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The Quadruple Object

Graham Harman

3.70 · Rating details · 210 ratings · 14 reviews

In this book the metaphysical system of Graham Harman is presented in lucid form, aided by helpful diagrams. In Chapter 1, Harman gives his most forceful critique to date of philosophies that reject objects as a primary reality. All such rejections are tainted by either an undermining or overmining approach to objects. In Chapters 2 and 3, he reviews his concepts of ...more

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Paperback, 148 pages

Published July 16th 2011 by John Hunt Publishing (first published November 10th 2010)

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Jun 10, 2013 Mjhancock rated it liked it

Shelves: philosophy

Graham Harman goes into depth on his version of object-oriented ontology, including the philosophical movements it's responding to, what it is, and what it does. I have to say, I've been reading my Graham Harman books all out of order--I read Circus Philosophicus and Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philsophy before I was able to track down a copy of 4X Object. The book consists of ten chapters. The first explains the basic problem, that theories of philosophy tend to dismiss objects, either by Graham Harman goes into depth on his version of object-oriented ontology, including the philosophical movements it's responding to, what it is, and what it does. I have to say, I've been reading my Graham Harman books all out of order--I read Circus Philosophicus and Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philsophy before I was able to track down a copy of 4X Object. The book consists of ten chapters. The first explains the basic problem, that theories of philosophy tend to dismiss objects, either by undermining them and saying that they're composed of some smaller universal unit or overmining, treating objects as only relevant in so far as they manifest in the mind, or are part of some event that affects other objects. The second chapter goes deep into Husserl's version of the object, where its real features lie in tension with its shifting sensual features. The third is the object via Heidegger, where the tension becomes the difference between the sensual features of the object and the real object, which always withdraws from being entirely known. There's a lot of Heidegger's Tool-Being, for those familiar with that discussion. In fact, those who come into this book with a lot of Heidegger and Husserl under their belt will have a distinct advantage; you don't need either to fully get Harman, but they don't hurt. Chapter 5 expands on the polarities that have been established thus far, creating four categories--real objects, sensual objects, real qualities, and sensual qualities, noting that, given these configurations, there are ten basic ways objects can interact.

Half way through! In chapter six, Harman returns to Heidegger, tackling his four-fold concept. The trick, he argues, is that the four shouldn't be taken literally, but as ways of thinking about the difference between being and beings, or absence and presence. Ultimately, though, this fourfold is insufficient, and so Harman creates his own. Having established the four terms previously, this chapter looks at the tensions between each of them. Sensual objects, for example, have sensual qualities, but these change over time, the first tensions. And the real object is different from its real qualities, which is a tension of essence. And then he tosses in ANOTHER four terms, for when those tensions are ruptured, or objects merge. A rupture in time is a confrontation. Ruptures involving essence is an issue of multitude. Chapter 8 clarifies some points, that the sensual is not just human and animal experience, and that real and sensual aren't fixed sites; every real object is composed of relations between component objects, and the hammer is a sensual object in relation to them, and vice versa. Chapter 9 solidifies the sets created in chapter 7 into further systems. And Chapter 10 clarifies Harman's position with regards to the larger Speculative Realism movement.

Having read those previous Harman works, I'm already familiar not just with some of the terminology Harman's using, but how it actually plays out when he applies it--something that's missing a bit from the book at hand. But it was still extremely useful to see the ideas worked out in a more expanded manner. I'll admit, the book loses me toward the end. The explication of previous object approaches is great (if a bit fast if you're not familiar with continental German philosophy) as is the original explanations of the fourfold. But somewhere around the tension ruptures, the terms start proliferating a little too quickly for my tastes. I will say that my favorite part is chapter 4, where Harman directly addresses one of my favorite philosophical questions, how can we think about the world outside of human thought? Harman's answer: there's a difference between saying there's no world without thought and saying there's no thinking about a world without thought. And that, in a nutshell, without bringing all the definitions into it, is the real value of OOO to me--taking philosophical and real-life questions that are inherently, often unconsciously, human-centered, and offering a different perspective. ...more

