AnaStef
“Instead of beginning with radical doubt, we start from naiveté. What philosophy shares with the lives of scientists, bankers, and animals is that all are concerned with objects. The exact meaning of “object” will be developed in what follows, and must include those entities that are neither physical nor even real.
Along with diamonds, rope, and neutrons, objects may include armies, monsters, square circles, and leagues of real and fictitious nations. All such objects must be accounted for by ontology, not merely denounced or reduced to despicable nullities. Yet despite repeated claims by both friends and critics of my work, I have never held that all objects are “equally real.”
For it is false that dragons have autonomous reality in the same manner as a telephone pole. My point is not that all objects are equally real, but that they are equallyobjects...”
(The Quadruple Object, Introduction, page 5)
The Quadruple Object by Graham Harman is a succinct and ambitious new theory of objects that reexamines Heidegger’s fourfold theory (a vague and, until Harman, unexplored and poetic idea of the world in four parts: earth, sky, gods, and mortals) through the lens of Object-Oriented Ontography (a slightly different take on Object-Oriented Philosophy). The constraints surrounding the book’s writing serve as a great introduction to Harman's theory of the Quadruple Object, because he believes a simple philosophical structure can reveal deep understanding. His extended version of Heidegger’s fourfold combines ideas from Husserl's construction and perception of objects that result in Harman’s own revised fourfold theory: real objects, real qualities, sensual objects, and sensual qualities.
”First, the real object is autonomous from whatever encounters it. If I close my eyes to sleep or die, the sensual tree is vaporized, beings are destroyed along with me. Second, though sensual objects always inhabit experience and are not hidden behind their qualities, real objects must always hide.
But despite these differences, there are important similarities between the two kinds of objects. Both are autonomous units. Both are irreducible to any bundle of traits, since they are able to withstand numerous changes in the qualities that belong to them. And most importantly, both real and sensual objects are polarized with two different kinds of qualities...”
(The Quadruple Object, Chapter 3: Real Objects, page 48)
Harman outlines the objects’ interactions in a system described in two kinds of objects, two kinds of qualities, and ten tensional relationships between them. Well-researched and defended, Harman carves out some intriguing conclusions about the world of objects that we live in.
Along the way he rails against the traditional human-centered perception of objects heralded by Kant, debunks Meno’s paradox, and refuses monism as an explanation of existence. Instead Harman connects his theory to concepts introduced as early as Aristotle and contemporary as his college Quentin Meillassoux. His writing style is clear as he builds his argument in steps, all the while peppered by example objects that range from “centaur, Pegasus, unicorn, and hobbit” to “rum, parrots, and volcanoes.” These light-hearted but familiar subjects accompanied by diagrams throughout, make Harman’s book a welcome change of style in philosophical exposition, while remaining more serious than Hennesy Youngman.
In Harman’s world all physical and non-physical objects exist on their own accord, which makes him an insightful read for someone experimenting with technology and pushing the boundaries of art. He even squeezes in a chapter on Polypsychism (a modified version ofPanpsychism), which would grant some kind of psychic energy to all objects, including the inanimate (i.e. cotton or fire).