Collapse: Philosophical Research and Development. Speculative Realism

Description

Comprising subjects from probability theory to theology, from quantum theory to neuroscience, from astrophysics to necrology, and involving them in unforeseen and productive syntheses, Collapse II features a selection of speculative essays by some of the foremost young philosophers at work today, together with new work from artists and cinéastes, and searching interviews with leading scientists. Against the tide of institutional balkanisation and specialisation, this volume testifies to a defiant reanimation of the most radical philosophical problematics - the status of the scientific object, metaphysics and its "end", the prospects for a revival of speculative realism, the possibility of phenomenology, transcendence and the divine, the nature of causation, the necessity of contingency - both through a fresh reappropriation of the philosophical tradition and through an openness to its outside. The breadth of philosophical thought in this volume is matched by the surprising and revealing thematic connections that emerge between the philosophers and scientists who have contributed. Contents: Editorial Introduction by Robin Mackay The Enigma of Realism by Ray Brassier Potentiality and Virtuality by Quentin Meillassoux Dark Matter: Probing the Arche-Fossil by Roberto Trotta On Vicarious Causation by Graham Harman Demons Get Out! by Paul Churchland Nevertheless Empire by Clémentine Duzer & Laura Gozlan Islamic Exotericism: Apocalypse in the Wake of Refractory Impossibility by Reza Negarestani Elysian Space in the Middle East by Kristen Alvanson