Paperback, 240 pages
English language
Published Sept. 23, 2013 by Univ Of Minnesota Press.
Having set global warming in irreversible motion, we are facing the possibility of ecological catastrophe. But the environmental emergency is also a crisis for our philosophical habits of thought, confronting us with a problem that seems to defy not only our control but also our understanding. Global warming is perhaps the most dramatic example of what Timothy Morton calls "hyperobjects"--entities of such vast temporal and spatial dimensions that they defeat traditional ideas about what a thing is in the first place. In this book, Morton explains what hyperobjects are and their impact on how we think, how we coexist with one another and with nonhumans, and how we experience our politics, ethics, and art. Moving fluidly between philosophy, science, literature, visual and conceptual art, and popular culture, the book argues that hyperobjects show that the end of the world has already occurred in the sense that concepts such as world, …
Having set global warming in irreversible motion, we are facing the possibility of ecological catastrophe. But the environmental emergency is also a crisis for our philosophical habits of thought, confronting us with a problem that seems to defy not only our control but also our understanding. Global warming is perhaps the most dramatic example of what Timothy Morton calls "hyperobjects"--entities of such vast temporal and spatial dimensions that they defeat traditional ideas about what a thing is in the first place. In this book, Morton explains what hyperobjects are and their impact on how we think, how we coexist with one another and with nonhumans, and how we experience our politics, ethics, and art. Moving fluidly between philosophy, science, literature, visual and conceptual art, and popular culture, the book argues that hyperobjects show that the end of the world has already occurred in the sense that concepts such as world, nature, and even environment are no longer a meaningful horizon against which human events take place. Instead of inhabiting a world, we find ourselves inside a number of hyperobjects, such as climate, nuclear weapons, evolution, or relativity. Such objects put unbearable strains on our normal ways of reasoning. Insisting that we have to reinvent how we think to even begin to comprehend the world we now live in, "Hyperobjects" takes the first steps, outlining a genuinely postmodern ecological approach to thought and action.
At times I got the feeling that this text was really just a long string of sick references to philosophy, art, and pop culture, roughly grouped by theme. Despite that, it still presents some interesting ideas and new ways to view the world (or rather the end of the world) in small patches and pockets.
I might read this again if I read more OOO first.
It’s the end of the world and we’re already experiencing it. However, since the end of the world is an object that far transcends our ability to grasp it, it is a hyperobject.
Every object is a hyperobject in a sense. And since hyperobjects are so difficult to make sense, this book try, in a hyperobjective way, to hyperobjectify our understanding of hyperobjects, making it a bit hard to grasp its message. However, that is not the author’s fault. This is the nature of hyperobjects and reading this book, with all its faults, still makes you aware of these hyperdimensions where we inhabit and rarely give a thought about it.
This is not an easy book; but it is not an easy subject. Notwithstanding that, the author does a great job in giving you a sense of what he’s aiming at.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you’re interested …
It’s the end of the world and we’re already experiencing it. However, since the end of the world is an object that far transcends our ability to grasp it, it is a hyperobject.
Every object is a hyperobject in a sense. And since hyperobjects are so difficult to make sense, this book try, in a hyperobjective way, to hyperobjectify our understanding of hyperobjects, making it a bit hard to grasp its message. However, that is not the author’s fault. This is the nature of hyperobjects and reading this book, with all its faults, still makes you aware of these hyperdimensions where we inhabit and rarely give a thought about it.
This is not an easy book; but it is not an easy subject. Notwithstanding that, the author does a great job in giving you a sense of what he’s aiming at.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you’re interested in philosophy; moreso if you want to learn about a cutting edge approach to ontology. If you’re not into this, don’t waste your time. The message is: we are already there, but it is too big and too complex for us to understand its workings and implications.
