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'{{short description|French philosopher}} {{Infobox philosopher | image = | region = [[Western philosophy]] | era = [[Contemporary philosophy]] | name = Quentin Meillassoux | birth_date = {{birth date and age|26 October 1967|df=y}} | birth_place = Paris, France | alma_mater = [[École Normale Supérieure]] | institutions = [[École Normale Supérieure]]<br />[[Paris I]] | school_tradition = [[Continental philosophy]]<br/>[[Speculative realism]] ([[speculative materialism]]) | main_interests = [[Materialism]], [[philosophy of mathematics]] | notable_ideas = [[Speculative materialism]], [[correlationism]], [[facticity]], [[factiality]], ancestrality<ref>[https://euppublishingblog.com/2014/12/12/correlationism-an-extract-from-the-meillassoux-dictionary/ "Correlationism – An Extract from The Meillassoux Dictionary"]</ref> | influences = [[Aristotle]], [[Baruch Spinoza]], [[Alain Badiou]], [[Henri Bergson]], [[Gilles Deleuze]], [[David Hume]], [[Stéphane Mallarmé]], [[Martin Heidegger]] | influenced = [[Ray Brassier]], [[Tristan Garcia]] }} '''Quentin Meillassoux''' ({{IPAc-en|ˌ|m|eɪ|ə|ˈ|s|uː}}; {{IPA-fr|mɛjasu|lang}}; born 26 October 1967)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ciepfc.fr/spip.php?article83 |title=Quentin Meillassoux - CIEPFC : Centre International d'Etude de la Philosophie Française Contemporaine |publisher=Ciepfc.fr |access-date=2011-09-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908155453/http://www.ciepfc.fr/spip.php?article83 |archive-date=8 September 2011}}</ref> is a French philosopher. He teaches at the [[Pantheon-Sorbonne University|Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne]]. ==Biography== Quentin Meillassoux is the son of the [[anthropologist]] [[Claude Meillassoux]]. He is a former student of the philosophers {{interlanguage link|Bernard Bourgeois|fr}} and [[Alain Badiou]]. He is married to the [[novelist]] and philosopher [[Gwenaëlle Aubry]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Harman|first=Graham|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=igvdCQAAQBAJ|title=Quentin Meillassoux|date=2015-01-12|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=9780748693474|language=en}}</ref> == Philosophical work == {{BLP sources section|date=January 2022}} Meillassoux's first book is ''After Finitude'' (''Après la finitude'', 2006). Alain Badiou, Meillassoux's former teacher, wrote the foreword''.''<ref>''Après la finitude. Essai sur la nécessité de la contingence'', Paris, Seuil, coll. L'ordre philosophique, 2006 (foreword by Alain Badiou).</ref> Badiou describes the work as introducing a new possibility for philosophy which is different from [[Immanuel Kant]]'s three alternatives of [[criticism]], [[skepticism]], and [[dogmatism]].<ref>''After Finitude'', trans. Ray Brassier, Continuum, 2008, foreword, p. vii.</ref> The book was translated into English by [[Ray Brassier]]. Meillassoux is associated with the [[speculative realism]] movement. In this book, Meillassoux argues that [[post-Kantian philosophy]] is dominated by what he calls "[[Object oriented ontology#Critique of correlationism|correlationism]]", the theory that humans cannot exist without the world nor the world without humans.<ref>''After Finitude'', Chap. 1, p. 5.</ref> In Meillassoux's view, this theory allows philosophy to avoid the problem of how to describe the world as it really is independent of human knowledge. He terms this reality independent of human knowledge as the "ancestral" realm.<ref>''After Finitude'', Chap. 1, p. 10.