Absolute Power and Contingency: on the Theological Structure of Meillassoux’s Speculative Philosophy

Although Quentin Meillassoux’s philosophy desires to be postmetaphysical and posttheological, I argue in this paper that it remains structurally theological. Specifically, I argue that Meillassoux’s speculative thesis on the contingency of nature and its laws repeats at a formal level the medieval t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sophia
Main Author: Phelps, Hollis (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Netherlands [2015]
In: Sophia
RelBib Classification:FA Theology
KAE Church history 900-1300; high Middle Ages
NBC Doctrine of God
TK Recent history
VA Philosophy
Further subjects:B Duns Scotus
B God’s ordained power
B Omnipotence
B Correlationism
B God’s absolute power
B Thomas Aquinas
B Metaphysics
B Speculative Philosophy
B Contingency
B Hyper-Chaos
B Quentin Meillassoux
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Summary:Although Quentin Meillassoux’s philosophy desires to be postmetaphysical and posttheological, I argue in this paper that it remains structurally theological. Specifically, I argue that Meillassoux’s speculative thesis on the contingency of nature and its laws repeats at a formal level the medieval theological distinction between God’s absolute power and God’s ordained power. The first part of this paper discusses how this distinction allowed medieval theologians such as Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus to understand and have faith in the stable contingency of the present order of things in light of divine omnipotence. The second part of this paper discusses how Meillassoux repeats this distinction, intentionally or not, between God’s absolute power and God’s ordained power in his attempt to think the absolute contingency of the laws of nature as an effect of hyper-Chaos. Although, unlike the medieval God, Meillassoux’s hyper-Chaos remains fundamentally without reason and devoid of any moral valence, I argue in the third section of this paper that Meillassoux sneaks in an existential faith in the present and future order of things with his appeal to hope in a speculative resurrection of the dead, a move that brings him further in line with the substance of the distinction between God’s absolute power and God’s ordained power.
ISSN:1873-930X
Contains:Enthalten in: Sophia
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s11841-014-0449-6