A Metaphysics of Life: against the posthumanism and new materialism

Abstract

Current debates about reconceptualization of matter and posthumanism share a renewed scholarly interest in ontological views that will make it possible to overcome the vice of anthropocentrism. Also, these theoretical approaches are presented, either directly or indirectly, as platforms of articulation for a new vitalism. However, the conceptualization of life advanced by those theoretical approaches is both insufficient and unsatisfactory. Its vitalistic ontology lacks an ‘untimely’ perspective, thus, it does not adequately inquire into the phenomenon of life. This paper proposes a project of radical allokronia, capable of answering two major questions: a) in relation to posthumanism, how can life be addressed without falling again into the vice of anthropocentrism, and b) in reference to new materialism, what does the emergence of life imply for the material agency of the Universe.