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Aug 05, 2018 Aasem Bakhshi rated it really liked it

Shelves: philosophy, owned

It is very difficult to place Harman in a popular philosophical tradition since he is among the unique philosophical currents of 21st century. He achieves a number of things here; foremost being the forceful reminder how the human mind overmines or undermines objects. He reminds the naive realists as well as self-assured idealists that philosophy is not wisdom, per se; it is rather the love of wisdom. True to Meno's paradox, we never attain the wisdom, the true objectivity, but nevertheless keep ...more

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Mar 07, 2018 Benjamin rated it really liked it

Shelves: philosophy

A brilliant introduction to a Heidegger-influenced form of ontology that doesn't stray into the unintelligible world of high continental philosophy, but doesn't remain in the drab lifeless world of analytic thinking.

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May 27, 2019 vi macdonald rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-reads, 21st-century, favourites, philosophy

4.5

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Aug 03, 2019 Maciej Sitko rated it liked it

Shelves: philosophy, modern-philosophy

All a bit weird and rather unfeasible.

This feels like it was written in 19th century along with Schopenhauer, who sided with Spinoza and created a post-Kantian monism where single will objectifies everything into phenomena, but instead, Graham sides with Leibniz, and splits everything into separate entities that objectify themselves as realities. This poses something badly shot, and crazy. He does feel more like an idealist rather than a realist; says that I cannot see things as they are, and All a bit weird and rather unfeasible.

This feels like it was written in 19th century along with Schopenhauer, who sided with Spinoza and created a post-Kantian monism where single will objectifies everything into phenomena, but instead, Graham sides with Leibniz, and splits everything into separate entities that objectify themselves as realities. This poses something badly shot, and crazy. He does feel more like an idealist rather than a realist; says that I cannot see things as they are, and then idealises these magical fourfold structures of access.

Siding with Leibniz I find is the ultimate flaw and nail to the coffin; it causes all kinds of problems like the impossibility of object interactions, and inconsistent definition of substance in terms of modern science. It just works much better in Spinozian and neo-Spinozian philosophy, especially considering that there it poses no problem. There, physics confirms metaphysics without forcefully trying to bend reality as we know it in 21 century to Graham's speculative theoretical framework. It feels very backwards and reverse. For example, the world is all built of the repetitive states of matter that stretch along and replicate with the universe expansion. And there are five states of matter, out of these entities are lumped together in many deterministic combinations. The transition of the solid matter into the air is soft, it is maintained by laws of surface tensions. These scientific truths of universal substance are completely compatible with Spinoza, but not with Leibniz.

To account for relations between Leibnizian objects, he brings occasionalism to the table but its workings are not explained at all and remain a mystery. There are hints to David Hume's scepticism, and some secular thesis of occasionalism, but again, Hume's stance was proven wrong and adjusted many many times by a wide variety of people. There simply exist necessary connections, especially in intentionality and laws of physics. Again, in Spinozan determinism, it just works by the means of matter put in constant motion so matter in its variety of states interacts casually. Neuroscience confirms deterministic model and another point is scored by Spinoza.

Some phenomenological bias is also present and not helpful, I see no reason as to why I cannot directly interact and see things-in-themselves, but going by Harman's definition I can't because it would mean to apprehend thing's being and having contact with its whole existence. There remains Husserlian/Heideggerian influence, so we always interact with sensual objects, but interaction and sensual experience do not have to be described as such, through Phenomenological lens of access; disjunctivism explains experiencing reality directly very well without phenomenology. It's just one example.

Harman keeps putting Kant into an idealist camp, but Kant was more really an empirical realist. Kant did not deny us noumena and their existence; German idealists did. Kant actually thought that they are real and somehow exist, but just thought that thinking about them is rather pointless. I can think of galaxies on the other end of the universe, or what it's like to be a toaster but what is the chance of me being correct? Small. It is clear that Kant wasn't idealist in Critique but mainly in Prolegomena where he criticises idealism and distances himself with idealist movement. Although he uses term Transcendental idealism, he uses it in a way that transcends empiricist and idealist division giving a third possible way.

