Speculative Realism 101

July 26, 2012 6:40 AM

Speculative Realism: What are the key texts I need to read.

I am interested in Speculative Realism (SR) (and Speculative Materialism (SM)) as attempts to overcome 'Philosophies of access' (those which privilege the human being over other entities; anthropocentrism).

Also, any texts that cover...

- How do SR and SM overlap/not overlap with object-oriented philosophy (OO)?
- How do SM and OO relate to post-humanism and anti-humanism?

Thanks

posted by 0bvious to Religion & Philosophy (3 answers total)

I don't know about the key texts, but I'm reading Ian Bogost's Alien Phenomenology, or What It's Like to be a Thing. He does a pretty good job of covering the birth of Speculative Realism and the players, and he answers your two main questions, in the introduction.
posted by lunalaguna at 10:00 AM on July 26, 2012

Best answer: I read bits of The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism, published by re.press. You can download the PDF for free at that link. Other than that, I mostly follow the blogs by the people involved. That's where most of the discussion concerning your last two questions happens.
posted by perhapses at 10:14 AM on July 26, 2012

Best answer: After Finitude is a big one. Toward Speculative Realism is good. I also found Harman's book on Latour, Prince of Networks (another free PDF download--yay open access!) to be very clear and helpful, at least as a starting point.

But to chime in with perhapses, I think you'll find your specific questions/interests addressed more directly in the blogosphere--check out the blogs section of The Speculative Realism Pathfinder.
posted by désoeuvrée at 1:59 PM on July 26, 2012