Materialist Ontology Research Articles

A feminist new materialist ontology of masculinity

ABSTRACT This paper considers how masculinity might be reconceptualised within a feminist new materialist ontology. The aim of this theoretical framing is to generate new ways of understanding the nature of masculinity and agency, and to open space for strategies that disrupt inequitable gender relations. To undertake this work, the concept of ‘assemblage’ from Jane Bennett, ‘intra-action’ from Karen Barad and ‘more-than-human gender performativity’ from Anne-Sofie Dichman are drawn together. Combining these theoretical ideas shifts current conceptualisations of masculinity beyond the human body and gender performances of men. Instead, masculinity is reconfigured as a complex multi-dimensional assemblage of forces that include human-non-human matter and their intra-relations. New materialism’s decentring of human exceptionalism and attendance to the agency of matter is acknowledged in this conceptualisation, while simultaneously identifying performative instances in which human-non-human intra-actions sediment a masculine gender identity. The ontological indeterminacy of matter and gender performativity contained within this account, offer potential for new ways of differentiating female/male bodies and identities beyond current gender binaries and human/non-human distinctions. Such ontological disruption to masculinity presents possibilities for changing existing gender politics and cross-species engagements that hold hope for more ethical relations.

Ontology and the Ethics of Milk: A Relational Materialist Approach

Some theorists have argued that novel food objects spur ontological debates and are thus grounds for the disruption of problematic normative ontologies. In this paper, I take up this claim to consider how disputes about milk and alternatives, among them synthetic milk, manifest certain ontological commitments. Through a political approach to ontology, I argue that the disruption of hegemonic ontologies can afford novel ethical considerations otherwise concealed from view. Drawing on ecofeminist critique of dairy, and feminist critiques of biocapitalism, I show how debates about milk and alternatives reinscribe an ontology of living and natural bodies as resources for the accretion of capital, and the way that ontologies of sex, gender and nature function within these debates. I argue that the actual materiality of milk is concealed through industrial processes, as well as public discourse. I then offer an alternative materialist ontology of milk, on the basis that an emphasis on the materiality of mammalian milks, including human, can unveil ethical considerations otherwise concealed in conceptual debates about milk; I articulate this materiality as a relational materialist ontology, building on existing distinctions between substance and relational ontologies of food. I argue that the effect of this commitment to materiality is the provision is to counter a principalist approach to the ethics of milk by taking milk’s materiality as a paradigm for reflecting on the necessity of situatedness for any such ethics.

From the Great Void to Moral Practice: Ira Kasoff’s Systemic Reconstruction of Chang Tsai’s Ontological Ch’i in Cosmology, Human Nature, and Sagehood

This paper examines Ira E. Kasoff’s systemic interpretation of Chang Tsai’s Neo-Confucianism in his The Thought of Chang Tsai (1020–1077), focusing on Kasoff’s reconstruction of Ch’i (qi, 气) as the ontological foundation of Chang’s philosophy. Through a trichotomous translational strategy—distinguishing between “Ch’i”, “ch’i”, and “qi”—Kasoff systematically integrates Chang’s cosmology, human nature, and ethics into a coherent framework. He argues that Ch’i (e.g., Great Void, taixu, 太虚) serves as the primordial substance underlying all existence, while ch’i and qi explain the generation of phenomenal forms and moral agency. Kasoff highlights how Chang’s Ch’i-centric ontology refutes Buddhist illusionism and Daoist non-being, positing yin–yang interactions as the self-generative mechanism of the cosmos. Central to Kasoff’s analysis is Chang’s dual-nature theory of heavenly nature (天地之性, as the inherent goodness of Ch’i) and physical nature (气质之性, as the individualized limitations of ch’i); Kasoff demonstrates how Chang’s emphasis on learning (xue, 学) aims to transform nature and restore heavenly nature, culminating in sagehood as the realization of cosmic harmony. Additionally, by contrasting Chang’s Ch’i-based system with Cheng-Zhu Neo-Confucianism, Kasoff underscores its originality—a dynamic, materialist ontology that bridges metaphysics and ethics.

