Levi Bryant, Nick Srnicek, Graham Harman (eds.): The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism (2011)

“Continental philosophy has entered a new period of ferment. The long deconstructionist era was followed with a period dominated by Deleuze, which has in turn evolved into a new situation still difficult to define. However, one common thread running through the new brand of continental positions is a renewed attention to materialist and realist options in philosophy. Among the current giants of this generation, this new focus takes numerous different and opposed forms. It might be hard to find many shared positions in the writings of Badiou, DeLanda, Laruelle, Latour, Stengers, and Zizek, but what is missing from their positions is an obsession with the critique of written texts. All of them elaborate a positive ontology, despite the incompatibility of their results. Meanwhile, the new generation of continental thinkers is pushing these trends still further, as seen in currents ranging from transcendental materialism to the London-based speculative realism movement to new revivals of Derrida. As indicated by the title The Speculative Turn, the new currents of continental philosophy depart from the text-centered hermeneutic models of the past and engage in daring speculations about the nature of reality itself. This anthology assembles authors, of several generations and numerous nationalities, who will be at the center of debate in continental philosophy for decades to come.”

With essays by Alain Badiou, Ray Brassier, Nathan Brown, Levi Bryant, Gabriel Catren, Manuel DeLanda, Iain Hamilton Grant, Martin Hägglund, Peter Hallward, Graham Harman, Adrian Johnston, Francois Laruelle, Bruno Latour, Quentin Meillassoux, Reza Negarestani, John Protevi, Steven Shaviro, Nick Srnicek, Isabelle Stengers, Alberto Toscano, Slavoj Žižek

Publisher re.press, Melbourne, 2011
Anamnesis series
ISBN 9780980668346, 9780980668353
430 pages

Publisher

PDF (updated on 2021-3-9)

Ray Brassier: Nihil Unbound: Enlightenment and Extinction (2007)

Nihilism is not an affliction to be overcome, but a vector of intellectual discovery which philosophy should try to push to its ultimate conclusion. Rather than trying to safeguard the experience of meaning-construed as the defining feature of human existence-from the incursions of science, philosophy should strive to demystify it and deploy its considerable speculative resources to facilitate science’s labor of disenchantment. Disregarding the orthodox division between analytic and continental traditions, this book tries to forge a link between revisionary naturalism in Anglo-American philosophy and speculative realism in contemporary French philosophy.

Publisher Palgrave Macmillan, 2007
ISBN 0230522041, 9780230522046
275 pages

publisher
google books

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Quentin Meillassoux: After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency (2006–) [FR, EN, IT, ES, CR]

“Quentin Meillassoux’s debut makes an original contribution to contemporary French philosophy and is set to have a significant impact on the future of continental philosophy. Written in a style that marries clarity of expression with argumentative rigour, After Finitude provides readings of the history of philosophy and sets out a critique of the unavowed fideism at the heart of post-Kantian philosophy.

The centrality of argument in Meillassoux’s writing should appeal to analytic as well as continental philosophers, while his critique of fideism will be of interest to anyone preoccupied by the relation between philosophy, theology and religion.

Meillassoux introduces a novel philosophical alternative to the forced choice between dogmatism and critique. After Finitude proposes a new alliance between philosophy and science and calls for an unequivocal halt to the return of religiosity in contemporary philosophical discourse.”

Publisher Seuil, 2006
ISBN 2020847426

English edition
Preface by Alain Badiou
Translated by Ray Brassier
Publisher Continuum, 2008
ISBN 0826496741, 9780826496744
148 pages

Publisher (FR)
Publisher (EN)

Après la finitude: essai sur la nécessité de la contingence (French, 2006, 6 MB, updated on 2021-3-15)
After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency (English, 2008, updated on 2020-5-26)
Dopo la finitudine: saggio sulla necessità della contingenza (Italian, trans. Massimiliano Sandri, 2012, added on 2021-3-15)
Después de la finitud: ensayo sobre la necesidad de la contingencia (Spanish, trans. Margarita Martinez, 2015, 5 MB, added on 2021-3-15)
Poslije konačnosti: esej o nužnosti kontingencije (Croatian, trans. Vladimir Šeput, 2016, added on 2020-5-26)