resources Eric Phetteplace Resources on an emerging discipline

peculative Realism is a contemporary high quality. Further, since the last “Internet Sphilosophical movement taking its name Resources” column on Philosophy was in from a 2007 conference held at Goldsmiths April 2000 and the state of philosophy Web College in London, England. Speculative sites has, predictably, shifted quite a bit Realism is difficult to define: like the hodge- since then (for instance, Peter Suber’s Guide podge of divergent theories falling under the to Philosophy on the Internet has not been label , it is less an internally updated since February 2003 and features a consistent set of ideas than a diverse group multitude of broken links), I will list a few of theories unified against a common adver- general resources, as well. sary. Speculative Realists and their allies are combating what they call “correlationism,” Reference resources or the belief that all existence is reducible • A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms to the human experience of existence. Thus and Names. This is an index of famous they claim, against theorists as varied as Im- philosophers throughout history, as well as manuel Kant, , and , a list of technical terms and their meanings. that there is a world outside of the mind, This resource culls information from several language, and economic forces. The exact authoritative sources, such as the Stanford nature of this world, however, is the source Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the Dic- of much dispute. tionary of Philosophy of Mind, displaying a Speculative Realism is an apt subject for concise summary of the item in question. As Internet research since much of the discussion such, it is a great resource for those unfamiliar surrounding it has taken place online. Addi- with philosophical lexicons. The dictionary’s tionally, traditional print reference resources, primary limitations are the lack of a full-text such as the Oxford Companion to Philosophy search feature and its currency, as the Web or the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, site has not been updated since 2006. Access: are silent on this recent trend. Worst of all, http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/. two of the best Internet reference resources, • Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews. the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and This Web site provides freely available re- the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, also views of most recent philosophy books and lack entries for Speculative Realism, most of is available as a free e-mail subscription, as its related theories, and its leading figures. well. The reviews are notable both for their Due to the lack of authoritative resources, detailed summaries and high overall quality. many of the most useful research sites related to Speculative Realism are of an informal Eric Phetteplace is a graduate student in Library and nature, such as blogs, discussion lists, and Information Science at the University of Illinois at individually maintained content lists, but Urbana-Champaign, e-mail: [email protected] they are all consistently maintained and of © 2010 Eric Phetteplace

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june10b.indd 305 5/27/2010 9:32:34 AM Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews can be blogs, course materials, e-texts, Philosophy used both as a reference resource and a col- departments, and much more. Further, the lection development tool for subject special- organization of resources is pretty good, with ists. While there are reviews of Speculative most categories indexed in multiple ways. Realist works—such as ’s The audio and video resources, for instance, seminal After Finitude: An Essay on the Neces- can be browsed by philosopher, topic, and sity of Contingency—all philosophies source as well as searched in two different are also covered. Access: http://ndpr.nd.edu/. ways, via title keyword or author/speaker. Access: http://www.epistemelinks.com/. • InPhO Taxonomy. The Indiana Philosophy Project aggre- gates search results for predetermined terms across the Stanford Encyclopedia • Speculative Realism Pathfinder.Dis - of Philosophy, Google Scholar, and Noesis, claimer: the author of this column is also the thus compiling and categorizing scholarly creator of the Speculative Realism Pathfinder resources according to a hierarchical struc- Web site. However, I think that the Pathfinder ture. InPhO is particularly great at illustrating warrants inclusion here because it contains a interrelationships among ideas and philoso- few useful lists unavailable elsewhere, such phers, but since it includes searches only as a compilation of the names of related for a few preset concepts, it can be difficult theories and an introductory reading list of to navigate and locate known items. Entries eight important books. The Web site also related to Speculative Realism might be found provides links to bloggers who frequently under “ > Causation” or “History speak to Speculative Realism issues, and a of Philosophy > .” few Twitter accounts are thrown in for good Access: http://inpho.cogs.indiana.edu:16080 measure. Access: http://courseweb.lis.illinois. /taxonomy/. edu/~phettep1/SRPathfinder.html. • Speculative Realism–Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia. While this Wikipedia page is only of Grade C and a little difficult for laypeople to understand due to its usage of complex philosophical terminology, it does provide a solid background of the Speculative Realism movement and the issues surround- ing it. The Wikipedia page’s best features • PhilPapers: Online Research in Phi- are its details on the movement’s founders, losophy. PhilPapers is a robust database citations from a few major monographs in with many full-text items as well as citations the field, and the list of pertinent journal to works that are not currently open access. articles under the “Publications” heading. Searches for the primary figures of the Specu- The author of the Complete Lies blog (see lative Realist movements will retrieve numer- the Blogs section below) frequently updates ous articles by and about them. Further, Phil- this entry. Access: http://en.wikipedia.org Papers’ hierarchical subject structure makes it /wiki/Speculative_realism. possible to look for papers on a specific topic or subdiscipline, such as “Metaphysics > Va- Aggregators and indexes rieties of Causation.” However, the interface • Episteme Links. Episteme Links col- lects a very broad array of Internet resources on both philosophical topics and specific phi- losophers. The Web site lists audio and video,

