Prince of Networks is the first treatment of Bruno Latour specifically as a philosopher. It has been eagerly awaited by readers of both Latour and Harman since their public discussion at the London School of Economics in February 2008. Part One covers four key works that display Latour’s underrated contributions to metaphysics: Irreductions, Science in Action, We Have Never Been Modern, and Pandora’s Hope. Harman contends that Latour is one of the central figures of contemporary philosophy, with a highly original ontology centered in four key concepts: actants, irreduction, translation, and alliance. In Part Two, Harman summarizes Latour’s most important philosophical insights, including his status as the first ‘secular occasionalist.’ The problem of translation between entities is no longer solved by the fiat of God (Malebranche) or habit (Hume), but by local mediators. Working from his own ‘object-oriented’ perspective, Harman also criticizes the Latourian focus on the relational character of actors at the expense of their cryptic autonomous reality. This book forms a remarkable interface between Latour’s Actor-Network Theory and the Speculative Realism of Harman and his confederates. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with the emergence of new trends in the humanities following the long postmodernist interval. 'Graham Harman does for Bruno Latour what Deleuze did for Foucault. Rather than a recounting of Latour’s impressive sociological analyses, Harman approaches Latour as a philosopher, offering a new realist object-oriented metaphysic capable of sustaining contemporary thought well into the next century. What ensues is a lively and productive debate between rival, yet sympathetic, orientations of object-oriented philosophy between two of our most highly original, daring, and creative philosophers, giving us a text destined to have a major impact on contemporary philosophical thought and providing exciting avenues beyond reigning deadlocks that haunt philosophy today.' Professor Levi R. Bryant (Collin College), author of Difference and Givenness: Deleuze's Transcendental Empiricism and the Ontology of Immanence. 'Graham Harman’s book Prince of Networks is a wonderfully eloquent exposition of the metaphysical foundations of Latour’s work. This is not an introduction to Latour. It is rather a skilful and penetrating interpretation of his work, as well as a insightful Heideggerian critique. At last somebody has taken Latour to heart and to task. I cannot imagine a more forceful, incisive and lucid analysis of the foundations of Latour’s work than this one.' Professor Lucas D. Introna (Lancaster University)
Graham Harman is Associate Provost for Research Administration and Professor of Philosophy at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. He is the 2009 winner of the AUC Excellence in Research and Creative Endeavors Award.
Dr. Harman works on metaphysics, the study of the ultimate nature of reality, which he pursues in the form of an object-oriented philosophy. Drawing on the writings of Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Bruno Latour, Saul Kripke, G.W. von Leibniz, and the Islamic and French occasionalists, he develops a model of vicarious rather than direct causation between objects.
He is a charter member of the London-based "Speculative Realism" movement, and spent Fall 2007 as Visiting Associate Professor of Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Science at the University of Amsterdam. He is also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Open Humanities Press, where he co-edits the "New Metaphysics" series with Bruno Latour.
Dr. Harman is a former Chicago sportswriter, an avid world traveler, and a sixth-generation native of Iowa. He is the first of three sons of hippie parents who met at a Rolling Stones concert. His father, Gregory Harman, is a member of the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Current book projects:
*On Epistemism: Continental Mathematism and Scientism (in preparation)
*Bruno Latour: Reassembling the Political (in preparation)
*Infrastructure (in preparation)
