Table Of ContentTh e Allure of Th ings
Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy
Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy presents cutting-edge scholarship in all the
major areas of research and study. Th e wholly original arguments, perspectives
and research fi ndings in titles in this series make it an important and
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across the humanities and social sciences.
Some other titles in the series
Aesthetic and Artistic Autonomy , Owen Hulatt
Art, Language and Figure in Merleau-Ponty , Rajiv Kaushik
Between Hegel and Spinoza , edited by Hasana Sharp and Jason E. Smith
Diffi cult Freedom and Radical Evil in Kant , Jo ë l Madore
Freedom and Nature in Schelling ’ s Philosophy of Art , Devin Zane Shaw
Hegel ’ s Rabble , Frank Ruda
Kant: Th e Art of Judgment in Aesthetic Education , Pradeep Dhillon
Kant ’ s Concept of Genius , Paul W. Bruno
Kant on Spontaneity , Marco Sgarbi
Kierkegaard on Sin and Salvation , W. Glenn Kirkconnell
Languages of Intentionality , Paul S. MacDonald
Nietzsche as a Scholar of Antiquity , edited by
Anthony K. Jensen and Helmut Heit
Philosophy of Art: Th e Question of Defi nition , Tiziana Andina
Reconceiving Medical Ethics , edited by Christopher Cowley
Re-Th inking the Cogito , Christopher Norris
Th e Cognitive Value of Philosophical Fiction , Jukka Mikkonen
Th e Dialectics of Aesthetic Agency , Ayon Maharaj
Th e Science of Right in Leibniz ’ s Moral and Political Philosophy ,
Christopher Johns
Th e Science, Politics, and Ontology of Life-Philosophy , edited by
Scott M. Campbell and Paul W. Bruno
Th e Virtue of Feminist Rationality , Deborah K. Heikes
Th e Unity of Content and Form in Philosophical Writing , Jon Stewart
Th e Allure of Th ings
Process and Object in Contemporary Philosophy
Edited by
Roland Faber and Andrew Goff ey
Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy
Bloomsbury Academic
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First published 2014
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-2520-8
PB: 978-1-4742-6588-1
ePDF: 978-1-4725-2782-0
ePub: 978-1-4725-3368-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The allure of things : process and object in contemporary philosophy / edited by
Roland Faber and Andrew Goffey. pages cm. – (Bloomsbury studies in philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4725-2520-8 (hardback) –
ISBN 978-1-4725-3368-5 (epub) – ISBN 978-1-4725-2782-0 (epdf)
1. Process philosophy. 2. Object (Philosophy) I. Faber, Roland, 1960– editor of compilation.
BD372.A49 2014 146’.7–dc23 2014006828
Series: Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy
Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain
Contents
Notes on Contributors vii
Preface ix
Introduction: Th inking Th ings Th inking Th ings, or Some Th emes
in Philosophy Aft er Correlationism Andrew Goff ey 1
Part 1 Crossings: Connection, Disconnection, Vibration
1 Atomicity, Conformation, Enduring Objects, and “Th ings”:
Science and Science Studies aft er the Whiteheadian Turn
James J. Bono 13
2 Another Response to Shaviro Graham Harman 36
3 Touch: A Philosophic Meditation Roland Faber 47
Part 2 Th ings: Substances, Individuals, and Creatures
4 Th e Time of the Object: Derrida, Luhmann, and the Processual
Nature of Substances Levi R. Bryant 71
5 Conatus and Concrescence: Stearns and Whitehead on
Individuation Judith Jones 92
6 Creaturely Th ings: Living Matter, Dead Matter, and the Resonance
of Actual Entities Beatrice Marovich 109
7 Facts as Social Th ings Michael Halewood 123
Part 3 Dramatizations: Situating, Abstracting, Experimenting
8 Between Realism and Antirealism: Deleuzian Metaphysics
in the Style of Whitehead Jeff rey Bell 145
9 A Situated Metaphysics: Th ings, History, and Pragmatic
Speculation in A. N. Whitehead Melanie Sehgal 162
vi Contents
10 Speculative Philosophy and the Art of Dramatization
Isabelle Stengers 188
11 Philosophical Experimentation Between Deleuze and
Guattari Andrew Goff ey 218
References 237
Index 247
Notes on Contributors
Jeff rey Bell is professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University
in Hammond, Louisiana. He is the author and co-editor of several books and
numerous articles, including P hilosophy at the Edge of Chaos and D eleuze ’ s Hume .
