einaudi: Torino 2012. 2013. Graham Harman, The Quadruple Object, Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek, “Acceler- Winchester, UK: Zero Books 2011. ate Manifesto for an Accelerationist Poli- Graham Harman, Guerilla Metaphysics: Phe- tics”, in Critical Legal Thinking (blog nomenology and the Carpentry of Things, www. http://criticallegalthinking.com), Chicago: Open Court 2005. post published in 14 May 2013. Graham Harman, Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects, Chicago: Open Court 2002. Graham Harman, “On Vicarious Causa- tion” in Collapse II: Speculative Realism, London: Urbanomic 2007. Ed Keller, Nicola Masciandaro, (editors), Leper : Cy- clonopedia Symposium, Brooklyn, NY: Punctum Books, 2012. Quentin Meillassoux, After Finitude: An Es- say on the Necessity of Contingency. Trans. Ray Brassier. London: Continuum 2008. Quentin Meillassoux, “Spectral Dilemma” in Collapse IV: Concept-Horror, London: Ur- banomic 2008.

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