Graham Harman on Manuel DeLanda

Below is a talk by philosopher Graham Harman on Manuel DeLanda's notion of assemblages. Anyone remotely familiar with the content of this blog will note the strong presence of DeLanda's work. Graham Harman is a theorist I have only recently discovered, thanks to the blogging efforts of Mike Johnduff. Harman is considered a leader in a recent philosophical movement called Speculative Realism. I will be posting much more on speculative realism as i continue to confront some of the main themes and discursive gestures involved in the work of its major proponents.

Much of this talk is rather irrelevant to practice - in the sense of getting along with, struggling or coping in the world - but is nonetheless intellectually stimulating. What interests me is that Harman says that he does not believe in the world as a continuum. Harman wants to hold firm to his ideas about the quasi-essential nature of objects. In contrast, DeLanda would argue for an assemblage theory of how objects (which are actually sub-parts or emergent from other properties) combine to create other objects, all operating on each other at different scales according to their intensive properties.

So where do we make the determination as to which 'objects' should be considered as enduring enough to have causal primacy? Which wholes (objects) do we privilege without reference to their parts (other objects)?

I think Harman wants his metaphysical understanding about how the world works, with its supposed object-permanency, to take precedence over philosophical discourses and arguments that privilege a kind of chaotic, fluctuating and creative ontology (theory of what exists). But I think we would do well to remember that at a different time scale, beyond the perveiw of human perception, the world is much more like a layered field of dynamic flux than a container of persistent objects in mechanical or vicarious conjunction.

Please give this a listen and decide for yourself. And then let me know what you think:

AUDIO: Graham Harman at the LSE - “Assemblages According to Manuel DeLanda”

This lecture was delivered at the London School of Economics. Download or listen to it here. A power point presentation of talking points is also available online.