School #45

Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO)

Harman, Morton, Bogost, Meillassoux

Object-Oriented Ontology maintains that all objects — human, animal, mineral, artificial — exist equally and independently, each withdrawing from full access by any other entity. Human perception holds no privileged position. Reality is a flat ontology in which consciousness is not elevated above matter.

Compare this school

⧖

I. Time

Extent	Infinite
Ontological Status	Relational
Grain	Continuous
Freedom	Non-Deterministic
Traversability	Linear
Dimensionality	One
Direction	Uni-directional

Time is relational and infinite — it arises from the interactions and withdrawals among objects rather than existing as an independent substrate. Time is continuous, linear, and non-deterministic: the withdrawal of objects guarantees that the future is never fully determined by the present. Direction is uni-directional in the sense that interactions are irreversible.

✦

II. Space

Extent	Infinite
Ontological Status	Relational
Curvature	Undefined
Dimensionality	Three
Locality	Local

Space is relational and infinite — it is the medium of interaction among objects, but no object is fully present in its spatial relations. Space is flat, local, and three-dimensional at the level of sensual objects, but real objects withdraw from spatial comprehension. The flat ontology of OOO means that no spatial vantage point is privileged.

◉

III. Matter

Extent	Infinite
Ontological Status	Substantival
Conservation	Conserved
Dimensionality	Three
Locality	Local

Matter is relational and finite — material objects are real but always withdraw from full access by other objects, including human observers. Matter is conserved and local in its sensual qualities, but the real object behind those qualities is forever in excess of any material description. OOO insists that matter is not reducible to its relations or its utility for humans.

◎

IV. Observer

Time Instance	Single
Space Instance	Single
Extent of Knowledge	Immediate
Retainment of Knowledge	Total
Physicality	Embodied
Agency	Passive
Number	Plural

Time Instance: Single — each object, including the human observer, encounters other objects at a single temporal moment; objects do not transcend time

Space Instance: Single — the observer is one object among many, situated at a particular spatial location with no privileged access to other locations

Extent of Knowledge: Immediate — objects always withdraw from full access; the human observer can only ever grasp the sensual profile of another object, never its real interior; knowledge is always partial and perspectival

Retainment of Knowledge: Total — what the observer grasps through encounter is retained, building a cumulative but always incomplete picture of the withdrawn real objects

Physicality: Embodied — the human observer is a physical object on the same ontological plane as all other objects; there is no disembodied subject

Agency: Passive — in OOO the observer does not constitute or create objects through perception; objects exist independently and withdraw from the observer's grasp regardless of any effort

Consciousness: Present — the human observer is conscious, but consciousness is not ontologically privileged; it is one quality among many that different objects may or may not possess

Number: Plural — observers are plural precisely because each object is an observer of other objects; the human observer is merely one among countless entities that encounter and translate the world

⚡

V. Energy

Extent Infinite

Ontological Status Substantival

Conservation Conserved

Dispersibility Irreversible

Infinite and substantival — energy is a real, withdrawn object (or quality of objects) that exists independently of any observer's access to it. Conservation: Conserved — energy persists and transforms across object-encounters but is never created or destroyed; its withdrawn reality guarantees its persistence. Dispersibility: Irreversible — the asymmetry of real and sensual encounters means that once energy is dispersed through object-interactions, the original configuration cannot be recovered.

⧉

VI. Information

Ontological Status Substantival

Conservation Conserved

Granularity Continuous

Objects withdraw from full informational access — every object contains more information than any relation reveals. Objects have a dark, inaccessible informational core. Information is substantival because it resides in objects themselves, not in relations. It is conserved because objects persist with their hidden informational depths. It is continuous because the withdrawn core of an object contains inexhaustible, unquantized informational richness.

← #44 Occasionalism All Schools #46 Pyrrhonism →

Jump to school

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 #34 #35 #36 #37 #38 #39 #40 #41 #42 #43 #44 #45 #46 #47 #48 #49 #50 #51 #52 #53 #54 #55 #56 #57 #58 #59 #60 #61