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june10b.indd 306 5/27/2010 9:32:35 AM does have a serious navigation problem in daunting. There is also no means of searching that one cannot search in specific fields (i.e., the full text of the aggregate posts. Access: author, title, journal, etc.) but only the full text http://www.bogost.com/speculativerealism/. of each work. Access: http://philpapers.org/. • PhilWeb. From the “Topics” or “Re- Online journals gions” tabs on this Web site, one can ex- • Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical plore philosophy in new and interesting Humanities. Angelaki is a cutting-edge ways, choosing to investigate the theories journal of theory that has featured a few originating in certain geographical loca- articles by Speculative Realists, for instance tions or observing how different schools of Iranian philosopher , who is thought approach various social issues, such the author of Cyclonopedia: Complicity with as economics and education. PhilWeb also Anonymous Materials. This journal is not features a Google Search bar at the bottom open access, however Routledge does cur- of the page, which can be used to see where rently offer volume 12, issue 2 for free as an various topics or theorists are indexed and online sample. Access: http://www.informa- what resources, both online and off, might world.com/smpp/title~content=t713405211. provide further information about them. Ac- • Pli—The Warwick Journal of Phi- cess: http://www.phillwebb.net/default.htm losophy. A journal of contemporary philoso- • Speculative Heresy. The blog Specula- phy that frequently publishes articles by one tive Heresy emerged as an early focal point of the founders of Speculative Realism, Ray for all things Speculative Realism, and its Brassier, and “nonphilosopher” Jacques Laru- resources page is no exception. In addition elle, whose theories to announcing related conferences, calls for are of interest to the papers, and participating in philosophical movement. Volumes discussions, Speculative Heresy provides 12 () and PDFs of articles, book reviews, dissertations, 19 (Sense and Non- interviews, and other multimedia related to sense) in particular Speculative Realism. It is also worth mention- focus on pertinent is- ing the “Faculty” tab on the Web site, which sues. The topic of the provides links to the academic profiles of 15 forthcoming Volume 22 deals with Quentin professors and researchers who are in some Meillassoux’s work, which is largely identi- way associated with the movement. Access: fied as foundational to Speculative Real- http://speculativeheresy.wordpress.com ism. However, it should be noted that this /resources/. journal is not open access. Access: http:// www.warwick.ac.uk /philosophy/pli _journal/introduction. html. • Speculations. An open access jour- • Speculative Realism Blog Aggregator. nal run by Paul Ennis, who also runs This Web site collects entries from 22 blogs Another Heidegger Blog. Speculations is that focus on issues pertinent to Speculative very young, having been founded in 2010 Realism. It is maintained by Georgia Tech with its first issue due out in June or July Professor Ian Bogost, himself related to the of this year, but it promises to be the first Object-Oriented Ontology vein of Speculative journal specifically devoted to Specula- Realism. The aggregator is great for in-depth tive Realism and related enterprises. Ac- reviews of the most current material, but the cess: http://www.openhumanitiesalliance. sheer volume of posts per day can make it org/incubator/index.php/speculations/index.

