Democracy of Objects

Can I claim authorship of the book that follows?In the typical and frustrating manner of a philosopher-if such I am-I can only answer that this depends on what authorship is.Certainly, I spent months typing words and editing various drafts of The Democracy of Objects.Yet if there is some truth to the ontology that I here develop, then every object is also a crowd of objects.Moreover, the circumstances under which this book came to be written, coupled with the way in which this book was written, render this point especially true.This book was already on its way to coming into being before I even conceived of it as a result of my encounter with the literary and media theorist Melanie Doherty.I met Doherty around eight years ago under unusual circumstances when I was at the height of my Lacanian period, singing endless odes to the signifier and fully enmeshed within the linguistic and rhetorical turn.A deep and productive friendship ensued that continues to this day.Doherty continuously challenged my focus on the signifier and the semiotic, conceding that these things play a role, but also drawing my attention to the role the non-semiotic and material plays in the formation of social relations.Like the reincarnation of Alice that she is, she sent me down the rabbit hole of thinkers such as Latour, Ong, Kittler, Haraway, McLuhan, Marx, and a host of others, while also underscoring the singularity of mathematics, science, neurology, and biology.While I remain a resolute Lacanian-how couldn't I, having suffered through all the seminars, having gone through analysis, and having practiced for a time myself?-Ix Levi R. Bryant xii Levi R. Bryant editing this text, but he also created the majority of the diagrams.Jon Cogburn, a friend from nearly two decades ago but whom I've only recently had the privilege of getting to know again, provided cogent critique and editorial comments from a philosophical orientation very foreign to my own background.I am tremendously fortunate to have his friendship and eagerly look forward to developments in his own thought in the years to come.I have only had the pleasure of knowing Timothy Morton's friendship this year, but despite the short time of our encounter, he generously provided extremely helpful editorial advice and has been a deep influence on the concepts developed in the text that follows.Carlton Clark and Timothy Richardson both endured long and disjointed conversations with me revolving around the main claims of this book, providing excellent suggestions to improve my arguments and conversations.April Jacobs also provided helpful editorial advice.Andrew Cutrofello, who supervised my dissertation which later became Difference and Givenness, taught me how to read philosophy creatively so as to produce new philosophy out of the material of the history of philosophy.He also instilled me with a spirit of rigor and careful argumentation.His influence and the lessons he imparted to me continue throughout the pages of this book.Finally, I would like to thank my partner Angela and my daughter, both of whom were patient with me as I wrote this book, and supportive of the project.Books are born out of a crowd of voices, taking on a unity where the traces of these voices often disappear.I am both humbled and tremendously grateful for all those voices that assisted me in the composition of this text.