He is currently at work on a book on Deleuze and Guattari ’ s W hat is Philosophy?
and preparing for a manuscript on metaphysics in contemporary analytic and
continental philosophy.
James J. Bono is (chair, Department of History, University at Buff alo, SUNY;
School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences) past-president of the Society for
Literature, Science, and the Arts, founding editor of Confi gurations , and recipient
of numerous fellowships. He is also author of Th e Word of God and the Languages
of Man: Interpreting Nature in Early Modern Science and Medicine , [vol. 2 near
completion]. Projects on metaphor, narrative, and science; on technologies of
the literal and early modern science; and on Whitehead are in progress. He has
(co-) edited a number of books, most recently, of A Time for the Humanities:
Futurity and the Limits of Autonomy (2008).
Levi R. Bryant is a professor of philosophy at Collin College outside of Dallas,
Texas. He is the author of D iff erence and Givenness: Deleuze’s Transcendental
Empiricism and the Ontology of Immanence , Th e Democracy of Objects, Onto-
Cartography: An Ontology of Machines and Media , and is co-editor of Th e
Speculative Turn: Continental Realism and Materialism along with Nick Srnicek
and Graham Harman. He has written widely on speculative realism and
contemporary French thought.
Roland Faber is Kilsby Family/John B. Cobb Jr Professor of Process Studies at
Claremont School of Th eology, professor of religion and philosophy at Claremont
Graduate University, USA and executive director of the Whitehead Research
Project. He is the author of G od as Poet of the World and Th e Divine Manifold
and most recently co-edited S ecretes of Becoming, Butler on Whitehead, Beyond
Superlatives, and Th eopoetic Folds .
viii Notes on Contributors
Andrew Goff ey is associate professor of critical theory and cultural studies at
the University of Nottingham, UK.
Graham Harman is distinguished university professor at the American
University in Cairo. He is the author of numerous books, most recently B ells and
Whistles: More Speculative Realism (2013).
Jude Jones studied Whitehead with Elizabeth Kraus as an impressionable
undergraduate, and has never recovered. With sensibilities framed fundamentally
in the process vein, he is interested in the metaphysical, ethical, and practical
life of process-relational thought. He has explored the various dimensions of
Whitehead ’ s notion of “ intensity ” that grounds the aesthetic orientation of his
axiological metaphysics. As part of a lifelong commitment to the philosophical
status of literary texts, he is currently beginning work on a manuscript on Harry
Potter and Philosophy, tapping into a process approach that is usually absent
from philosophical discussion of Rowling’s series and its impact on a generation
(or two) of readers.
Beatrice Marovich recently fi nished her PhD in theology and philosophy at
Drew University’s Graduate Division of Religion. She teaches in the Philosophy
and Religion Department at Montclair State University.
Melanie Sehgal is professor of Literature, Science and Media Studies at the
European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder, Germany. She received her PhD
in philosophy from the Technical University of Darmstadt with a dissertation
on William James and Alfred North Whitehead ( “ A Situated Metaphysics.
Empiricism and Speculation in William James and Alfred North Whitehead ” ).
Isabelle Stengers teaches philosophy at the Universit é libre de Bruxelles. Her
interests centered fi rst on the adventure of modern sciences and the association
of this adventure with claims to rational authority. She is working now on the
crucial challenge, both political and cultural, of an ecology that would embed
our many diverging practices in a democratic and demanding environment.
Among her books are O rder out of Chaos (with I. Prigogine), Th e Invention
of Modern Science , C apitalist Sorcery (with Philippe Pignarre), C osmopolitics
(I and II) and Th inking with Whitehead .
