%0 Journal Article
%T The Problem with Metzinger
%A Graham Harman
%J Cosmos and History : the Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy
%D 2011
%I Cosmos and History Publishing Co-op.
%X This article provides a critical treatment of the ontology underlying Thomas Metzinger¡¯s Being No One. Metzinger asserts that interdisciplinary empirical work must replace ¡®armchair¡¯ a priori intuitions into the nature of reality; nonetheless, his own position is riddled with unquestioned a priori assumptions. His central claim that ¡®no one has or has ever had a self¡¯ is meant to have an ominous and futuristic ring, but merely repeats a familiar philosophical approach to individuals, which are undermined by reducing them downward to their material underpinnings, and ¡®overmined¡¯ by reducing them upward to their functional effects. Ultimately, Metzinger blends a rigid form of traditional materialism with an ontology of processes and events that is too reminiscent of late 1990¡¯s continental philosophy. In both directions, the novelty and fertility of Metzinger¡¯s position can be called into question.
%K Thomas Metzinger
%K Selfhood
%K Scientism
%K Naturalism
%U http://www.cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/231/321