Burning Bridges: The problem of relations in object-oriented ontology—a topological approach

This paper explores the status of relations in object-oriented ontology (OOO). On the one hand, objects often seem to get the upper hand, since what an object is cannot be reduced to the sum total of its (external) relations. On the other hand, there cannot be a hierarchy between object and relations, since we would then be talking about a vertical ontology, and what OOO advocates is a flat ontology. Relations must have the same ontological status as objects, due to the flatness of reality. Furthermore, relations already play a role in the things themselves in terms of an internal relationality. What an object is cannot be separated from where it is. In other words, the object is its where. While internal relations seem to work at the central core of objects, external relations pose the greatest problem. If objects are destructible, we have to re-evaluate the status of external relations. While OOO is still to develop a fully-fledged theory of destructibility or death, I suggest that Kierkegaard’s notion of finitude can provide a fruitful trajectory. With Kierkegaard, I argue that death cannot merely be located within an object but concerns the radical outside which brings the status of external relationality to the fore.

Niels Wilde