Customer Reviews

Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects

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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.

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!

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 naïve 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.

In this book Harman works out an exciting new approach to philosophy beginning from Heidegger's phenomenological analysis of the being of equipment. The being of equipment is ready-to-hand, involved with it's world, as contrasted with the prevailing modern sense of being as a meaningless presence-at-hand, worthy only for human use and retrospect interpretation.

Harman praises Heidegger's phenomenological analysis here for opening a way beyond modern subject-centered thinking, but criticizes Heidegger for himself remaining too much caught up in Dasein -- his human 'being there' -- and not probing far enough into the contours of the things themselves as made available by the analysis of tool-being.

By radicalizing this phenomenological approach to beings as concealed equipment, i.e. a back-ground of hidden beings which support and enable our own being-in-the-world, Harman points to an exciting new confrontation with the being of beings (their ultimate substantiality) which reveals their being packed full of references (meanings) in ways which modern subjective & linguistic human-centered thinking has 'lost touch with' and sealed itself off from.

I think you can gather from the reviews below that this is not the most popular book for the strident Heideggerian. No matter; everyone else should read it. This is the first book of object-oriented philosophy by Graham Harman, and it is every bit as pleasurable to read as it is stimulating to think about. In it, Harman (a recovering Heideggerian, by his own admission) stretches and pulls Heidegger's theory of tools into one of the most compelling and cogent arguments for a new, vigorous metaphysics. By the way, don't let the name "metaphysics" fool you into thinking this is a nostalgic work. In its pages you will find a rallying cry for the strangest and most surprising metaphysical tenets. Had Leibniz and Lovecraft shared a stormy, opiate-laced weekend in an isolated chateau à la Ken Russel's Gothic, you might start to get a sense of the philosophical adventure contained in these pages. It is quite simply one of the most important philosophical books of the decade. Highly recommended.

Harman's book is brilliantly written and clearly important for thinkers beyond the borders of continental philosophy. His lucid style of writing transcends the pious cadence of Heideggerian-German-rendered-into-English of most writing in the field, ascending to a level of concreteness that brings the objects themselves back into view. Its implications have the potential to revolutionize our approach to the study of visual and material culture--to inaugurate, finally, the millenial museum.

I am not going to write much because this book doesn't even warrant thorough critique. Basically, Heidegger is the most important philosopher of the 20th century. He dedicated his life to powerful, serious thinking. If that is something you might be interested in, do not read this book. How sad it is to know that the author "teaches" impressionable students "philosophy." He writes in a way that only seventeen year olds could find compelling... but I suppose this is intentional as they are the only people who could take such rubbish seriously. My advice: STAY AWAY

This was a very disapointing experience. If Heidegger was to read this book or any Heidegger scholar the comment would simply be Heidegger's famous comment "Das ist eine kindergarten". And that is what it really is to its foundation mere kindergarden work.

Is this book merely an instance of the naive leading the blind? It may be more perilous than that, since readers with a genuine but uncultivated interest in the subjects which the book purports to address---roughly, the concept of 'BEING' --may be more than merely mislead by Harman's rambling, irreverent romp through soundbytes from the undergraduate philosophy curriculum: they may be soured on the subjects themselves.

The first---and cardinal---error committed by Harman is his presentational style. His mistake is one that could only be committed but one who either lacked comprehension of the philosophy behind his science fiction summaries, or else was so contemptuous of those results that a sincere attempt to communicate the underlying ideas seemed superflous. Bluntly put, the first thing any prospective initiate into the world of existential thought must do is free himself from the need to accomodate one's thinking, reasoning---and indeed, presentational style---to the comfortable glibness which is prized in everyday discourse (and apparently, in certain long-winded works of philosophy). Harman probably belives that by adhering to a populist style, he will attract more readers to his subject. This may be true, but in so doing, he has marred the beauty of that subject so hopelessly behind recognition that sincere readers will find little of value in his presentation.

The book is not recommended.

Heidegger is one of the most notable philosophers of the 20th century. Harman's understanding to the philosophy of Heidegger is inadequate and misleading.