A Lexicon of Onticology A Act: Local manifestations, qualities, or properties of objects.Qualities or local manifestations are not possessions of objects, but rather acts of objects. Actant: (Bruno Latour) Synonym for any object. Designed to emphasize the manner in which objects are active and not merely passive recipients of action. Actualism: (Roy Bhaskar) Any philosophical doctrine that holds that only the actual is real. Examples: Empiricism’s reduction of all beings to actual sensations or impressions, atomism’s reduction of true being to collection of purely actual, indivisible atoms localized in time and space, or relationisms reduction of objects to their relations to other objects. Asymmetrical Qualities: Local manifestations of an object that are irreversible in the order of time or through a shift in exo-relations. For example, it’s unlikely that I can revert back to my physical being at the age of 12 (though many will say I often behave like I’m twelve). Contrasted with symmetrical qualities. Attractor: Powers of an object to produce qualities of a particular sort within a particular range. Ex. All the shades of color an object can actualize under various lighting conditions. C Collective: (Bruno Latour) Regimes of attraction or entanglements of 1) objects, 2) humans and objects, but never 3) humans alone (all human action is mediated by nonhuman agencies). Designed to replace the concept of society. Community: In classical philosophy the category of community is a concept of causality that refers to relations among objects in which all objects involved in a collective are simultaneously causing and effecting one another. For example, the earth exerts gravity on the moon just as the moon exerts gravity on the earth. Community can pertain to either the endo-structure of relations among parts in a discrete object or to relations among objects in a collectively. In the latter usage the concept of community is closely related to that of regimes of attraction. Correlationism: (Quentin Meillassoux) The thesis that being and thought can never be thought apart from one another. The dominant, though often implicit, axiom of contemporary philosophy and all variants of anti-realism and idealism. A form of overmining. D Difference Engine: Synonym for “object”. All objects are difference engines insofar as they harbor the power or capacity to produce differences in the form of local manifestations. Diffraction Pattern: (Karen Barad) Synonym for “translation”. The process by which objects in exorelations weave their differences or acts together to form new exo-qualities. 1 independent of any relations to other objects. In onticology synonymous with endo-relations. Externalism: The ontological thesis that relations are external to objects. and a neurological system to occur. photons of light. A heterogeneous set of objects inter-acting with one another in a collective. Ex. Hume’s rejection of substances as a legitimate metaphysical concept and attempt to treat what we call substances purely in terms of impressions or substances. Ex. E Endo-Qualities: Qualities or local manifestations that arise from an object alone. 2 . Contrast with internalism. but that all entities are equally real. endocomposition. The essence of an object is its virtual proper being composed of endo-relations between singularities and powers in an individual object. Epistemic Fallacy: (Roy Bhaskar) Any philosophical position that holds that questions of ontology can be formulated in purely epistemological terms or that all ontological questions can be translated into questions of how we know. independent of any exo-relations to other objects. Color requires exo-relations between the properties of an object. See also. Color. Objects enter into relations but are not constituted by their relations. virtual proper being. Endo-Relations: Relations that make up the internal structure of objects. Essence: Throughout the history of philosophy essence has been associated with types and contrasted with individuals that are treated as tokens of a type. Equal Ontological Footing: Not the thesis that all entities are equal or contribute the same degree of difference to the world. domestic relations. endo-structure.Domestic Relation: (Graham Harman) Relations that make up the internal composition or structure of an object independent of other objects. Often responsible for the production of qualities in local manifestations. “rational animal” is treated as the essence of the human and Socrates is treated as a token of humans. For example. Exo-Relations: Relations between discrete and autonomous objects. endo-structure. Excess: The manner in which the virtual proper being always contains more potential than any local manifestations it happens to actualize at a given point in time. Onticology conceives of essences as singular essences belonging to a single individual rather than defining what is common to many individuals. Exo-Qualities: Qualities or local manifestations that only exist through exo-relations among objects. or virtual proper being. Event: The local manifestation of a quality or a property in an object. and endo-relations. Events belong to the domain of the actual. Entanglement: To replace the word “network”. but as discrete and fixed structures such as right-triangles. M Media/Mediator: An object functioning as the vehicle for the differences or acts of another object. but rather every medium contributes differences of its own to the acts it receives from the other object. Onticology and OOO is particularly interested in that mereological relation where the parts of an object are themselves objects and where the whole is independent of these parts and the parts independent of the whole. society. No medium is ever purely passive or transparent. humans. Contrast with topo-structure. Atomism is a variant of the hegemonic fallacy insofar as it privileges atoms as the source of all difference in the world.. triangles aren’t conceived as a series of variations of a structure composed of three singularities. G Geometry: Geometrical conceptions are conceptions that conceive structures as fixed rather than plastic. There is no requirement of a sentient witness for local manifestation to take place. etc. Within the framework of onticology. signs. Foreign Relations: (Graham Harman) Relations an object enters into with other objects. language. They are manifestations because they actualize a quality or property. language. 2) any ontology that places entities of all types on equal ontological footing (natural entities. Local manifestations are local because they actualize a quality in a particular time and at a particular place. Mereology: The branch of philosophy and mathematics that studies the relationship between parts of an object and wholes of an object. Often a major contributor to local manifestations. A variant of overmining. All variants of anti-realism and idealism commit the hegemonic fallacy insofar as they treat mind.F Flat Ontology: Any ontology that 1) rejects the nature/culture distinction.). or that being is composed entirely of relations. I Internalism: The ontological thesis that all objects are composed of internal relations to other objects or that objects are their relations. Contrast with externalism. Requires us to think in terms of entanglements of entities rather than in terms of the reduction of one type of entity to another type of entity. treating both cultural entities and natural entities as real entities. 