Mineral Freedom

Abstract The essay examines Jean-Luc Nancy's ontology of matter. In the aphorism “the stone is free,” Nancy entangles the oppositional orders of nature and of human historico-political becoming that philosophy still lacks the resources to make converge, even as this convergence becomes imperative in the face of the ecological predicament of the Anthropocene. The essay traces the ways in which Nancy takes on this task across his corpus, recasting the concept of freedom and the figure of the stone—both integral to the history of occidental philosophy. Minerality emerges accordingly as the free spacing and articulation of soul, body, and sense. The essay pursues the ramifications of thinking minerality anew, touching in the process on the limits of Nancy's gesture and gesturing in turn toward what remains unthought in his thought.

Politics of matter and politics of ontology

Politics of matter and politics of ontology

Symbolized objects and signified identities

Symbolized objects and signified identities

Machiavelli: Lucretian Republicanism and Animality

ABSTRACTThis paper investigates the relevance of a materialist ontology of Lucretian origin in Machiavelli's conception of animality. It argues that Machiavelli's view of man as another expression of the material world serves as a starting point, where man is an animal urged to overcome his animality through institutions and civic life. Machiavelli's political philosophy can be interpreted as an ontological understanding of society, with a state of war as its foundation. Man is seen as a political animal in the sense of homo homini lupus rather than Aristotle's assumption of a being driven by civic friendship. The inherent conflict in political life arises from the desire of elites to dominate the masses, and only political institutions can bring Seneca's homo sacra res homini to life. For Machiavelli, the sacred is an institutionally guaranteed status resulting from a social and political construction that prevents the powerful from devouring the common people. The paper considers whether this Machiavellian animality gives rise to a new kind of collective phronesis, which seeks to overcome this ‘animality’ as part of a teleology of human materiality.

Naming/Meaning Distinction Delineated in the Context of The Essence/Existence Distinction

The epistemic nature of truth provides the basis of understanding the relationship between the naming/meaning distinction and the existence/essence distinction. Every word denotes a reductive reference and connotes a non-reductive meaning. Every word is associated with both intension/meaning and extension/ reference (Putnam). A noun is a naming word; like all words, it denotes a reference and connotes meaning. The distinction between naming and meaning with reference to nouns is necessary because nouns like all words, deal with both extension and intension. The essence/existence distinction defines why it is essential to separate naming from meaning. For naming and existence is an ontological matter; meaning and essence is an epistemic matter. What does a word or specifically a noun entail? It can ascribe (1) the identity of a person, place, or principle; (2) it can affirm the existence of something (material/ concrete world); the subsistence of something (mathematical/ abstract world), or the absistence of something (mental world, F.N. Findlay); or (3) it can define the essence of something as being an essential, accidental, or emergent property. The central thrust of my paper is to discuss why words/ nouns can be understood as either defining the identity and existence of something or defining the meaning and essence of something. There are no nouns/words without reference or meaning. When we see something, what conjures in our mind is either the existence of that thing or the essence of that thing. Naming deals with the specificity and existence of something, while meaning deals with the universality and essence of something. Naming puts emphasis on what is reductive, and meaning puts emphasis on what is non-reductive. Naming and meaning like existence and essence are intertwined because the truth of existence (including subsistence and assistance) and the truth of essence are inseparable, if truth is an epistemic matter. Essence/ existence distinction is fundamental to what exists, subsists or absists in understanding the relationship of the naming/meaning distinction.

Comprehension of the consciousness – brain problem within the framework of materialist ontology

The article considers the main approaches to the issues of the correlation of mental-psychic and material-physical within the framework of the problem of consciousness-brain. Attention is emphasized on the comprehension of mental phenomena from the point of view of materialistic ontology. The author, using the example of reductive theories of consciousness (identity theory, functionalism), reveals a number of difficulties that arise when trying to explain non-physical (mental) phenomena in the form of physical being. It is emphasized that the understanding of mental-psychic phenomena within the framework of non-reductive materialism (primary and secondary duality properties) preserves the uniqueness of the mental and does not contradict materialist ontology. The author's consideration of the consciousness-brain problem from the point of view of the information approach in the form of secondary duality properties seems to be the most promising direction for the construction of a theory of consciousness within the framework of materialist ontology.