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june10b.indd 307 5/27/2010 9:32:36 AM • Urbanomic—Collapse. Urbanomic is the ated with Speculative Realism with an aster- publisher of the Collapse journal, whose second isk. Access: http://larvalsubjects.wordpress. issue was specially devoted to Speculative Real- com/. ism and which regularly features writings from • Object-Oriented Philosophy. This various figures associated with the movement. is the blog of , author of Collapse is unfortunately not open access but Guerrilla Metaphysics: Phenomenology and the Urbanomic Web site can operate as a the Carpentry of Things as well as Prince of source of citations and related information. Ac- Networks: and Metaphysics. cess: http://www.urbanomic.com/index.php. Harman’s writing is quite prolific, as he often updates Object-Oriented Philosophy several Blogs times a day. The blog encompasses more than • Another Heidegger Blog. This blog, just Speculative Realism, ranging from advice run by the editor of the Speculations journal, for would-be philosophers and graduate stu- is most notable for its interviews with contem- dents to recent news and in-depth updates on porary philosophers. Both the aforementioned Object-Oriented Philosophy. Access: http:// and Graham Harman have been doctorzamalek2.wordpress.com/. interviewed, as well as two of the bloggers behind the Speculative Heresy Web site and Conferences and events several other scholars who are unassociated • Philos-L. Philos-L is perhaps the widest- with Speculative Realism. Another Heidegger ranging and largest philosophy electronic list Blog is also a good place to look for current by number of subscribers, claiming some 4,000 events such as calls for papers and upcoming members in 60 countries. While the discussion conferences. Access: http://anotherheidegger- list is run out on the United Kingdom, it is a blog.blogspot.com/. useful tool for scholars located anywhere in • Complete Lies. The Complete Lies the world. Searches in its archive of messages blog ranges in depth from posts fleshing out reveal releases of the journal Collapse, a few intricate philosophical concepts to providing pertinent calls for papers, numerous Specula- links to entertaining videos. Like most of the tive Realism seminars and workshops, and blogs listed above, this one is excellent at details of the April 2007 conference held at summarizing ongoing debates and providing Goldsmiths College in London from which a slew of links to different parties’ arguments the Speculative Realism movement derives its as they develop online. The tag cloud for name. Access: http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives Complete Lies is particularly useful, as one can /philos-l.html. click on “speculative realism” or a particular • Philosophy Conferences Worldwide: philosopher’s name and all topical entries are Upcoming Events in Philosophy and retrieved. Access: http://buymeout.wordpress. Related Fields. This Web site lists upcom- com/. ing conferences in philosophy as well as • Larval Subjects. This is the blog of Levi interdisciplinary conferences, which would Bryant, author of and Givenness: be relevant to those interested in philosophy, Deleuze’s Transcendental Empiricism and starting with the present month and moving the Ontology of Immanence and co-editor up to a year ahead. Since all the functions are along with Harman of the forthcoming The listed on the same Web page, one can search Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism through the text of all conferences for key and Realism. Bryant’s blog is often a source terms and phrases, but Philosophy Confer- of discussion and cross-blog conversation on ences Worldwide has no ordering principle Speculative Realism. Written in a surprisingly other than chronology. Access: http://www. accessible style for someone handling such conferencealerts.com/philosophy.htm. sophisticated topics, the blog also features an extensive blogroll that denotes blogs associ- (continues on page 313)

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june10b.indd 308 5/27/2010 9:32:36 AM Other specialized resources that did not quite So what? qualify for appearance in Table 2 but for which It’s natural to ask whether these data suggest use is essentially flat throughout the year include any changes in library practice. One policy the Web of Science, ISI Proceedings, Inspec, implication is that although it makes sense to NTIS, and most of the FirstSearch resources reduce reference staffing during slow times, that are bibliographic but without full-text. there are always people working with our High specialization (Early English Books), the more complex and specialized resources (per- provision of data that will be meaningful only haps even faculty thinking “When the students to sophisticates (Journal Citation Reports), and leave, I can get some real work done on my purely bibliographic content about library hold- research?”). Some of our most dedicated us- ings (RLG, OCLC) characterize the few databases ers do much of their work when we tend to for whose use the academic calendar appears be lightly staffed, so we should at least make to be largely irrelevant. sure that online help is available all the time. Experienced methodologists will recognize Individual libraries may profit from looking the risk of committing the ecological fallacy in at these ratios in their own cases, and perhaps making inferences about the behavior of indi- in making comparisons across institutions. viduals based on group differences (in this case, If, for example, a library were to find that a the population of active Virginia Tech users in resource it acquired to support general un- the summer as opposed to that in the spring). dergraduate instruction is not seeing highly However, political scientists, marketers, and oth- seasonal use, it may indicate that the resource ers do routinely draw fairly confident, if hedged, has not been sufficiently promoted to its in- conclusions about individuals from group data, tended clientele. and it would be very difficult to build an argu- The extreme degree of these differences ment for the differential patterns we see in the is a useful reminder of just how differentiated use of these library resources that did not rest on our user populations are. We offer a wide the well-known distinctions in purpose, niche, range of resources to all, but they are used in and intended audience that differentiate many highly different ways and to highly different of the online resources that libraries offer. No degrees. The data underscore the point that academic librarian knowledgeable about the of- each academic library has user populations, ferings of his or her own institution would find not a user population. And it’s not just the it difficult to identify local resources that vary parking situation that changes as the year widely along these same dimensions. progresses.

(“Lighting fires . . .” cont. from page 297) fiction, edited by Lynn Stegner (New York: Box 40, Folder 15, Special Collections Re- Penguin, 2002). search Center, University of Chicago Library. 6. E-mail with Cycholl, July 16, 2009. 8. E-mail with O’Leary, July 10, 2009. 7. Theodore Roethke to Morton Dauwen 9. E-mail with Scappettone, January 3, Zabel, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse Records, 2008.

(“Speculative Realism” cont. from page 308) curring informal coffee shop meetings are • Philosophy Now–Events. The “Events” included alongside national academic con- section of the Web site for the magazine Phi- ferences. However, it is not possible to limit losophy Now has an extensive list of upcom- the Web site’s search function to only the ing conferences, workshops, and seminars events section, and occasions are not indexed arranged by geographic location. The list other than by location. Access: http://www. is quite comprehensive in that regularly oc- philosophynow.org/events.

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