Form and Object
A Treatise on Things
Published on 17. March 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
488 pages
978-0-7486-8150-1 (ISBN)
Description
What is a thing? What is an object? Tristan Garcia decisively overturns 100 years of Heideggerian orthodoxy about the supposedly derivative nature of objects and in so doing gives deep insights into the world and our place in it. Garcia's original and systematic formal ontology of things strips them of any determination, intensity or depth. From this radical ontological poverty, he develops encyclopaedic regional ontologies of objects. By covering topics as diverse as the universe, events, time, the living, animals, human beings, representation, arts and rules, culture, history, political economy, values, classes, genders, ages of life and death, he shows that speculative metaphysics and ontology are alive and well.
Reviews / Votes
One has to appreciate [Tristan Garcia's] novelty and courage. -- Yuk Hui, Leuphana University Lueneburg * Journal of Visual Culture * Reading Form and Object gives one the rare impression of discovering an utterly singular intelligence, reconfiguring all things, in a completely new tone. Tristan Garcia reinvents what seemed impossible after Hegel: speculative encyclopedism. A torrent of novel ideas. A tour de force. * Quentin Meillassoux, Maitre de conferences a l'Universite de Paris-1 (Pantheon-Sorbonne) *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
3 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 233 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 30 mm
Weight
742 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7486-8150-1 (9780748681501)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2014
Edinburgh University Press
€29.49
Available for download
Persons
Tristan Garcia is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Lyon and an award-winning novelist. He is the author of La vie intense: Une obsession moderne, translated into English as The Life Intense: A Modern Obsession (Edinburgh University Press, 2018) and Forme et objet. Un traite des choses (PUF, 2011), translated into English as Form and Object: A Treatise on Things (Edinburgh University Press, 2014). His other philosophical works include L'Image and Nous. His fictional works include Les cordelettes de Browser, En l'absence de classement final and Memoires de la jungle. In 2008, he received the Prix de Flore for La meilleure part des hommes, translated into English as Hate: A Romance. Mark Allan Ohm is a graduate research assistant in the Department of French Studies and the Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies at Louisiana State University. He is lead editor of the English translation project of the Atelier de metaphysique et d'ontologie contemporaines at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. Jon Cogburn is Professor of Philosophy at Louisiana State University. He is co-translator of The Life Intense: A Modern Obsession. Together with Mark Ohm, he is the co-translator of Tristan Garcia's Form and Object, and is the author of Garcian Meditations: The Dialectics of Persistence in Form and Object (Edinburgh University Press, 2017).
Content
Acknowledgements; Translators' Introduction; List of Figures; Introduction; Book I: Formally; Part I: Thing; I. No-matter-what; To matter; That no-matter-what became something; Thing; II. Less than a thing, more than a Thing; Substance; The vacuity of distinguishing material things from non-material things; Nothing; III. Something; Solitude; IV. Nothing is in itself; Self; V. Compactness; Impossible; VI. Something-other-than-a-thing; Going outside the world is a way of entering inside it; Part II: Thing and World; World; I. Something-other-than-a-thing: the world; II. Where is a thing? In the world; Without me; III. Where is the world?; Exception; What a big thing is; Many worlds; IV. Something-other-than-a-thing: all; Many; V. The accumulation of objects; One, several, whole, equal; Equal; Part III: Being and Comprehending; I. Being is being comprehended; Being is secondary; In; Between; II. That which is a thing, that which a thing is; On meaning; III. The two senses; Tragedy; On interests; Primary; IV. In things: matter; On the composition of a thing; Limit; Hand prints; V. Outside things: form; Forms; Book II: Objectively; Chapter I: Universe; Chapter II: Objects and Events; Chapter III: Time; Chapter IV: Living Things; Chapter V: Animals; Chapter VI: Humans; Chapter VII: Representations; Chapter VIII: Arts and Rules; Chapter IX: Culture; Chapter X: History; Chapter XI: Economy of Objects; Chapter XII: Values; Chapter XIII: Classes; Chapter XIV: Genders; Chapter XV: Ages of Life; Chapter XVI: Death; Coda: Formally, objectively; The Chance and the Price; Works Cited; Index.