The Mormon Archive’s First Ten Thousand Years: Infrastructure, Materiality, Ontology, and Resurrection in Religious Transhumanism

Abstract One of the chief debates in the academic study of transhumanism is whether or not this emergent movement that advocates for the technological overcoming of the limits of humanity should be considered religious in nature. This question stems from the fact that, while the vast majority of transhumanists explicitly reject established religion, elements of transhumanism seem strikingly similar to Christian eschatology. This article explores this question by asking how the ontology of an avowedly religious transhumanist movement, the Mormon Transhumanist Association, differs from the informatic ontology identified in secular transhumanism. It shows how contemporary Mormon Transhumanist imaginings of various forms of technological resurrection are informed by the infrastructure and materialist ontology associated with the Mormon practice of “Proxy baptisms” (otherwise known as baptisms for the dead) and other initiatory rituals conducted by proxy on behalf of the deceased. This influence suggests that, at least in this case, there are identifiable differences between secular transhumanism and religious transhumanism that complicate any easy reading of secular transhumanism as being crypto-religion.

Intra-action as a Materialist Ontology of the Virtual: From the Analytical Engine to Analog/Digital Intraobjectivity

This article provides a theoretical contribution based on Sadie Plant’s critiques of the notion of virtuality as pure immateriality. Plant uses Ada Lovelace’s logic of the ‘Analytical Engine’ as a base, reinterpreting it as a feminine practice associated with the act of weaving, which has been repressed by official cyberculture. From this perspective, the article examines how Remedios Zafra identifies a continuity of this logic in domestic ‘prosumption’ practices, emphasizing their potential to achieve subjective autonomy, albeit subordinated to being captured by the neoliberal digital economy. Finally, Karen Barad’s concept of intra-action is introduced as a materialist ontology of the virtual, complementing Plant’s critiques and addressing the ambiguity of prosumption as discussed by Zafra. This ontology challenges techno-libertarian immaterialism by interpreting ‘digital objects’ as co-productive or intra-objective relations between the analog and the digital.

A new materialist (re)configuring of sexuality, age and the discourse of ‘childhood innocence’

Abstract This article explores the potential of feminist new materialisms for rethinking enduring debates that cohere around children, sexuality, age and ‘childhood innocence’. A new materialist ontology of sexuality and Karen Barad's concept of spacetimemattering are employed to conceptualise sexuality as an emergent becoming of relational material‐discursive forces. Within this paradigm, mobilisation of arguments about ‘sexual innocence and readiness’ become a matter of entanglement of contingent ‘things’, ‘spaces’ and ‘ideas’, that includes young people's own sexual knowledge. We consider how this reorientation shifts the contours, debates and possibilities of sexuality education beyond restrictive ‘age‐appropriate’ narratives.

Ayahuasca ceremonies, relationality, and inner-outer transformations to sustainability. Evidence from Takiwasi Center in Peru

ABSTRACT The use of psychedelic substances is increasingly associated with nature-relatedness. We explore whether entheogenic uses of ayahuasca in settings co-produced between Indigenous and Western knowledges may also foster relationality and sustainability transformations across ontology, praxis, and epistemology. A survey with 74 English-speaking individuals who attended Amazonian healing ceremonies at the Takiwasi Center in Peru, along with 11 semi-structured interviews and a discussion circle revealed unexpected personal shifts towards relationality. Beyond the expected increase in nature-relatedness, participants also reported boundary dissolution and changes in their perceptions of self, leading them to experience nature and non-human beings as having spiritual or human-like agency. The blurring of perceived boundaries between themselves and nature also challenged the materialist ontologies in which they had been educated and socialized. In terms of both epistemologies and praxis, co-produced ayahuasca ceremonies enhanced relational thinking and embodiment of relationality. Inner-outer transformations ensued from the post-ceremonial integration of the ‘plant’s teachings’ into participants’ daily lives. We discuss our findings’ contributions to the emerging field of inner transformations and the relational turn in sustainability. Potential sustainability benefits of scaling plant-based ceremonies need to be measured against their impacts on the Amazon rainforest and its biocultures.

