26/05
–
27/05
At Tallinn University, Uus-Sadama 5, rooms M-218 and A-206
The seminar is in English.
A two-day intensive seminar by Graham Harman, one of today’s most
influential English-speaking philosophers, consists of a public
lecture introducing the principles of his philosophical theory —
object-oriented ontology — followed by a philosophical dialogue with
Prof. Rein Raud, and two seminars led by Harman, where participants
will discuss, based on his articles, how object-oriented ontology
allows for a rethinking of contemporary philosophy of science and
aesthetics.
Külalisesineja professor Graham Harman
Graham Harman is an American philosopher. He is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. His work on the metaphysics of objects led to the development of object-oriented ontology. He is a central figure in the speculative realism trend in contemporary philosophy. He has published more than twenty books, including Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects (2002), The Quadruple Object (2011), Quentin Meillassoux: Philosophy in the Making (2011), Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy (2012), Bruno Latour: Reassembling the Political (2014), Immaterialism: Objects and Social Theory (2016), Object-Oriented Ontology: A New Theory of Everything (2018), Speculative Realism: An Introduction (2018), Art and Objects (2020), Architecture and Objects (2022), Objects Untimely: Object-Oriented Philosophy and Archaeology (2023, with Christopher Witmore), and Waves and Stones: On the Ultimate Nature of Reality (2025). He is editor-in-chief of the journal Open Philosophy, Speculative Realism series editor at Edinburgh University Press, and co-editor of the New Metaphysics series at Open Humanities Press.
Register HERE. Registration deadline is on May 19, 2025.
The prerequisite for participating in the course is reading the required seminar texts. All texts will be provided electronically to registered participants. For participation, it is possible to get 1 ECTS.
16:00–18:00 “The Rift in Objects”, public lecture, followed by a conversation with Prof. Rein Raud (Tallinn University)
Room M-218
Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) is often described as a philosophy in which the true nature of objects withdraws from direct human access. Although technically true, this principle is already found in such modern thinkers as Kant and Heidegger, and possibly as far back as Plato Aristotle. The real key to OOO is found in the rift between an object and its own qualities, which it both has and does not have. In this lecture I will discuss the implications of this emphasis.
The lecture is held in conjunction with the release of the Estonian translation of Graham Harman’s The Quadruple Object (translated by Kalle Hein, Tallinn University Press, 2025).
10:00–12:00 Seminar on Aesthetics
Room A-206
Aesthetics has always been central to object-oriented ontology (OOO). More specifically, OOO pays close attention to the difference between the literal and the non-literal, and views philosophy (along with art) as one of the most important forms of non-literal cognition. In this seminar we will discuss the similarities and differences between OOO non-literalism and the influential philosophy of art found in Kant’s Critique of Judgment.
Reading: Graham Harman, “Why Architecture and Beauty Need Each Other”, in Tallinn Architecture Biennale TAB 2019 catalogue “Beauty Matters”. Ed. by Rebecca Collings. Tallinn: Eesti Arhitektuurikeskus, 2019.
12:00–13.30 Lunch
13:30–15:30 Seminar on Philosophy of Science
Room A-206
Philosophy has long defined knowledge as “justified true belief.” However, in some respects justification and truth are opposites. On the one hand, justifying evidence is always provisional, and evidence changes constantly even in the hard sciences, meaning that truth is never attained. On the other, those moments where we do feel in contact with truth are more likely to resemble a Pascalian wager or a Kierkegaardian leap of faith, both of which explicitly admit that they have insufficient justification. We will observe this theme at work in the philosophy of science, focusing on Popper’s falsificationist theory of science and Lakatos’s interesting modification of Popper back in the direction of verification.
Reading: Graham Harman, “On Progressive and Degenerating Research Programs With Respect to Philosophy”, Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia, 75(4), 2019, pp. 2067–2102.
Contact: Eva Kruuse, eva.kruuse@tlu.ee
Estonian Doctoral School for Humanities and Arts.
