Matter and Motion: A Brief History of Kinetic Materialism

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 empower us to create a world based on the good life.

Format: Hardback
Length: 144 pages
Publication date: 31 December 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

From prehistory to the present, a new history of materialism emerges that resists stasis, hierarchy, and domination. This lineage of thinkers, spanning from ancient to modern times, from the Bronze Age to quantum physics, offers diverse evidence for a world devoid of metaphysics or hierarchy. By tracing the ideas of these thinkers, from Archaic Greek poetry to contemporary physicists, Thomas Nail reveals an alternative understanding of matter and motion.

In the Western tradition, matter and motion have often been considered inferior to more formal and static principles. Philosophers have constructed a hierarchical structure that places metaphysical categories such as eternity, God, the soul, forms, and essences at the top, while securing and ordering the movement at the bottom. This hierarchy has profound consequences in our world, perpetuating notions of 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, and straight above queer identities.

However, this alternative history of materialism challenges these established hierarchies. It highlights the contributions of ancient and modern thinkers who share a radically different perspective on the nature of matter and motion. From Archaic Greek poetry, which celebrated the fluidity and movement of the natural world, to Bronze Age Minoan religion, which revered the goddess of the sea and her transformative power, to Roman poet Lucretius, who envisioned a universe governed by the laws of physics, and to German philosopher Karl Marx, who recognized the material basis of social and economic relations, and to English writer Virginia Woolf, who explored the complexities of human consciousness and the relationship between the mind and the body, Nail identifies a minor tradition of what he calls kinetic materialism.

Kinetic materialism is characterized by three central ideas: indeterminacy, relationality, and process. Indeterminacy suggests that the world is inherently unpredictable and uncertain, with no fixed laws or patterns governing its behavior. Relationality emphasizes the interconnectedness of all things, recognizing that everything is interdependent and interconnected. Process emphasizes the continuous and dynamic nature of the world, emphasizing the importance of change and transformation over stasis and permanence.

By integrating these ideas, kinetic materialism offers a framework for understanding the world that resists the dominance of metaphysics, hierarchy, and domination. It challenges the notion that the world is a static and predetermined place, instead suggesting that it is a dynamic and evolving entity shaped by the interactions and processes of its constituent parts. This perspective opens up new possibilities for thinking about the nature of reality, justice, and human agency, and offers a way to challenge and transform the hierarchies that govern Western thought and society.

In conclusion, this alternative history of materialism offers a fresh and compelling perspective on the nature of matter and motion. By tracing the ideas of ancient and modern thinkers who share a radically different understanding of the world, Thomas Nail reveals the contingent and performative nature of the established hierarchies that govern Western thought and society. By integrating the ideas of indeterminacy, relationality, and process, kinetic materialism offers a framework for understanding the world that resists the dominance of metaphysics, hierarchy, and domination. This perspective opens up new possibilities for thinking about the nature of reality, justice, and human agency, and offers a way to challenge and transform the hierarchies that govern Western thought and society.

ISBN-13: 9781399525428