Relationalism and Realism Tension in the Context of Discussions of the New Metaphysics

This study aims to critically analyse the main arguments of the two camps about the fabric of reality, which have come to the fore in the discussions of new metaphysics that have started to spread in the humanities since the 1990s. These two camps are speculative realism, of which Graham Harman and Manuel Delanda are prominent spokesmen, and relationalism, in which Karen Barad and Donna Haraway stand out. The main contention of this debate is whether the existence of individual entities can be fully explained by their relations. In other words, as a continuation of the debate between idealism and empiricism, are singular terms fully constituted and determined by their relations “internal to them”, or should we see relations as “external” to the terms they relate to and accept that there are properties in terms that cannot be explained by their relations? The distinction between “internal” and “external” relations is a distinction between the absence and existence of relative autonomy of terms from their relations. For the emergence of any whole, relations are organized in a “systematic” that gives the whole its compositional specificity. If these relations are considered “internal” to the individual entities that constitute the whole, as advocated by various variants of idealism, these individual entities have no autonomy and are wholly determined by the whole. Empiricism, by contrast, argues that the terms associated with relations have relative autonomy in terms of systematic determination. This discussion has dozens of effects, from field research practices in the humanities to ecology studies, from text analysis to art studies. Considering this wide scope, this presentation aims to analyse the recent arguments that emerged in the new metaphysics, measure the distance and closeness of the parties, and finally point out the possible solutions and deadlock points of the tension here.