</ref> Following the commitment to mathematics of his mentor Alain Badiou, Meillassoux claims that mathematics describes the primary qualities of things as opposed to their [[Primary/secondary quality distinction|secondary qualities]] shown by [[perception]]. Meillassoux argues that in place of the agnostic scepticism about the reality of [[cause and effect]], there should be a radical certainty that there is no [[causality]] at all. Following the rejection of causality, Meillassoux says that it is absolutely necessary that the laws of nature be contingent. The world is a kind of hyper-chaos in which the [[principle of sufficient reason]] is not necessary although Meillassoux says that the [[Law of noncontradiction|principle of non-contradiction]] is necessary. For these reasons, Meillassoux rejects Kant's [[Copernican Revolution (metaphor)|Copernican Revolution]] in philosophy. Since Kant makes the world dependent on the conditions by which humans observe it, Meillassoux accuses Kant of a "Ptolemaic Counter-Revolution." Meillassoux clarified and revised some of the views published in ''After Finitude'' during his lectures at the [[Free University of Berlin]] in 2012.<ref>[http://oursecretblog.com/txt/QMpaperApr12.pdf Iteration, Reiteration, Repetition: A speculative analysis of the meaningless sign] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019050909/http://oursecretblog.com/txt/QMpaperApr12.pdf|date=October 19, 2013}} Freie Universitat Berlin, April 20, 2012.</ref> Several of Meillassoux's articles have appeared in English via the British philosophical journal ''[[Collapse (journal)|Collapse]]'', helping to spark interest in his work in the Anglophone world. His unpublished dissertation ''L'inexistence divine'' (1997) is noted in ''After Finitude'' to be "forthcoming" in book form;<ref>''After Finitude'', Bibliography, p. 141.</ref> as of 2021, it had not yet been published. In ''[[Parrhesia (journal)|Parrhesia]]'', in 2016, an excerpt from Meillassoux's dissertation was translated by Nathan Brown, who noted in his introduction that "what is striking about the document... is the marked difference of its rhetorical strategies, its order of reasons, and its philosophical style" from ''After Finitude'', counter to the general view that the latter merely constituted "a partial précis" of ''L'inexistence divine''; he notes further that the dissertation presents a "very different articulation of the Principle of Factiality" from that in ''After Finitude''.<ref>Parrhesia vol. 25, 2016, pp. 20-40. From "L'inexistence divine" by Quentin Meillassoux. Translated by Nathan Brown.</ref> While Nathan Brown's translation uses the French text of the 1997 dissertation, in 2011 Graham Harman used a 2003 revision to offer a partial translation of Meillassoux's ongoing work of expanding the dissertation into a book. In September 2011, Meillassoux's book on [[Stéphane Mallarmé]] was published in France under the title ''Le nombre et la sirène. Un déchiffrage du coup de dés de Mallarmé''.<ref>{{cite book|title=Le nombre et la sirène |id={{ASIN|2213665915|country=fr}} }}</ref> In this second book, he offers a detailed reading of Mallarmé's famous poem "[[Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard]]" ("A Throw of the Dice Will Never Abolish Chance"), in which he finds a numerical code at work in the text.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://doctorzamalek2.wordpress.com/2011/09/24/meillassoux-on-mallarme-first-half|title=Graham Harman (website), Meillassoux on Mallarmé|date=24 September 2011|access-date=2011-09-25}}</ref> ==Bibliography== ===Books=== *''After Finitude: An Essay on the Necessity of Contingency'', trans. Ray Brassier (Continuum, 2008). ISBN 978-2-02109-215-8 *''The Number and the Siren: A Decipherment of Mallarme's Coup De Des'' (Urbanomic, 2012). ISBN 978-0-98321-692-6 *''Time Without Becoming'', edited by Anna Longo (Mimesis International, 2014). ISBN 978-8-85752-386-6 *''Science Fiction and Extro-Science Fiction'', trans. Alyosha Edlebi (Univocal, 2015). ISBN 978-1-937561-48-2 ===Articles=== *"Potentiality and Virtuality," in ''Collapse: Philosophical Research and Investigations, Volume II (Speculative Realism)'', ed. Robin Mackay (Urbanomic, 2007): 55–81.