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Understanding the Third Table
- Graham Harman's concept of the "third table" reveals a mysterious reality of objects beyond what we perceive or science shows us.
- We glimpse this reality indirectly, especially through art, which shows the object's essence withdrawing from direct view.
Escape from Correlationism
- Speculative realism, including Harman's object-oriented ontology, aims to escape Kant's 'correlationism', the idea that reality is always tied to human thought.
- Harman argues that objects exist independently of our perception, as shown by the example of a closet existing when unobserved.
Critique of Object Reduction
- Harman criticizes both scientific reductionism (undermining) and social constructivism (overmining) of objects.
- His third table is the reality of objects independent of their relations or reduction into parts or uses.