Ontological Investigations in Speculative Realism

Ontological investigations in Speculative Realism encompass a resurgence of metaphysical enquiry that rejects the idea that reality is accessible only through human thought. Emerging in the late 2000s, this movement challenges “correlationism” – the view that knowledge is confined to the relation between mind and world – and calls for a philosophy that honours the autonomy of non-human entities. Key strands include speculative materialism, which posits the absolute contingency of natural laws and the existence of a world independent of human perception; object-oriented ontology (OOO), which insists on the equal status and irreducible autonomy of all objects; and broader flat ontologies that dissolve traditional hierarchies between subject and object. Central themes are the withdrawal of objects beyond their observable qualities, the ontological parity of relations and entities, and the exploration of essences or profiles that persist despite changing external appearances. By integrating insights from phenomenology, analytic metaphysics and continental thought, these investigations offer new tools for addressing ecological crises, advanced technologies and digital environments. Practical applications range from reconceiving environmental ethics in terms of interobject relations to informing design principles in virtual and augmented realities, thereby underlining the global significance of a philosophy that seeks to recover the world’s “otherness” beyond human access.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Recent studies have explored the ontological status of relations within a flat ontology, arguing that neither objects nor relations can be reduced to the other. A topological approach demonstrates how internal relationality configures an object’s core identity while external relations reveal its vulnerability and eventual destructibility. Building on this framework, scholars have proposed a phenomenological account of finitude, drawing on Kierkegaard’s notion of death to account for the radical outside that affects both objects and their interconnections in a non-hierarchical cosmos.

Ontological Investigations in Speculative Realism publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in ontological investigations in speculative realism across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Speculative Realism: A movement rejecting the notion that reality is only knowable through human cognition, aiming to access objects in their own right.

Correlationism: The doctrine that knowledge is limited to the correlation between thought and world, barring direct apprehension of reality itself.

Object-oriented ontology (OOO): A strand of Speculative Realism asserting that all objects, whether physical or abstract, possess autonomous reality and equal ontological status.

Flat ontology: An approach granting equal being to all entities and relations, thereby eliminating hierarchical distinctions in the structure of reality.

Withdrawn object: In OOO, the idea that an object’s essence remains hidden beyond its accessible qualities and interactions.

References

1. Burning Bridges: The problem of relations in object-oriented ontology—a topological approach. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2020).
2. The Essences of Objects: Explicating a Theory of Essence in Object-Oriented Ontology. Open Philosophy (2020).
3. On Correlationism and the Philosophy of (Human) Access: Meillassoux and Harman. Open Philosophy (2020).
4. Where is the Great Outdoors of Meillassoux’s Speculative Materialism?. Open Philosophy (2020).