Meillassoux, Correlationism, and the Ontological Difference

PhaenEx 12 (2):1-12 (2018)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Meillassoux defines “correlationism” as the view that we can only access the mutual dependence of thought and being—specifically, subjectivity and objectivity—which he attributes to Heidegger. This attribution is inapt. It is only by accessing being—via existential analysis—that we can properly distinguish beings like subjects and objects. I propose that Meillassoux’s misattribution ignores the ontological difference that drives Heidegger’s project. First, I demonstrate the inadequacy of Meillassoux’s account of correlationism as a criticism of Heidegger and dispense with an objection. Second, I argue that Meillassoux’s neglect of the ontological difference stems from a question-begging appeal to transcendental realism, which is at odds with Heidegger’s twin claims for a variety of transcendental idealism in Being and Time. Third, I offer a reflection on three general marks of transcendental idealism.

Similar books and articles

Empirical Realism and the Great Outdoors: A Critique of Meillassoux.G. Anthony Bruno - 2017 - In Marie-Eve Morin (ed.), Continental Realism and its Discontents. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 1-15.
The Necessity of Contingency or Contingent Necessity: Meillassoux, Hegel, and the Subject.John Van Houdt - 2011 - Cosmos and History : The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy 7 (1):128-141.
The Transcendental Core of Correlationism.Paul J. Ennis - 2011 - Cosmos and History : The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy 7 (1):37-48.
Hume's Correlationism: On Meillassoux, Necessity and Belief.Paul O'Mahoney - 2013 - Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy 21 (1):132-160.
Thinking the Earth.Vincent Blok - 2016 - Environmental Ethics 38 (4):441-462.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-01-30

Downloads
268 (#71,997)

6 months
90 (#44,625)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

G. Anthony Bruno
Royal Holloway University of London

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Is Heidegger a Kantian idealist?William D. Blattner - 1994 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 37 (2):185 – 201.

Add more references