Anarchist Ontology
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What is Ontology?
Ontology is the study of being or existence and forms the basic subject matter of metaphysics. It seeks to describe or posit the basic categories and relationships of being or existence to define entities and types of entities within its framework.
Ontology can be said to study conceptions of reality; and, for the sake of distinction, at least to the extent to which its counterpart, epistemology can be represented as being a search for answers to the questions "What do you know?" and "How do you know it?", ontology can be represented as a search for an answer to the question "What are the knowable things?".
Further examples of ontological questions include:
- What is existence? Is existence a property? What does it mean to say something does not exist? Is existence properly a predicate? Are sentences expressing the existence or non-existence of something properly called propositions?
- What is a physical object? Can one give an account of what it means to say that a physical object exists?
- What constitutes the identity of an object? When does an object go out of existence, as opposed to merely changing?
- What features are the essential, as opposed to merely accidental, attributes of a given object? What are an object's properties or relations and how are they related to the object itself?
- What could it mean to say that non-physical objects (such as a time, souls) exist?
- Why are we here? Why does anything exist, rather than nothing? (Though, according to some, these questions may be more in the realm of cosmology.)
What is Anarchist Ontology?
Ontological anarchy is a tendency of anarchist theory focusing on existance. Ontological anarchy is largely developed by anarchist theorist Hakim Bey. His theories find anarchist approaches to often rarely discussed or marginal ideas, sythesizing many traditions into an anti-authoritarian perspective. His writings have touched on concepts like the temporary autonomous zone, nomadism, immediatism, mysticism, spirituality, conspiracy theory, chaos theory and so on.
Sources:
This term is part of the Infoshop Glossary
