If you want to know whether something or someone possesses a capacity for self-recognition or self-perception, a common test to use is the mirror test. Put people in front of a mirror, and see if they can recognize themselves in their reflections. Can you tell that your reflection is your image, that is, an imageContinue reading “Of Selves and Mirrors”
Tag Archives: relationality
Whitehead in the Clouds: Objects and Relations
Graham Harman and other proponents of object-oriented ontology (OOO) follow Whitehead in taking up the task of articulating a speculative metaphysics, which is a relatively untimely task, situated amidst multifarious post-Kantian prohibitions against metaphysics. In particular, OOO follows Whitehead’s “ontological principle,” affirming the irreducibility of actual entities. The relationship between OOO and Whitehead looks mutuallyContinue reading “Whitehead in the Clouds: Objects and Relations”
Toward an Ecological Civilization: Whitehead and Ecological Democracy
I’ll be giving a couple of presentations at the upcoming conference, Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization, which is taking place early June in Claremont, California. It’s a massive assemblage of a few different conferences: the 10th International Whitehead Conference, the 9th International Forum on Ecological Civilization, the Inaugural Pando Populus Conference, the Pilgrim PlaceContinue reading “Toward an Ecological Civilization: Whitehead and Ecological Democracy”
Objects: Between Whitehead and Heidegger
One of the exciting things happening in object-oriented philosophy is a synthesis of Whiteheadian and Heideggerian insights, namely, 1) Whitehead’s pan-experientialist concept of feeling or prehension, which deals a severe blow to human exceptionalism, and 2) Heidegger’s concept of the retreat or withdrawal (Entzug) of things. It’s a mutually beneficial synthesis: Whitehead helps avoid theContinue reading “Objects: Between Whitehead and Heidegger”
