Ontology.
Stephen Dodson,
Languagehat,
Mar 25, 2024
I completely missed the rise of Object-Oriented Ontology as it swept across the globe 7 years ago but I confess I find it appealing. "Ask yourself: what does your toaster want? How about your dog? Or the bacteria in your gut? What about the pixels on the screen you're reading off now—how is their day going? In other words, do things, animals, and other non-human entities experience their existence in a way that lies outside our own species-centric definition of consciousness?" It's a throwback to Aristotelian metaphysics in a world where it's not unreasonable to think that objects might have feelings. And it captures that sense of loss and dread that I feel when it comes time to part with a favourite spoon (as I had to the other day). Will the spoon feel abandoned? What will happen to it now?
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