Graham isn't the first that tried to think things in themselves, already mentioned Schopenhauer did so also. That is why I put this as neither revolutionary, nor particularly promising, it's another take at noumena in the spirit of the past. ...more

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Jan 03, 2015 Luís M Inácio rated it really liked it

The Quadruple Object (2011), de Graham Harman, é o mais compacto livro sobre a filosofia orientada-para-objectos (termo cunhado pelo próprio Harman).

Para Harman a filosofia tem andado esquecida dos objectos, optando nas suas teorias por muitas das vezes fazer "undermining" sugerindo que os objectos não interessam, apenas os seus constituintes (materiais, partículas, átomos, ou um "apeiron"); ou a fazer "overmining" promovendo que os objecto apenas têm importância na sua constituição mental da ...more

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Jan 08, 2014 Attentive rated it really liked it

Felt a little disappointed in this by the end—it's not as powerful a text as Tool-Being, since after Harman continues expounding his own "fourfold" of object ontology, dividing existence into sensual objects and their qualities, and real objects and their qualities, he gets into pretty extemporaneous territory.

That having been said, I've really enjoyed reading pretty much every book on speculative realism I've read because of the way the ideas provoke the sensual imagination. Filled with this ...more

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Sep 09, 2019 Avşar rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites

Actually doing a better job of explaining Harman's OOO approach at times better than Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything. I still seem to fail to understand Heidegger references -maybe because I don't understand Heidegger-, but I'd say you'll get a real good sense of why everything is an object, how objects could be overmined and undermined and how they are not equal to their qualities. Graham Harman, Timothy Morton, Levi Bryant, Ian Bogost are fresh and intelligent OOO ...more

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Apr 14, 2019 Madison Delaney rated it did not like it

Absolute nonsense, convincing only for the first few pages before being a fascinatingly terrible answer to the nature of objects. Undermining and overmining? No, just mining, because understanding takes work. This book is simply an attempt to liberate philosophy from science by turning it into quietist, unhelpful, and ultimately questionable drivel. Amazing that OOO went anywhere with its founder making such guff.

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May 04, 2018 Viktor rated it liked it

Shelves: teori

3,5

Objejt-orienteret ontologi er et super interessant og vigtigt pluralistisk ståsted i det 21. århundredes filosofi. Harmans bog er en god indgangsvinkel til det overordnede projekt. Han skriver dog alt for didaktisk til min smag. Men totalt respekt for, at han kører fire-folds-strukturen i gennem hele bogen, også kapitel-inddelingsmæssigt. Ret gennemført, som Platons dialogform også er det ift. hans dualistiske ontologi.

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Mar 20, 2017 Unies Ananda Raja rated it really liked it

A good book for a clear introduction to what Graham Harman's doing. From what I get, Harman is building his own system of metaphysics. It is a brave new way and I am anticipating to see more of him. Maybe Harman is the next big thing in philosophy. But, I don't know. The thing is I like his way of philosophizing. His writing is clear. He has no intention of making the reader bored, at all. His explanation of the system is vivid. But, there are many things to address and right now I don't really ...more

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Jul 17, 2012 Andrew rated it it was ok

The Quadruple Object: Review 1

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The Quadruple Object: Review 2

Two full, linked posts reviewing The Quadruple Object. Somewhat from a hermeneutical and rhetorical perspective, but check them out and see what you think.

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Feb 28, 2016 Ricardo Vega rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mi-biblioteca

Helped me to clarify the ever confusing world of Husserl, Heidergger and Kant. A very appealing proposal to retake the object as a center for reflection and point of balance to the human self-centered way to see reality.

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About Graham Harman

Graham Harman

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Graham 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 ...more