Matter and Motion

Thomas Nail offers a new history of materialism that resists stasis, hierarchy, and domination. He traces a lineage of thinkers from the ancient to the modern who offer evidence for a world without metaphysics or hierarchy. Nail identifies three central ideas of kinetic materialism: indeterminacy, relationality, and process. This alternative understanding of matter and motion challenges the established hierarchies that govern Western thought and society, leading to patriarchy, capitalism, racism, homophobia, and ecocide. Nail seeks to undermine this inherited hierarchy and leave the good life up to us, whoever we may become.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 144 pages
Publication date: 31 December 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

Traces a lineage of thinkers who have philosophically integrated ideas of matter, motion, indeterminacy, relationality and process. Discusses thinkers drawn from the ancient to the modern, from the Bronze Age to quantum physics, who each offer their own kind of evidence for a world without metaphysics or hierarchy. Shows that the established hierarchies that govern Western thought and society are in fact contingent and performative; there is no ontologically legitimate justification for social, aesthetic or scientific domination.

Thomas Nail traces an alternative history of ancient and modern thinkers who share a radically different understanding of the nature of matter and motion compared to the rest of the Euro-Western tradition. From Archaic Greek poetry and Bronze Age Minoan religion to the Roman poet Lucretius, and from German philosopher Karl Marx and English writer Virginia Woolf to contemporary physicists Carlo Rovelli and Karen Barad, Nail identifies a minor tradition of what he calls kinetic materialism and its three central ideas: indeterminacy, relationality and process.

For the most part, Western thinkers have considered matter and motion to be inferior to more formal and static principles. Philosophers placed metaphysical categories such as eternity, God, the soul, forms and essences at the top of a hierarchy that secured and ordered the movement at the bottom. This has real consequences in our world. By placing stasis above motion, this hierarchy places form above matter, life above death, God above humans, humans above nature, men above women, white skin above brown skin, the first world over the third world, citizens above migrants, straight people above LGBTQ+ people, and so on.

Kinetic materialism offers a different perspective. It suggests that matter and motion are not inferior to more formal and static principles, but rather that they are essential to understanding the world. Kinetic materialism emphasizes the indeterminacy of the world, the relationality of all things, and the importance of process.

One of the key ideas of kinetic materialism is that the world is not a fixed entity, but rather a dynamic and fluid system. Everything in the world is interconnected and interdependent, and the movement of one thing can have a ripple effect on everything else. This idea is reflected in the work of many ancient and modern thinkers, including Archaic Greek poets such as Homer and Hesiod, who depicted the world as a living organism that was constantly changing and evolving.

Another key idea of kinetic materialism is that the world is not made up of separate and distinct entities, but rather of a continuous and flowing process. This idea is reflected in the work of many modern physicists, such as Carlo Rovelli and Karen Barad, who have argued that the fundamental nature of the universe is not particles or waves, but rather a complex and dynamic web of processes.

Kinetic materialism also emphasizes the importance of relationality. Everything in the world is interconnected and interdependent, and the relationships between things are more important than the things themselves. This idea is reflected in the work of many ancient and modern thinkers, including German philosopher Karl Marx, who argued that the struggle between classes is not just a struggle between individuals, but also a struggle between different social relations and modes of production.

Finally, kinetic materialism emphasizes the importance of process. The world is not a static and fixed entity, but rather a dynamic and fluid system that is constantly changing and evolving. This idea is reflected in the work of many ancient and modern thinkers, including English writer Virginia Woolf, who argued that the process of writing is more important than the final product.

In conclusion, kinetic materialism offers a different perspective on the nature of matter and motion compared to the rest of the Euro-Western tradition. It emphasizes the indeterminacy of the world, the relationality of all things, and the importance of process. By rejecting the hierarchy of metaphysical categories and placing stasis above motion, kinetic materialism offers a way to understand the world that is more in line with our experience of it.

Weight: 202g
Dimension: 129 x 198 x 13 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399525435