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Quentin Meillassoux: Philosophy in the Making
Quentin Meillassoux has been described as the most rapidly prominent French philosopher in the Anglophone world since Jacques Derrida in the 1960s. With the publication of After Finitude (2006), this daring protege of Alain Badiou became one of the world's most visible younger thinkers. In this book, his fellow Speculative Realist, Graham Harman, assesses Meillassoux's publications in English so far. Also included are an insightful interview with Meillassoux and first-time translations of excerpts from L'Inexistence divine ( The Divine Inexistence ), his famous but still unpublished major book.
- GenresPhilosophy
240 pages, Paperback
First published July 7, 2011
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About the author
Graham Harman
62 books214 followersGraham Harman (born May 9, 1968) is a professor at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. He is a contemporary philosopher of metaphysics, who attempts to reverse the linguistic turn of Western philosophy. He terms his ideas object-oriented ontology. A larger grouping of philosophers, Speculative Realism, includes Harman and the philosophers Iain Hamilton Grant, Quentin Meillassoux and Ray Brassier.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 4, 2013
You think philosopher Quentin Meillassoux is a tad crazy when he suggests that the laws of nature could change at any moment and that there is no "reason" for anything, but wait, it gets much wilder: virtual gods who do not yet exist, universal justice, and all from a guy who thinks philosophers need to pay more attention to science. Go figure.
If anyone out there thinks contemporary philosophy is boring, I suggest that person read this book. While I can't say Meillassoux's ideas are the kind one instantly adopts upon hearing them, they are creative and highly original. I agree with the author of the book, Graham Harman, when he says toward the end that philosophers like Meillassoux should be allowed and encouraged to investigate these thoughts, simply because they're interesting and decidedly outside-of-the-box.
One need not take Meillassoux's entire framework on board in order to marvel at the threads he follows and take away quite a few intriguing nuggets along the way. It's refreshing to watch a thinker break a number of taboos at once and plow through uncharted territories, all while being rather matter-of-fact about it.
For those interested, I would recommend reading After Finitude first, as it represents the best distillation of Meillassoux's thoughts thus far. Even if you don't wind up agreeing with a word of it, it's still... I do't know, is it okay to call a philosophy book fun?
If anyone out there thinks contemporary philosophy is boring, I suggest that person read this book. While I can't say Meillassoux's ideas are the kind one instantly adopts upon hearing them, they are creative and highly original. I agree with the author of the book, Graham Harman, when he says toward the end that philosophers like Meillassoux should be allowed and encouraged to investigate these thoughts, simply because they're interesting and decidedly outside-of-the-box.
One need not take Meillassoux's entire framework on board in order to marvel at the threads he follows and take away quite a few intriguing nuggets along the way. It's refreshing to watch a thinker break a number of taboos at once and plow through uncharted territories, all while being rather matter-of-fact about it.
For those interested, I would recommend reading After Finitude first, as it represents the best distillation of Meillassoux's thoughts thus far. Even if you don't wind up agreeing with a word of it, it's still... I do't know, is it okay to call a philosophy book fun?
April 25, 2012
With a book like this one, it's difficult to know whether to rate the content (in this case Meillassoux's philosophy) or the exposition (Graham Harman's). I've ranked the former. Were I to rank Harman's work, I'd give the book three stars. It's written with a journalistic style, plenty of exaggerations, and far too many repetitions. If Harman feels he has to emphasize repeatedly how novel and wonderful Meillassoux's philosophy is, one begins to wonder if he's really telling the truth.
I gave the book one star because Meillassoux's philosophy is a joke. No question. I haven't finished After Finitude yet but, judging from Harman's descriptions and selections from The Divine Inexistence, Meillassoux really needs to brush up on his theology. Meillassoux simply repeats without much reflection the argument that God cannot exist because there is suffering in the world. At the very least, Meillassoux should engage with some of the innumerable theologians who have asked and challenged the same question.
Moreover, in The Divine Inexistence at least, Meillassoux has an annoying penchant for uttering (writing) universal pronouncements without much justification. Go ahead and ignore the principle of sufficient reason, but saying such things as "[a]ll religion is thus parcelled out between two basic attitudes[: those who love God and those who respect his power]" (236) is absurd. If you read what precedes this phrase, you will find even more ridiculous claims, such as "[t]he essential stakes of both Eastern and Western thought consist entirely in a single question: how can we think the unity of Jewish religion and Greek reason?" (228). Were a historian reading this, she'd probably vomit. Such grand pronouncements (admittedly in the vein of late Heidegger) have no hold on me. I see no reason to accept them. If Meillassoux wants to be convincing, he's got to become more nuanced and careful.
