I exist, therefore the world thinks: Whitehead, Latour and scientific aesthetics

Authors

  • Thiago Araujo Pinho Senai

Keywords:

Object-Oriented Social Theory, Whitehead, Bruno Latour, Aesthetics, Ontology

Abstract

Many people think that the capacity for criticism and reflection, as well as the attitude of welcoming contingency, the other, and debate, is some internal and well-intentioned energy of open-minded people, as advocated by liberals, whether from the right or the left. What they don't realize is how much the capacity for reflection and dialogue is an external phenomenon, present in the world itself, produced only thanks to a space of resistances, encounters, and even frustrations, as in the academic and scientific sphere. It prevents my cogito and my precious epistemic schemes from getting out of control, in a dangerous transcendentalist delirium, and taking over the world and the circumstances themselves. The aim of this essay is precisely to understand this aesthetic dimension of science, this ontological feature that crosses its contours, taking as a starting point the concepts of "importance" in Whitehead and "matters of concern" in Bruno Latour.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Thiago Araujo Pinho, Senai

Professor do Centro Universitário Senai Cimatec, Salvador, Bahia – Brasil. Orcid: 0000-0003-4147-6331.

References

ADORNO, Theodor. Prismas: Critica Cultural e Sociedade. São Paulo: Ática, 1953.

BENNETT, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010.

ESPINOSA, Benedictus de. A ética. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica, 2009.

HALEWOOD, Michael A. N. Whitehead and Social Theory: Tracing a Culture of Thought. London: Anthem, 2011.

HARAWAY, Donna Jeane. Situated Knowledges: the Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies, v. 14, n. 3, p. 575-599, 1988. Disponível em: https://philpapers.org/citations/HARSKT. Acesso em: 20 fev. 2023.

HARMAN, Graham. On Vicarious Causation. Cambridge: Collapse, 2007.

HARMAN, Graham. Object Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything. United Kingdom: Pelican Books, 2017.

LATOUR, Bruno. Jamais fomos modernos: ensaio de antropologia simétrica. Rio de Janeiro: Editora 34, 1994.

LATOUR, Bruno. Do Scientific Objects Have a History? Pasteur and Whitehead in a Bath of Lactic Acid. Common Knowledge, n, 5, v. 1, p.76-91, 1996a. Disponível em: http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/226.html Acesso em: 20 fev. 2023.

LATOUR, Bruno. On Inter-objectivity. Mind, Culture, and Activity, v. 3, n. 4, 1996b. Disponível em: http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/225.html Acesso em: 18 fev. 2023.

LATOUR, Bruno. When things strike back: a possible contribution of 'science studies' to the social sciences. The British Journal of Sociology, v. 51, n. 1, p. 107-112, 2000. Disponível em: http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/184.html Acesso em: 10 fev. 2023.

LATOUR, Bruno. How to talk about the body? The normative dimension of science studies. Body & Society, v. 10, n. 2-3, p. 205-229, 2004a. Disponível em: http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/185.html. Acesso em: 05 maio 2023.

LATOUR, Bruno. Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern. Critical Inquiry, v. 30, n. 2, p. 225-248, 2004b. Disponível em: http://www.bruno-latour.fr/node/165.html Acesso em: 15 fev. 2023.

LATOUR, Bruno. Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime. United Kingdom: Polity, 2018.

LÉVI-STRAUSS, Claude. Structural Anthropology. New York: Basic Books, 1963.

MALABOU, Catherine. Can We Relinquish the Transcendental? Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 28, v. 3, p.242-255, 2014. Disponível em: https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/psup/speculative-philosophy/article abstract/28/3/242/247347/Can-We-Relinquish-the-Transcendental?redirectedFrom=fulltext Acesso em: 11 fev. 2023.

MASSUMI, Brian. What the animals can teach us about politics? US: Duke University Press, 2014.

MEILLASSOUX, Quentin. After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency. London: Continuum, 2008.

PROUST, Marcel. Em busca do tempo perdido: no caminho de Swann. São Paulo: Globo, 2006.

SOKAL, Alan. Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture. New York: Oxford Press, 2008.

STENGERS, Isabelle. A invenção das Ciências Modernas. São Paulo: Editora 34, 1949.

STENGERS, Isabelle. Including Nonhumans in Political Theory: Opening the Pandora’s Box? In: BRAUN, Bruce; WHATMORE, Sarah J. (ed.). Political Matter: Technoscience, Democracy, and Public Life. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2010. p. 3-33.

TOLSTOY, Leon. The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Health Sciences Pub Corp, 1973.

WHITEHEAD, Alfred. Modes of Thought. New York: Free Press, 1938.

WHITEHEAD, Alfred North North. Process and Reality: An Essay In Cosmology. New York: The Free Press, 1978.

WHITEHEAD, Alfred North. A ciência e o mundo moderno. São Paulo: Paulus, 2006.

ŽIŽEK, Slavoj. Enjoy your Symptom. UK: Routledge, 1992.

Recebido: 09/02/2023 - Aceito: 10/07/2023 - Publicado: 13/11/2023

Published

2023-11-13

How to Cite

Araujo Pinho, T. (2023). I exist, therefore the world thinks: Whitehead, Latour and scientific aesthetics. TRANS/FORM/AÇÃO: Revista De Filosofia, 47(3), e0240032. Retrieved from https://revistas.marilia.unesp.br/index.php/transformacao/article/view/14195