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Graham Harman: Master class (October 1, 2015)01:44:25

Graham Harman discusses the philosophical precursors to his work, beginning with Kant and the phenomenological tradition beginning with Brentano, Harmon characterizes the analysis of the tool in Heidegger as a recognition of how objects arise into visibility and recede, depending on circumstances. He presents a diagram from his book The Quadruple Object which articulates the tensions between real objects and qualities and sensual objects and qualities. Harman presents an outline of philosophy in terms of two persistent errors: the undermining of objects through reducing them to some quality, and the over-mining of objects through reducing them to their actions. Neither approach can account for emergence, or change. Against the physical reductionists, Harman promotes the figure of Socrates, who did not claim to have any knowledge. Harman discusses the relevance of the theory of occasionalism, from Islamic theology through Bruno Latour. Harman concludes by responding to questions regarding history, knowledge, mathematical models, the temporal aspect of architecture, essences, and caricature.

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