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.urbanomic.com/pub_collapse2.php |title=Collapse Vol. II: Speculative Realism |publisher=Urbanomic |access-date=2011-09-21}}</ref> *"Subtraction and Contraction: Deleuze, Immanence and Matter and Memory," in ''Collapse: Philosophical Research and Investigations, Volume III (Unknown Deleuze [+Speculative Realism])'', ed. Robin Mackay (Urbanomic, 2007): 63–107.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.urbanomic.com/pub_collapse3.php |title=Collapse Vol. III: Unknown Deleuze [+ Speculative Realism |publisher=Urbanomic |access-date=2011-09-21}}</ref> *"Presentation by Quentin Meillassoux," in ''Collapse: Philosophical Research and Investigations, Volume III (Unknown Deleuze [+Speculative Realism])'', ed. Robin Mackay (Urbanomic, 2007): 408–449. *"Spectral Dilemma," in ''Collapse: Philosophical Research and Investigations, Volume IV (Concept Horror)'', ed. Robin Mackay (Urbanomic, 2008): 261–275.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.urbanomic.com/pub_collapse4.php |title=Collapse Vol. IV: Concept Horror |publisher=Urbanomic |access-date=2011-09-21}}</ref> *"The Immanence of the World Beyond," in ''Grandeur of Reason: Religion, Tradition and Universalism'', ed. Peter M. Chandler Jr. and Connor Cunningham, trans. Peter M. Chandler Jr., Adrian Pabst, and Aaron Riches (SCM Press, 2010): 444–478. *(with Florian Hecker and Robin Mackay) "Speculative Solution: Quentin Meillassoux and Florian Hecker Talk Hyperchaos," on Urbanomic, published 2010. *"Metaphysics, Speculation, Correlation," trans. Taylor Adkins, ''Pli: The Warwick Journal of Philosophy'' Vol. 22 (2011): 3–25. *"History and Event in Alain Badiou," trans. Thomas Nail, ''Parrhesia'' Vol. 12 (2011): 1–11. *"The Contingency of the Laws of Nature," trans. Robin Mackay, ''Environment and Planning D: Society and Space'' Vol. 30, No. 2 (2012): 322–334. *"Badiou and Mellarmé: The Event and the Perhaps," trans. Alyosha Edlebi, ''Parrhesia'' Vol. 16 (2013): 35–47. *"The Materialist Divinization of the Hypothesis," in ''Collapse: Philosophical Research and Investigations, Volume VIII (Casino Real)'', ed. Robin Mackay (Urbanomic, 2014): 813–846. *"Decision and Undecidability of the Event in ''Being and Event I'' and ''II''," trans. Alyosha Edlebi, ''Parrhesia'' Vol. 19 (2014): 22–35. *"Excerpts from ''L'inexistence divine''," in Graham Harman, ''Quentin Meillassoux: Philosophy in the Making (2nd Edition)'', trans, Graham Harman (Edinburgh University Press, 2015): 224–287. *"Iteration, Reiteration, Repetition: A Speculative Analysis of the Sign Devoid of Meaning," in ''Genealogies of Speculation: Materialism and Subjectivity Since Structuralism'', ed. Armen Avanessian and Suhail Malik, trans, Robin Mackay and Moritz Gansen (Bloomsbury, 2016): 117–197. *"From ''L'inexistence divine''," trans. Nathan Brown, ''Parrhesia'' Vol. 25 (2016): 20–40. === Interviews === * (with Rick Dolphijn and Iris van der Tuin) "Interview with Quentin Meillassoux," in ''New Materialism: Interviews & Cartographies'', ed. Rick Dolphijn and Iris van der Tuin, trans. Marie-Pier Boucher (Open Humanities Press, 2012): 71–81. * (with Sinziana Ravini) "'Archeology of the Future': Interview with Quentin Meillassoux," ''Palatten'' Vol. 1/2 (2013): 86–97. * (with Graham Harman) "Interview with Quentin Meillassoux (August 2010)," Graham Harman, ''Quentin Meillassoux: Philosophy in the Making (2nd Edition)'', trans, Graham Harman (Edinburgh University Press, 2015): 208–223. * (with Kağan Kahveci and Sercan Çalci) "Founded on Nothing: An Interview with Quentin Meillassoux," trans. Robin Mackay on Urbanomic, published 2021. ==See also== * [[New materialisms]] ==Notes== {{Reflist|2}} ==Further reading== *Pierre-Alexandre Fradet, « Sortir du cercle corrélationnel : un examen critique de la tentative de Quentin Meillassoux », ''Cahiers Critiques de philosophie'', num. 19, dec. 2017, p.