Time Without Becoming (Philosophy)

In Time Without Becoming, Quentin Meillassoux concisely presents the arguments he uses to overcome what he calls Correlationism. Meillassoux defines Correlationism as "the idea according to which we only ever have access to the correlation between thinking and being, and never to either term considered apart from the other." In other words, his aim is to refute every philosophy claiming that no objects, events, laws, or beings exist outside the subject-object correlate. He aims to show that a reality absolutely separate from the subject can be thought by the subject. Meillassoux includes a critique of idealisms and vitalisms, arguing that such philosophical positions employ forms of subjectivist metaphysics that absolutize the correlation itself. This means, according to Meillassoux, that correlationism is not anti-realist, but anti-absolutist. Meillassoux offers a way out of both positions by rejecting the principle of sufficient reason and retaining the principle of non-contradiction. Through a return to David Hume’s view of causality, he then argues that since the laws of nature are contingent and there is no reason to believe that the laws of nature cannot be otherwise, the only necessity is the necessity of contingency. After Meillassoux’s text is a contribution by Anna Longo. In it she challenges Meillassoux’s work through a study of the transcendental in the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze. I highly recommend this short book before reading "After Finitude", Meillassoux’s most notable contribution to contemporary philosophy.

I am about halfway through the first part, which is the transcript of a lecture given by Meillassoux recapitulating and refocusing most, if not all, the salient arguments and aspects of After Finitude. So, as far as the book goes for presenting eager readers with a quick precis before Meillassoux releases his next book, brava. However, & this could be perhaps only a few prints, including my copy, several of the pages cut off parts of words, or whole words right off the entire page. The text was not properly set, and so every few pages, for the whole page, the format is off and the word at the end of every line is erased. Most readers will likely deduce the missing text by context, but the repeated erasure of letters and words frequently throughout the work makes the book a jumbled, irritating read even despite the good content.

Excellent condition of book on arrival.

If u r interested in the Absolute you need to read this book!

This is very interesting stuff and a good introduction to Meillassoux' ideas.But understanding is not helped by the poor quality of the English-language text and the apparent absence of proofreading by an Anglophone native speaker. While some slight Franglais creeps in to Meillassoux' English prose, Longo's essay is laughably filled with Franglais produced by someone with little knowledge of English (or perhaps by Google translation program).4* for content; 2* for English languageI also note that the Kindle version (which I bought in May 2015) is no longer on offer on this site. I wonder why.