Forget Meillassoux! A critique of speculative materialism

Abstract

Quentin Meillassoux´s philosophical project aims at challenging some of the most fundamental assumptions of contemporary philosophy. His polemic against “correlationism”, which he understands as the main paradigm of philosophy from Kant onwards, is grounded in a vindication of a materialism of absolute contingency that he deems “speculative”. The latter furnishes its “divinological” speculations about the possibility of a “God-to-Come”. In this essay, I will argue that Meillassoux fails to deliver all the ambitious promises of his project. The hypostatization of contingency relinquishes mediation in its search for an Absolute. As a result, Meillassoux becomes as unable to ground the claims of contemporary science whilst he threats to dissolve politics in the dubious sphere of religious thinking.

Keywords

• materialism
• correlationism
• mediation
• divinology
• contingency