Ennis responds

Ennis with a USEFUL RESPONSE to my earlier remarks.

Just a couple of clarifying remarks. At one point he says this:

“Graham is also right to note, and he has pointed this out a long time before I did, that both Brassier and Meillassoux are not really anti-correlationists. So when we casually lump together the four speculative realists as all committed to anti-correlationism we are doing them a disservice.”

Meillassoux is quite explicit about not being opposed to the Fichtean/Hegelian move. His portion of the Speculative Realism transcript proves this. It is proven further by his 2008 lecture at Middlesex (I can’t remember if it’s published yet) when he opens by citing my critique of the “philosophy of access”, but then counters that he thinks such a philosophy is unavoidable in a certain sense.

Brassier’s a bit different. He has no interest in the Fichte/Hegel maneuver, and so he’s not an open defender of the root brilliance of correlationism the way that Meillassoux paradoxically is. What happens with Brassier is that, when the chips are down and he has to decide between realism and science, he chooses science. I once even heard him say “and if that’s correlationism, so be it,” a remark you would never hear from me or Grant under any circumstances.

“With Zizek increasingly occupying the ‘great thinker of our times’ position…”

Yeah, when Derrida passed away it seemed like there might be a glory vacuum for awhile, but Zizek has really stepped right into the role of “leading continental celebrity.” He certainly has the charisma for the job, so I’m not sure why it wasn’t immediately obvious that that was his professional destiny.

Finally, Asher Kay has a basically useful comment after Ennis’s post, but his final sentence gets it wrong:

“Harman is dismissive of science, but he doesn’t display much of an understanding of how it can be helpful.”

No, I am not “dismissive” of science. I love science. What I am dismissive of is the notion that science can replace metaphysics. Or rather, I think that the metaphysics lying at the basis of the science worship found in some sectors of SR is a weak one and needs to be, if not “eliminated,” then at least severely improved.