Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects [Paperback]

Graham Harman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 14, 2002

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) influenced the work of such diverse thinkers as Sartre and Derrida. In Tool-Being, Graham Harman departs from the prevailing linguistic approach to analytic and continental philosophy in favor of Heideggerian object-oriented research into the secret contours of objects. Written in a colorful style, it will be of interest to anyone open to new trends in present-day philosophy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Open Court (August 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812694449
• ISBN-13: 978-0812694444
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #664,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Exciting Philosophy October 5, 2003

By Paul M. Schafer

Format:Paperback

This is an exciting book, and that is not something that I ordinarily say about works of contemporary philosophy. When you read Tool-Being you find yourself on a philosophical journey that is distinctive in several ways. First of all, you learn a lot about an important 20th century philosopher: the controversial German phenomenologist Martin Heidegger. In my experience, most books on Heidegger tend to be either obscure or pious. This is not true of Harman's account, which centers around the Freiburg philosopher's famous tool analysis. Harman's prose is clear, free of jargon, and makes Heidegger seem fresh and contemporary.

Secondly, Harman's Tool-Being introduces the reader to a world of objects that has the delightful affect of re-orienting one's way of seeing. The entryway to this world is Heidegger, but one soon feels that the ideas and descriptions there are signposts pointing beyond readiness-to-hand and presence-at-hand and other Heideggerian notions. This is a rare feeling, indeed, when one has a book of academic philosophy in one's hands. Clearly this book is something more than that.

Finally, in reading Harman's book, one feels oneself participating in a project to rethink the nature of reality. This is especially true as one reads through the final section of the book, which develops the outlines of an object-oriented philosophy. To me, this was an exciting experience in two ways. Not only did I have that feeling of being smarter, a feeling that excellent books sometimes convey as one reads them, but I also felt myself invited into the project of Harman's "Guerilla Metaphysics."

This is the best book of philosophy that I have read in a very long time.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The New Heidegger October 2, 2003

By shawn smith

Format:Paperback

Harman' Tool-Being reinvigorates both Heidegger studies and realist metaphysics, moving Heidegger interpretation away from human-centered concerns with Dasein and language, and toward a concern with objects themselves - and opens a route for a realist metaphysics that will incorporate the phenomenological critique of naďve realism. What Heidegger, and Heideggarians, failed to recognize is that the famous tool analysis, developed both in Being and Time and elsewhere, does not refer only to specific humanly-produced technologies, but to all beings. All entities are characterized both by presence-at-hand and readiness-to-hand, the underlying tension which repeats itself endlessly throughout the whole of Heidegger's conceptual framework.

Harman outlines an object-oriented philosophy, a theory of substances with the following features:
1. Substance is not a particular kind of entity, but belongs to all entities.
2. Tool-beings lies outside the "world" of Dasein, in a not yet determined "metaphysical vacuum."
3. Hence, there is no direct causality; a "local" version of occasional cause must be developed.

So, for Harman, entities should be conceived, neither as durable substances nor as mere sets of relations, but as some of each. But not only is every entity a set of relations, every set of relations is also an entity. These novel insights, both within Heidegger and beyond, are presented with style and verve. If you read one philosophical book this year, it should be Tool-Being.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Tool-Being October 3, 2003

By Miles Benjamin Levy

Format:Paperback

My first impression of Mr. Harman was his sincere desire to make sure that his readers understand the scope and method of his philosophical journey. I have no background in heidegger, yet, I could still follow Harman's critique and juxtaposition of Heideggers metaphysics because of Harman's careful and dutiful explanations. Tool-Being is not only a pleasure to read, but its ideas are exciting, challenging, and fresh. Orthodox heidegger fans beware!