A Lexicon of Onticology

7/30/2019 A Lexicon of Onticology

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A Lexicon of Onticology

A

Act: Local manifestations, qualities, or properties of objects. Qualities or local manifestations are not

possessions of objects, but rather acts of objects.

Actant: (Bruno Latour) Synonym for any object. Designed to emphasize the manner in which objects

are active and not merely passive recipients of action.

Actualism: (Roy Bhaskar) Any philosophical doctrine that holds that only the actual is real. Examples:

Empiricisms reduction of all beings to actual sensations or impressions, atomisms reduction of true

being to collection of purely actual, indivisible atoms localized in time and space, or relationisms

reduction of objects to their relations to other objects.

Asymmetrical Qualities: Local manifestations of an object that are irreversible in the order of time or

through a shift in exo-relations. For example, its unlikely that I can revert back to my physical beingat the age of 12 (though many will say I often behave like Im twelve). Contrasted with symmetrical

qualities.

Attractor: Powers of an object to produce qualities of a particular sort within a particular range. Ex.

All the shades of color an object can actualize under various lighting conditions.

C

Collective: (Bruno Latour) Regimes of attraction or entanglements of 1) objects, 2) humans and

objects, but never 3) humans alone (all human action is mediated by nonhuman agencies). Designedto replace the concept of society.

Community: In classical philosophy the category of community is a concept of causality that refers to

relations among objects in which all objects involved in a collective are simultaneously causing and

effecting one another. For example, the earth exerts gravity on the moon just as the moon exerts

gravity on the earth. Community can pertain to either the endo-structure of relations among parts in

a discrete object or to relations among objects in a collectively. In the latter usage the concept of

community is closely related to that of regimes of attraction.

Correlationism: (Quentin Meillassoux) The thesis that being and thought can never be thought apart

from one another. The dominant, though often implicit, axiom of contemporary philosophy and all

variants of anti-realism and idealism. A form of overmining.

D

Difference Engine:Synonym for object. All objects are difference engines insofar as they harbor

the power or capacity to produce differences in the form of local manifestations.

Diffraction Pattern:(Karen Barad) Synonym for translation. The process by which objects in exo-

relations weave their differences or acts together to form new exo-qualities.


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Domestic Relation: (Graham Harman) Relations that make up the internal composition or structure

of an object independent of other objects. In onticology synonymous with endo-relations, endo-

composition, endo-structure, or virtual proper being.

E

Endo-Qualities: Qualities or local manifestations that arise from an object alone, independent of any

exo-relations to other objects.

Endo-Relations: Relations that make up the internal structure of objects, independent of any

relations to other objects.

Entanglement:To replace the word network. A heterogeneous set of objects inter-acting with one

another in a collective.

Epistemic Fallacy: (Roy Bhaskar) Any philosophical position that holds that questions of ontology can

be formulated in purely epistemological terms or that all ontological questions can be translated intoquestions of how we know. Ex. Humes rejection of substances as a legitimate metaphysical concept

and attempt to treat what we call substances purely in terms of impressions or substances.

Equal Ontological Footing: Not the thesis that all entities are equalor contribute the same degree of

difference to the world, but that all entities are equally real.

Essence: Throughout the history of philosophy essence has been associated with types and

contrasted with individualsthat are treated as tokens of a type. For example, rational animal is

treated as the essence of the human and Socrates is treated as a token of humans. Onticology

conceives of essences as singularessences belonging to a single individual rather than defining whatis common to many individuals. The essence of an object is its virtual proper being composed of

endo-relations between singularities and powers in an individual object. See also, endo-structure,

virtual proper being, domestic relations, and endo-relations.

Event: The local manifestation of a quality or a property in an object. Events belong to the domain of

the actual.

Excess: The manner in which the virtual proper being always contains more potential than any local

manifestations it happens to actualize at a given point in time.

Exo-Qualities: Qualities or local manifestations that only exist through exo-relations among objects.Ex. Color. Color requires exo-relations between the properties of an object, photons of light, and a

neurological system to occur.

Exo-Relations: Relations between discrete and autonomous objects. Often responsible for the

production of qualities in local manifestations.

Externalism: The ontological thesis that relations are external to objects. Objects enter into relations

but are not constituted by their relations. Contrast with internalism.


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F

Flat Ontology: Any ontology that 1) rejects the nature/culture distinction, treating both cultural

entities and natural entities as realentities, 2) any ontology that places entities of all types on equal

ontological footing (natural entities, signs, language, humans, animals, etc.). Requires us to think in

terms of entanglements of entities rather than in terms of the reduction of one type of entity toanother type of entity.

Foreign Relations: (Graham Harman) Relations an object enters into with other objects. Within the

framework of onticology, foreign relation is a synonym for exo-relation. Often a major contributor to

local manifestations.

G

Geometry: Geometrical conceptions are conceptions that conceive structures asfixedrather than

plastic. For example, triangles arent conceived as a series ofvariations of a structure composed of

three singularities, but as discrete and fixed structures such as right-triangles, isosceles triangles, etc.

Contrast with topo-structure.

H

Hegemonic Fallacy: Any philosophy that treats one particular type of entity as the origin of the most

significant differences within being. Atomism is a variant of the hegemonic fallacy insofar as it

privileges atoms as the source of all difference in the world. All variants of anti-realism and idealism

commit the hegemonic fallacy insofar as they treat mind, society, language, etc., as the major source

of difference in the world.

I

Internalism: The ontological thesis that all objects are composed ofinternalrelations to other

objects or that objects are their relations, or that being is composed entirely of relations. A variant of

overmining. Contrast with externalism.

