Quentin Meillassoux. Speculative Realism and Narratives from the Contingency.

Abstract

The objective of this work is to introduce Quentin Meillassoux's 'speculative materialist
realism', establishing a critical stance against the metaphysical tradition of the 'absolute' that
has prevailed in post-Kantian Western philosophy, based on the need for contingency that
he proposes. This implies making a critique of what has been understood as realism,
necessity and existing. To do this, key concepts of Meillassoux's philosophy are broken
down, exemplifying its influence -and possible presence back in time- on other thinkers and
artists in their respective narratives such as Graham Harman, Timothy Morton, Nick Land,
and Florian Hecker, who delve into issues that generate discomfort, amazement, nihilism
and pessimism in contemporary societies, such as probability and prediction in financial
markets, the Anthropocene and nature, the conflictive relationship between subject and
object, truth and chaos, between other things, subtracting ourselves from the humanist
discourse on which the scientific, financial and environmental paradigms of our time rest
and which have ended up cracking the identity of man, with capitalist production being the
most determining geological factor. Let us to reflect on the following questions. What
narratives can give an account of the current condition of the world? What narratives
emerge when we stop focusing our attention on man? What habits of thought force us to
change the awareness that everything around us is contingent?