Ontological anarché : beyond materialism and idealism

Is it possible for anarchism to think with the new ontologies and new materialisms, and is it possible to build a deeper anarchist philosophy which does not reduce the world to what it is for human animals within that world? Is it possible to think the question of a non-essentialist ontology? (Duane Rousselle and Jason Adams, “Anarchism’s Other Scene”)Radical theory has always been beset by the question of ontology, albeit to varying degrees and under differing conditions. In recent years, in particular, political metaphysics has returned with force: the rise of Deleuze-influenced “new materialisms,” along with post-/non-Deleuzian Speculative Realism (SR) and Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), all bear testament to this. In this same period, anarchism has returned as a major influence on social movements and critical scholarship alike. What, then, are some of the potential resonances between these currents, particularly given that anarchism has so often been understood/misunderstood as a fundamentally idealist philosophy? This special issue of ADCS, "Ontological Anarche: Beyond Materialism and Idealism," considers these questions in dialogue with the new materialisms, Speculative Realism, and Object-Oriented Ontology, in order to seek new points of departure.Ontological Anarche: Beyond Materialism and Idealism includes: EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION: Duane Rousselle and Jason Adams, “Anarchism’s Other Scene: Materializing the Ideal and Idealizing the Material”; ARTICLES: ONTOLOGICAL ANARCHE” Levi R. Bryant, “The Gravity of Things: An Introduction to Onto-Cartography” -- John W.M. Krummel, “Reiner Schurmann and Cornelius Castoriadis: Between Ontology and Praxis” -- Hilan Bensusan, “Polemos Doesn’t Stop Anywhere Short of the World: On Anarcheology, Ontology, and Politics” -- Ben Woodard, “Schellingian Thought for Ecological Politics” -- Jason Harman, “Ontological Anarche: Beyond Arche & Anarche“; ARTICLES: ANARCHIST ONTOLOGY: Salvo Vaccaro, “Critique of Static Ontology and Becoming-Anarchy” -- Jared McGeough, “Three Scandals in the Philosophy of F.W.J. Schelling: Ontology, Freedom, Mythology” -- Joseph Christian Greer, “Occult Origins: Hakim Bey’s Ontological Post-Anarchism” -- Tom Marling, “Anarchism and the Question of Practice: Ontology in the Chinese Anarchist Movement, 1919-1927” -- Gregory Kalyniuk,“Jurisprudence of the Damned: Deleuze’s Masochian Humour and Anarchist Neo-Monadology”; REVIEW ESSAY: Shannon Brincat,“The Problem of an Anarchist Civil Society” -- Mohammed A. Bamyeh, “A Response to Shannon Brincat”; BOOK REVIEW: Anthony T. Fiscella, “Christian Anarchism”; INTERVIEW: Christos Stergiou interviews Levi Bryant.Anarchist Developments in Cultural Studies (ADCS), edited by Duane Rousselle and Sureyyya Evren, is an international, open-access journal devoted to the study of new and emerging perspectives in anarchist thought and practice from or through a cultural studies perspective. The interdisciplinary focus of the journal presumes an analysis of a broad range of cultural phenomena, the development of diverse methodological traditions, as well as the investigation of both macro-structural issues and the micrological practices of “everyday life.” ADCS is an attempt to bring anarchist thought into contact with innumerable points of connection.