L

Local Manifestation: Actualizations of powers of objects in the form of qualities or properties. There

is no requirement of a sentient witness for local manifestation to take place. Local manifestations are

local because they actualize a quality in a particular time and at a particular place. They aremanifestations because they actualize a quality or property.

M

Media/Mediator: An object functioning as the vehicle for the differences or acts of another object.

No medium is ever purely passive or transparent, but rather every medium contributes differences of

its own to the acts it receives from the other object.

Mereology: The branch of philosophy and mathematics that studies the relationship between parts

of an object and wholes of an object. Onticology and OOO is particularly interested in that

mereological relation where the parts of an object are themselves objects and where the whole is

independent of these parts and the parts independent of the whole.


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O

Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO): A genus consisting of ontologies that argue that being is

composed of objects. OOO is not the thesis that we should focus on objects instead of humans, but

rather that theres only one ontological category, objects, which also includes humans, i.e., there

arent two distinct ontological domains, one composedof mind, the other composed of natural objects.

Onticology: My variant of object-oriented ontology. Differs slightly from Harmans in that I defend

the category of potentiality whereas he rejects it.

Overmining: (Graham Harman) Any ontology that argues that objects arefalsely deep and should be

replaced by something more immediate. Ex, Humes reduction of substances to impressions.

P

Part: Objects that enter into the multiple composition of another object. Parts are alwaysindependent of the objects to which they belong by virtue of being detachable from these objects.

Detaching a part from another object does not entail that either the part or whole will remain

unchanged.

Phase Space: All possible points that can be locally manifested in the domain of an attractor.

Point: The local manifestation of a point in a phase space of an attractor.

Poltergeist/Ghost: A synonym for virtual proper being. Objects are not to be identified with their

parts nor with matter because objects can gain and lose parts and matter and still remain the object

that they are. Consequently, the proper being of an object is its topo-structure or essence,

withdrawn from any actuality or presence. In this respect the proper being of objects is analogous to

a poltergeist insofar as poltergeists can only be detected through their effects and never directly.

Pornography: A variant of actualism that privileges the human gaze as it relates to other objects.

Power: Capacities or abilities of an object that belong to the virtual proper being of an object. What

an object can do. To be contrasted with local manifestation, exo-quality, or endo-quality, or what an

object has done. See attractor.

R

Reflexive Objects: Objects capable of treating past states as inputs in their present states in the

formation of local manifestations. For example, a society can deploy events of its past in how it

thinks its present.

Regime of Attraction: A network of exo-relations among objects presiding over stable state local

manifestations of the objects within the network. Ex. An object remaining more or less the same

color because of the constancy of lighting conditions. Alternatively, a person remaining more or less

the same height because of the constancy of gravitational conditions.

S


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Society: Collections that are composed entirely of humans and human phenomena such as language,

ideology, beliefs, etc. Onticology rejects the concept of society and replaces it with that of collectives.

Split-Object: Synonym for difference engine or object. All objects are split between their local

manifestations and their virtual proper being.

Symmetrical Qualities: Local manifestations of an object that can revert back to a prior local

manifestation when exo-relations change. For example, the color of an object changes depending on

lighting conditions but it locally manifest previous colors when lighting conditions or exo-relations

shift.

T

Time-Space Worms: Split-objects comprehended in the duration of their existence, no matter how

brief, across time-space.

Topo-Structure:From topology. Topology is often referred to as dynamic or rubber sheetgeometry. Where classical Euclidean geometry studies fixed forms, topology investigates the

transformation of forms into one another through operations of bending and stretching. Onticology

conceives the virtual proper being or essence of split objects as plastic topo-structures.

Totality: The endo-structure and virtual proper being of discrete or individual objects. Domestic

relations. A totality is a structure in which singularities are interdependent with one another. All

objects are open totalities.

Translation: The process whereby the acts of one object are received by another object in an exo-

relation producing a newexo-quality as a result. Ex. The manner in which an artists conception mustbe translated into a medium such as paint, marble, or language. Alternatively, the manner in which

the stones of the Grand Canyon translate the force of the wind creating a unique configuration of

stone.

Transportation: The manner in which the acts of one object are transmitted to another object. There

is no transportation without translation (Latour).

U

Undermining: (Graham Harman) Any ontology that argues that objects are too superficialand should

be replaced by some allegedly deeper strata of reality. Ex, atomisms reduction of objects to atoms orThales reduction of objects to water.

V

Vehicle: An object that carries the difference or act of another object in an exo-relation. The

mediation of the act of another object by an object. No object is a pure vehicle for the act of another

object, but rather each object carrying the difference or act of another object also contributes

differences of its own producing unique exo-qualities. Media are never transparent or purely passive.

See translation. Ex. The game of telephone among children.

Virtual:Not to be confused with virtual or artificial reality, nor with possibility. The term virtuality

derives from the Latin vitus and has connotations of power, potency, or strength. The virtual refers


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to the powers or potentials of an object. Contrasted with actuality which always refers to qualities of

an object that are actualizations of a power of an object.

Virtual Proper Being: The withdrawn being of objects defined by the powers and endo-relations of

an object. To be contrasted with local manifestation. Virtual proper being is among the conditions of

local manifestations.

W

Withdrawal: (Graham Harman) Within the framework of onticology the manner in which 1) objects

are independent of other objects, 2) objects are always distinct from any qualities or local

manifestations they happen to actualize at a given point in time, 3) the manner in which the virtual

proper being of any object is in excess of any of its local manifestations.

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A Lexicon of Onticology