Only two peas in a pod : on the overcoming of ontological taxonomies

Abstract

In his 2016 work entitled Dante’s Broken Hammer, Graham Harman first coins the term “onto-taxonomy”, and proclaims it to be the main nemesis of his “object- oriented” approach to philosophy. The term has however rarely appeared in the absolute majority of his subsequent works, and has also been largely overlooked by thinkers broadly working within and around the field of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO). In this paper, I propose to make up for this relative neglect in two ways. Firstly, Harman’s critique of “onto-taxonomy” is analysed and situated in the context of other prominent critiques, such as those of Martin Heidegger’s assessment of “Onto-theology” and Quentin Meillassoux’s assessment of “correlationism.” Secondly, I shall show how what I believe to be the three fundamental tenets of Harman’s philosophical approach are derivable from his critique of “onto-taxonomy.”