&nbsp;103-119, online : https://www.academia.edu/34706673/_Sortir_du_cercle_corr%C3%A9lationnel_un_examen_critique_de_la_tentative_de_Quentin_Meillassoux_publi%C3%A9_dans_le_dossier_Le_r%C3%A9alisme_sp%C3%A9culation_probl%C3%A8mes_et_enjeux_coordonn%C3%A9_par_A._Longo_Cahiers_Critiques_de_philosophie_no_19_d%C3%A9cembre_2017_p._103-119 *Pierre-Alexandre Fradet and [[Tristan Garcia]] (eds.), issue "Réalisme spéculatif", in ''Spirale'', no 255, winter 2016—introduction here : "https://www.academia.edu/20381265/With_Tristan_Garcia_Petit_panorama_du_réalisme_spéculatif_in_Spirale_num._255_winter_2016_p._27-30_online_http_magazine-spirale.com_dossier-magazine_petit-panorama-du-realisme-speculatif *Olivier Ducharme et Pierre-Alexandre Fradet, ''Une vie sans bon sens. Regard philosophique sur [[Pierre Perrault]]'' (dialogue between Perrault, Nietzsche, Henry, Bourdieu, Meillassoux), foreword by [[Jean-Daniel Lafond]], Montréal, Éditions Nota bene, coll. "Philosophie continentale", 2016, 210 p. *[[Graham Harman|Harman, Graham]]. ''[http://www.euppublishing.com/book/9780748640799 Quentin Meillassoux: Philosophy in the Making]''. Edinburgh: [http://www.euppublishing.com/ Edinburgh University Press], 2011. *Watkin, Christopher. ''[http://www.euppublishing.com/book/9780748640577 Difficult Atheism: Post-Theological Thinking in Alain Badiou, Jean-Luc Nancy and Quentin Meillassoux]''. Edinburgh: [http://www.euppublishing.com/ Edinburgh University Press], paperback: March 2013; hardback: 2011. *Ennis, Paul. ''Continental Realism''. Winchester: Zero Books, 2011. * [[Edouard Simca]], [https://www.academia.edu/19673224/Recension_Q._Meillassoux_Apr%C3%A8s_la_finitude_Essai_sur_la_n%C3%A9cessit%C3%A9_de_la_contingence_Paris_Seuil_2006 "Recension: Q. Meillassoux, Après la finitude: Essai sur la nécessité de la contingence, Paris, Seuil, 2006"] *[[Michel Bitbol]]. ''Maintenant la finitude: Peut-on penser l'absolu?''. Paris, Flammarion, 2019. ==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160502144137/http://ionas-editions.com/en/#item:deuil-a-venir-dieu-a-venir-2 « Deuil à venir, dieu à venir »], Critique, janvier-février 2006, no 704-705 (revised edition, Éditions Ionas, 2016). *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160502144137/http://ionas-editions.com/en/#item:potentialite-et-virtualite-2 « Potentialité et virtualité »], Failles 2, Printemps 2006 (revised edition, Éditions Ionas, 2016). * [http://bernardg.com/node/57 Recording of Meillassoux's 2007 lecture in English at the Speculative Realism Conference at Goldsmiths, University of London] * [http://www.diffusion.ens.fr/index.php?res=personnes&idpers=1088 Conferences by Meillassoux (in French)] * [http://speculativeheresy.wordpress.com/resources/ Speculative Heresy blog resources page, which contains articles by Meillassoux] {{Continental philosophy}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Meillassoux, Quentin}} [[Category:1967 births]] [[Category:21st-century French essayists]] [[Category:21st-century French male writers]] [[Category:21st-century French philosophers]] [[Category:Action theorists]] [[Category:Deleuze scholars]] [[Category:École Normale Supérieure alumni]] [[Category:Academic staff of the École Normale Supérieure]] [[Category:Epistemologists]] [[Category:Existentialists]] [[Category:Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin]] [[Category:French logicians]] [[Category:French male essayists]] [[Category:French male non-fiction writers]] [[Category:Hermeneutists]] [[Category:Kant scholars]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni]] [[Category:Materialists]] [[Category:Metaphysical realism]] [[Category:Ontologists]] [[Category:Phenomenologists]] [[Category:Philosophers of logic]] [[Category:Philosophers of mathematics]] [[Category:Philosophers of time]] [[Category:Philosophical realism]] [[Category:Philosophy academics]] [[Category:Philosophy writers]] [[Category:Syntheism]]'