4 ms·

not even a mention of animism?

• UncleOxidant 4y ago
  The word isn't used, but isn't that exactly what's being described?
  • krapp 4y ago
    Yes, it's weird. The article even claims the premise begins with French philosopher Bruno Latour, but this just seems like a modern interpretation of the oldest metaphysical framework in human history.
    • UncleOxidant 4y ago
      It always seems cooler when a French philosopher comes up with it.
• beepbooptheory 4y ago
  I think these two things are quite distinct. To assert that objects have a kind of fundamental agency because of the forces they can exert on our world, to put it simply, is totally distinct from speculating/having faith that there is a turnip spirit in the turnip. What she is talking about is more about questions of philosophical priority than metaphysical/spiritual assertions.
  • krapp 4y ago
    It's not entirely distinct. One could just as well describe the "spirit in the turnip" as the sum of the potential forces it can exert on the world, the effect of the cultural image of turnips, even its "essential turnipness" in a Platonic sense. We have no problem referring to the "personality" of an old house, the "menace" of a gun or gendering cars and ships as female because they "embody" certain gender archetypes. The philosophy and metaphysics are both approaching the same essential concept from different directions, with different assumptions.
    • beepbooptheory 4y ago
      Perhaps, but that feels like a distinct claim, rather than a reason to just lump these things together, or a reason to assert one is the rehash of another. And either way, the philosophy in question here is not about embodiment of platonic forms, but rather simply the agency/character of plain objects on their own terms. If you are interested at all, the book they reference is quite good, and almost certainly not what you'd expect. Ill just say it's more Deleuze than Plato :)