3 . H Hegemonic Fallacy: Any philosophy that treats one particular type of entity as the origin of the most significant differences within being. L Local Manifestation: Actualizations of powers of objects in the form of qualities or properties. For example. etc. foreign relation is a synonym for exo-relation. animals. etc. as the major source of difference in the world. isosceles triangles. P Part: Objects that enter into the multiple composition of another object. Alternatively. Overmining: (Graham Harman) Any ontology that argues that objects are falsely deep and should be replaced by something more immediate. Poltergeist/Ghost: A synonym for virtual proper being. Parts are always independent of the objects to which they belong by virtue of being detachable from these objects. Consequently. Power: Capacities or abilities of an object that belong to the virtual proper being of an object.e. For example.O Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO): A genus consisting of ontologies that argue that being is composed of objects. or endo-quality. i. S 4 .. Objects are not to be identified with their parts nor with matter because objects can gain and lose parts and matter and still remain the object that they are. Phase Space: All possible points that can be locally manifested in the domain of an attractor. Point: The local manifestation of a point in a phase space of an attractor. a person remaining more or less the same height because of the constancy of gravitational conditions. the proper being of an object is its topo-structure or essence. See attractor. a society can deploy events of its past in how it thinks its present. one composed of mind. OOO is not the thesis that we should focus on objects instead of humans. Detaching a part from another object does not entail that either the part or whole will remain unchanged. the other composed of natural objects. Ex. Hume’s reduction of substances to impressions. R Reflexive Objects: Objects capable of treating past states as inputs in their present states in the formation of local manifestations. An object remaining more or less the same color because of the constancy of lighting conditions. Regime of Attraction: A network of exo-relations among objects presiding over stable state local manifestations of the objects within the network. Ex. withdrawn from any actuality or presence. but rather that there’s only one ontological category. To be contrasted with local manifestation. What an object can do. which also includes humans. Pornography: A variant of actualism that privileges the human gaze as it relates to other objects. objects. Differs slightly from Harman’s in that I defend the category of potentiality whereas he rejects it. In this respect the proper being of objects is analogous to a poltergeist insofar as poltergeist’s can only be detected through their effects and never directly. there aren’t two distinct ontological domains. Onticology: My variant of object-oriented ontology. or what an object has done. exo-quality. A totality is a structure in which singularities are interdependent with one another. Onticology rejects the concept of society and replaces it with that of collectives. U Undermining: (Graham Harman) Any ontology that argues that objects are too superficial and should be replaced by some allegedly deeper strata of reality. Symmetrical Qualities: Local manifestations of an object that can revert back to a prior local manifestation when exo-relations change. but rather each object carrying the difference or act of another object also contributes differences of its own producing unique exo-qualities. The virtual refers 5 . Transportation: The manner in which the acts of one object are transmitted to another object. beliefs. Ex. Topology is often referred to as dynamic or rubber sheet geometry. The term “virtuality” derives from the Latin “vitus” and has connotations of power. Translation: The process whereby the acts of one object are received by another object in an exorelation producing a new exo-quality as a result. Totality: The endo-structure and virtual proper being of discrete or individual objects. ideology. Domestic relations. Media are never transparent or purely passive. The manner in which an artist’s conception must be translated into a medium such as paint. atomism’s reduction of objects to atoms or Thales’ reduction of objects to water. the manner in which the stones of the Grand Canyon translate the force of the wind creating a unique configuration of stone. There is no transportation without translation (Latour). etc. Onticology conceives the virtual proper being or essence of split objects as plastic topo-structures. All objects are split between their local manifestations and their virtual proper being. The game of “telephone” among children. Ex. All objects are open totalities. potency. no matter how brief. Alternatively. The mediation of the act of another object by an object. Where classical Euclidean geometry studies fixed forms. Virtual: Not to be confused with virtual or artificial reality.Society: Collections that are composed entirely of humans and human phenomena such as language. For example. Ex. or language. or strength. topology investigates the transformation of forms into one another through operations of bending and stretching. Split-Object: Synonym for difference engine or object. No object is a pure vehicle for the act of another object. across time-space. T Time-Space Worms: Split-objects comprehended in the duration of their existence. the color of an object changes depending on lighting conditions but it locally manifest previous colors when lighting conditions or exo-relations shift. marble. See translation. nor with possibility. Topo-Structure: From “topology”. V Vehicle: An object that carries the difference or act of another object in an exo-relation. Virtual proper being is among the conditions of local manifestations. 2) objects are always distinct from any qualities or local manifestations they happen to actualize at a given point in time. W Withdrawal: (Graham Harman) Within the framework of onticology the manner in which 1) objects are independent of other objects. Contrasted with actuality which always refers to qualities of an object that are actualizations of a power of an object. 6 .to the powers or potentials of an object. Virtual Proper Being: The withdrawn being of objects defined by the powers and endo-relations of an object. 3) the manner in which the virtual proper being of any object is in excess of any of its local manifestations. To be contrasted with local manifestation.