Organic Materialism and Philosophy of Technology

This book demonstrates how the totalization of mechanistic materialism is inherent to global capitalism and how this totalization, coupled with techno-theism (the belief that technology will save us as a universal political project) and growth-mania (the belief in economic growth as a remedy to all socio-political issues), leads to the exhaustion of mind and nature. This book is an extensive examination of how the conceptualization of the relationship between thought and matter is at the core of philosophies of nature, philosophies of technology, and theories of political economy, and of the reasons why we must urgently rethink this relationship. Kwapiska argues that we must dig deep into our intellectual habits to enable noo- and bio- diversity and resist the totalizing tendencies of global capitalism. The book calls for the diversification of methods in social sciences, and the incorporation of process perspectives, to deal with the fact that orthodox ontologies and methods have failed to predict and manage consecutive economic and socio-political crises.

Offers the first comprehensive articulation of metaphysics and ontology that underpins Bernard Stiegler's philosophy Explores how process philosophy of nature can address the questions of technology Proposes an original contributions to the fields of process studies, philosophy of nature, and philosophy of technology

Autorentext

Kamila Kwapiska is associated with the Centre for Critical Thought, and a Visiting Academic in the School of Economics, Politics and International Relations, University of Kent, Canterbury.

Klappentext

“Kwapi ska makes the compelling case that a revitalised philosophy of nature (drawn from Schelling and Whitehead) is the much-needed shift in our habits of thought that can undermine the mechanistic materialism underpinning capitalist dynamics of self-destruction. If you have followed Stiegler and Hui on similar terrain, then pick up this book and add it to your reading list.”

—Iain MacKenzie, University of Kent, Kent, UK

"If the history of philosophy teaches us anything, it is that philosophy is a sacrifice to a future. Hence Kwapi ska’s Organic Materialism and Philosophy of Technology concisely vectorizes Whiteheadian process ontologies and Schellingian naturephilosophies into a speculative cosmology of planetary artifice. This cosmic re-enchantment is additionally rendered existentially poignant by Kwapi ska’s revelation of it in concrete, bio-economic detail.”

—Iain Hamilton Grant, University of the West of England, UK

This book demonstrates how the totalization of mechanistic materialism is inherent to global capitalism and how this totalization, coupled with techno-theism (the belief that technology will save us as a universal political project) and growth-mania (the belief in economic growth as a remedy to all socio-political issues), leads to the exhaustion of mind and nature. This book is an extensive examination of how the conceptualization of the relationship between thought and matter is at the core of philosophies of nature, philosophies of technology, and theories of political economy, and of the reasons why we must urgently rethink this relationship. Kwapi ska argues that we must dig deep into our intellectual habits to enable noo- and bio- diversity and resist the totalizing tendencies of global capitalism. The book calls for the diversification of methods in social sciences, and the incorporation of process perspectives, to deal with the fact that orthodox ontologies and methods have failed to predict and manage consecutive economic and socio-political crises.

Kamila Kwapi ska is associated with the Centre for Critical Thought, and a Visiting Academic in the School of Economics, Politics and International Relations, University of Kent, Canterbury.

Inhalt

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2: From Mechanistic to Organic Materialism.- Chapter 3: Ontoepistemology and Speculative Science.- Chapter 4: Rethinking Matter.- Chapter 5: The Totalisation of Mechanistic Metaphysics in Capitalism.