Entangled engagements: a posthumanist and affirmative ethics for tourism geographies

This review summarizes some key moments in the development of ethics in tourism research and practice where three main areas of concern are identified: socio-economic inequalities, cultural discriminations, and more-than-human speciesism. Following a brief historical review, the paper delves into some current trends and ethical concerns in tourism geographies, which trace back to the utilitarian ethics within which contemporary tourism emerged, after which, and with the growing concerns about tourism’s negative impacts, normative and moral approaches to ethics held sway. Then the paper addresses a critical gap in tourism ethics’ research and practice. With few exceptions, tourism environments are seen as something apart, things to be managed, developed or even protected, where the focus is instrumental on how these environments can be maintained or manipulated for human benefit. This modernization paradigm and its promise of progress through growth, together with a tourism industry that (re)produces colonial structures through neocolonial practices reinforced by neoliberal globalization has contributed to a host of present-day challenges and injustices. We argue that to address the injustices above and current existential crises like climate change, and other threats to socio-ecological well-being, a paradigm shift in tourism thinking is needed. Specifically, we propose embracing posthumanist ethics as a novel, experimental (as against normative or moral), situated (as against universal), and affirmative (as against oppositional) critique of structural injustices and structural power; epistemological pluralism (as against essentialism), acknowledging the relationality proper of indigenous cosmologies and other traditional knowledges (where more involvement from the Global South is needed); and a new materialist ontology that overcomes human exceptionalism and abandons oppositional binary thinking. In other words, what is needed, is an affirmative posthumanist ethics for tourism that is relational, plural and differential.

Sexuality-Assemblages, Hyphens, and the In-Between

Sexuality-assemblages emphasize a relational more-than-human approach to conceptualizing the becoming of sexuality. This article brings together Fine’s notion of “working the hyphen” with a new materialist ontology of sexuality, to explore the space and form of the hyphen within the sexuality-assemblage. In “working” the sexuality-assemblage hyphen, I explore the onto-epistemological space it inhabits, who or what is implicated at this material and metaphorical juncture, and how this shapes the production of knowledge about sexuality. More than a simple connecting device between words, the hyphen is conceptualized as a metonym for the dynamic space in-between assembled elements. The hyphen-space is generative and capacious, enacting important onto-epistemological understandings about research(er) “objectivity,” response-ability and ethics integral to a new materialist becoming of sexualities research. More broadly, I consider how a new materialist ontology shapes the form of the hyphen itself, elaborating the view that even the smallest of marks can matter.

Ontological assumptions on the introduction of the concepts of cells and the functioning of living beings in school textbooks

ABSTRACT Within the scope of this investigation, educational instruments grounded on materialist ontology were employed to undertake a semantic analysis of the concepts of cell and the mechanisms of living organisms as they appear in biology and natural science textbooks. Drawing upon the ontological categories applied to distinct biological system levels, our findings demonstrate that the dominant approach for introducing the concept of cell and living organisms is via a holistic approach. However, prevalent inaccuracies relate to the presentation of tissue or organ properties, which neglect to reference the types of cells and their interactions responsible for emergent properties at this level. Our findings suggest that the use of a holistic approach to teach the functioning of living beings, may partially account for the difficulties when transitioning between levels of reality to construct explanations by students in this field of study. Our work provides tools to transition towards a biology education with a systemic approach to the content of cells and living organisms.

The Transformative Potential of Everyday Life: Shared Space, Togetherness, and Everyday Degrowth in Housing

ABSTRACT This paper proposes that everyday life in housing contains the possibility to shape and transform its material, cultural, and social conditions. Mobilizing a materialist ontology and insights from human geography, we examine how shared spaces manifest practices of togetherness which prefigure the enactment of socioecological degrowth. We draw on ethnographic fieldwork on a housing estate in Manchester (UK) to identify practices that characterize everyday housing geographies, including reappropriation, commoning, accepting limits, and territorializing tendencies. These constitute a therapeutic assemblage, facilitating wellbeing while simultaneously enfolded with(in) the political possibilities being realized on the estate to form a contingent, yet durable, instantiation of everyday degrowth. We thus contribute to revealing how transformative degrowth politics are sustained in everyday housing contexts.

