Iain Hamilton Grant

Iain Hamilton Grant is a lecturer at the University of the West of England in Bristol, United Kingdom. He is often associated with the recent philosophical current known as Speculative Realism. [Speculative Realism in "Collapse: Journal of Philosophical Research and Development" (Falmouth: Urbanomic, 2007), pp.306-449]

Grant was initially known as a translator of the prominent French philosophers Jean Baudrillard and Jean-François Lyotard. His reputation as an independent philosopher comes primarily from his book "Philosophies of Nature After Schelling" (2006). In this book, Grant heavily criticizes the repeated attempts of philosophers to "reverse Platonism," and argues that they should try to reverse Kant instead. He is highly critical of the recent prominence of ethics and the philosophy of life in continental philosophy, which in his view merely reinforce the undue privilege of human being. Against these trends, Grant calls for a renewed treatment of the inorganic realm. [http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=9663]

Grant views Plato and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling as his major allies among classic philosophical figures, and generally opposes both Aristotle and Kant for what he sees as their tendency to reduce reality to its expressibility for humans.

Along with Plato and Schelling, Grant is heavily influenced by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.

Dr. Grant is also known to harbour a deep resentment for games of any description, leading to speculation that he is not very good at them.

Bibliography

Original works

*"Philosophies of Nature After Schelling" (London and New York: Continuum, 2006) [http://ndpr.nd.edu/review.cfm?id=9663 A review of the book in the Notre Dame Philosophical Review]

English translations

* Jean Baudrillard, "Symbolic Exchange and Death", transl. by Iain Hamilton Grant (London: Sage, 1993).
* Jean-François Lyotard, "The Libidinal Economy", transl. by Iain Hamilton Grant (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993).

References

External links

* [http://www.uwe.ac.uk/hlss/politics/staff_igrant.shtml Profile at the University of the West of England]
* [http://blog.urbanomic.com/urbanomic/ Webpage for "Collapse" journal featuring contributions by Iain Hamilton Grant and other "speculative realists"]