From Speculative Realism to an Aesthetics of Scale

Edwards, Adam (2024) From Speculative Realism to an Aesthetics of Scale. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Speculative Realism promised to redefine (primarily Anglophone) Continental Philosophy. Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects, became one of the most influential contributions in this corpus. Morton proposed a category of object to which very large and complex things belong and offered global warming as an exemplar nonpareil of a hyperobject and attempted to “establish what phenomenological “experience” is in the absence of anything meaningfully like a “world” at all.”

The thesis begins by interrogating both Speculative Realism and Hyperobjects, focusing on the implicit claim that there exists a scale of encounter at which experience, and world become inoperative concepts. I argue that Hyperobjects fails to address this challenge coherently and ultimately lead to conclusions that are both unsustainable and undesirable.

Through this critique, I examine the task Morton sets out in terms of hermeneutic phenomenology by turning to an overlooked aspect of Heidegger's later work, the gigantic. In doing so, I examine the enduring persistence of Heidegger's thought among contemporary far-right ideologies and ecofascism. By exploring Heidegger’s use of scale in terms of aesthetic modes, I conclude that the vexing question of scale that Hyperobjects describes is an existing, if overlooked area of philosophical enquiry.

In the final section, I advocate for the role of philosophy in addressing the climate crisis. I argue that the question of scale should remain central to any philosophical intervention on this issue, and that philosophers have an ethical responsibility to produce work that actively engages with and leads efforts to mitigate the climate crisis. Ultimately, the thesis calls for a reorientation of philosophical practice towards aesthetic and ethical frameworks that respond directly to the urgent challenges posed by global environmental change.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy and Area Studies
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	27 Nov 2025 08:35
Last Modified:	27 Nov 2025 08:35
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/101119
DOI:

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