Педагогічний аспект метаантропологічного пізнання канонічного права

Good and evil will never agree. A spiritual struggle is needed. The evil deeds of man testify to the absence of true, perfect knowledge. The factory of knowledge is a person who, with the help of existential and transcendental virtues and having a higher spiritual inoculation, a spiritual vaccine, knows, reveals in the universe the synergistic processual effect of ionization, that is, the transformation of potential good into ontological matters. At the same time, evil necessarily takes part in ionization, as a certain incentive to the opposite action. Ionization is caused by such an ionizer as the spiritual energy of a person, his organic cognition. This process is ontological and necessary for a person to master himself and win a place for himself in the transcendental world. The metastases of evil are so penetrating that a person cannot comprehend them from beginning to end. The natural ability of man to know the world is blocked by evil. If the earthly phenomena can be known in the main, then the supernatural ones - only a part, referring to irrationality, that is, the permissibility of existence, but the impossibility (absurdity) of revealing the essences. The philosophy of law, together with its introductions to the deontology of law and canon law, convincingly proves that it is necessary to learn about the world through the prism of law. In particular, the deontology of law appeared thanks to the ontology of law. The ontology of law derives from human organics about the laws of creation of the world. Every day of the creation of the world is justified by a specific system of laws: light, space and time, the plant world, the solar system, the nature of water-air space, the nature of terrestrial space. These are the fundamental laws of the development of the world, the laws of reality act on a person and in his body, thoughts and feelings. That is why man has a name - microcosm. Thoughts and other organic factors are the basis of the human spirit, which is the leader in relation to the body, the organism. The human spirit is influenced by various teachings, theories, and religions. This leads a person to confusion. The way out of the situation is found in canon law, which offers a single knowledge, a single theory, a single faith. Therefore, there is a need to pay attention to the knowledge of canon law.

On the Ontic Origin of Art: Can Art Tell Us Anything about God?

Heidegger’s ontological differentiation and Derrida’s deconstruction of metaphysics rearranged the key players of the onto-stage, essence, being, existence, and entity (the being), which had an impact on the contemporary understanding of ontology. This paper focuses on the study of the origins of art, but also on the ontological matter to the extent to which it might be related to the matter of art. It appears that the origins of both ontology and art are at the core of this interaction. The ontological matter is connected to the issue of art in the way that questions: what if freedom, in a co-creative way, is that which is immutable and fundamental to being? What if the essence of being is the freedom of co-creating? Such an essence would always be capable of alteration (via co-creation) and transformation. It is important to note that the perception of form in art, as an experiment of the form, i.e., continuous movement and growth from the conventional to the unconventional, will also be examined. This artistic observation emphasizes the relational dynamics within a work of art, shifting the focus from its “objectivity” (an ontological perspective) to its inherent relational nature (an ontic perspective).

The strange potential of ANTi-History: a reply to Reveley

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a reflexive review of ANTi-History written as a reply to a critique by James Reveley, published in the Journal of Management History, called “Firm objects: new realist insights into the sociohistorical ontology of the business enterprise.”Design/methodology/approachReveley’s critique of ANTi-History focuses on three aspects, namely, matters of ontology, actors and relationalism. Using the logic of ANTi-History, the author reviews each and offers a reply.FindingsThis paper demonstrates that ANTi-History is inspired by amodern thought. This condition negates the need and desire to classify social and physical objects in the study of history. Drawing on Actor-Network Theory, ANTi-History assumes that historical actors are heterogeneous, and the consequence is that both human and nonhuman actors should feature in the study of history. The focus, in using ANTi-History, should be in-between the human and nonhuman actors that make up the past and history. This is the premise of using a relational lens.Originality/valueThe review of ANTi-History is structured as a reply to critiques of the approach. In reflecting on these criticisms, the author realizes that ANTi-History has gotten beyond its originators. As one of those originators, the author inspired to continue to develop its strange potential.