As a devout Christian, I find Meillassoux's assault on religion laughable and full of problems. The ones I've described above hardly brush the surface . . . .
I gave the book one star because Meillassoux's philosophy is a joke. No question. I haven't finished After Finitude yet but, judging from Harman's descriptions and selections from The Divine Inexistence, Meillassoux really needs to brush up on his theology. Meillassoux simply repeats without much reflection the argument that God cannot exist because there is suffering in the world. At the very least, Meillassoux should engage with some of the innumerable theologians who have asked and challenged the same question.
Moreover, in The Divine Inexistence at least, Meillassoux has an annoying penchant for uttering (writing) universal pronouncements without much justification. Go ahead and ignore the principle of sufficient reason, but saying such things as "[a]ll religion is thus parcelled out between two basic attitudes[: those who love God and those who respect his power]" (236) is absurd. If you read what precedes this phrase, you will find even more ridiculous claims, such as "[t]he essential stakes of both Eastern and Western thought consist entirely in a single question: how can we think the unity of Jewish religion and Greek reason?" (228). Were a historian reading this, she'd probably vomit. Such grand pronouncements (admittedly in the vein of late Heidegger) have no hold on me. I see no reason to accept them. If Meillassoux wants to be convincing, he's got to become more nuanced and careful.
As a devout Christian, I find Meillassoux's assault on religion laughable and full of problems. The ones I've described above hardly brush the surface . . . .
July 9, 2025
Aquest llibre fa un resum de la filosofia de Quentin Meillassoux incorporant textos inèdits de la seva tesi doctoral, 'La inexistència divina'. Es tracta d'una aproximació molt optimista a la seva filosofia, ja que Harman és un dels més entusiastes amb el projecte del que ell anomena 'realisme especulatiu'. En general, el llibre té poca interpretació fins al capítol 4, en què Harman compara el sistema filosòfic de Meillassoux amb el seu.
L'estil és molt acadèmic en el sentit pejoratiu de la paraula: el discurs es veu sovint interromput per cites intercalades, i dona la sensació que el que s'està llegint és una espècie de collage o Frankenstein fet a partir de cites de Meillassoux. Tot i així, té alguns punts en què Harman demostra una comprensió profundíssima de la proposta del filòsof francès, com quan es debat si la contingència de l'Hipercaos és la contingència de les lleis o del fonament de les lleis.
L'apèndix consta de fragments de la tesi inèdita de Meillassoux traduïts a l'anglès, que no tenen interès especial el 2025, ja que la tesi sencera es pot descarregar fàcilment de forma gratuïta amb una cerca ràpida a Internet. S'entén, però, l'interès que podia tenir aquest llibre l'any 2011, en plena efervescència de la filosofia de Meillassoux. Més d'una dècada després i amb la constatació gairebé definitiva que el projecte mellassouxià quedarà per acabar, aquest llibre és el testimoni de l'optimisme envers una proposta filosòfica original capaç d'aguantar-li la mirada als grans postestructuralistes (o correlacionistes, per fer servir la terminologia del filòsof francès). En qualsevol cas, després de mesos llegint articles acadèmics i capítols de llibres pel TFM, el simple fet d'haver llegit un text des del principi fins al final ja és, en si, un alleujament.
L'estil és molt acadèmic en el sentit pejoratiu de la paraula: el discurs es veu sovint interromput per cites intercalades, i dona la sensació que el que s'està llegint és una espècie de collage o Frankenstein fet a partir de cites de Meillassoux. Tot i així, té alguns punts en què Harman demostra una comprensió profundíssima de la proposta del filòsof francès, com quan es debat si la contingència de l'Hipercaos és la contingència de les lleis o del fonament de les lleis.
L'apèndix consta de fragments de la tesi inèdita de Meillassoux traduïts a l'anglès, que no tenen interès especial el 2025, ja que la tesi sencera es pot descarregar fàcilment de forma gratuïta amb una cerca ràpida a Internet. S'entén, però, l'interès que podia tenir aquest llibre l'any 2011, en plena efervescència de la filosofia de Meillassoux. Més d'una dècada després i amb la constatació gairebé definitiva que el projecte mellassouxià quedarà per acabar, aquest llibre és el testimoni de l'optimisme envers una proposta filosòfica original capaç d'aguantar-li la mirada als grans postestructuralistes (o correlacionistes, per fer servir la terminologia del filòsof francès). En qualsevol cas, després de mesos llegint articles acadèmics i capítols de llibres pel TFM, el simple fet d'haver llegit un text des del principi fins al final ja és, en si, un alleujament.
September 28, 2023
The content is as fresh as sashimi. Only time will tell if it is actually good. But it is really novel. Which is quite an achievement when the genre is philosophy.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews