Iain Hamilton Grant (born 21 November 1963, in Bristol) is a British

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

. He is a senior lecturer at the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. His research interests include

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...

European philosophy Western philosophy encompasses the philosophical thought and work of the Western world. Historically, the term refers to the philosophical thinking of Western culture, beginning with the ancient Greek philosophy of the pre-Socratics. The word ' ...

German Idealism German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionary ...

(especially

Schelling Schelling is a surname. Notable persons with that name include: * Caroline Schelling (1763–1809), German intellectual * Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), German philosopher * Felix Emanuel Schelling (1858–1945), American educat ...

), and both contemporary and historical philosophy of nature. He is often associated with the recent philosophical current known as

Speculative Realism Speculative realism is a movement in contemporary Continental-inspired philosophy (also known as post-Continental philosophy) that defines itself loosely in its stance of metaphysical realism against its interpretation of the dominant forms of p ...

Work

Grant was initially known as a translator of the prominent French philosophers

Jean Baudrillard Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as w ...

and

Jean-François Lyotard Jean-François Lyotard (; ; ; 10 August 1924 – 21 April 1998) was a French philosopher, sociologist, and literary theorist. His interdisciplinary discourse spans such topics as epistemology and communication, the human body, modern art and ...

. His reputation as an independent philosopher comes primarily from his book ''On an Artificial Earth''. In this book, Grant heavily criticizes the repeated attempts of philosophers to "reverse

Platonism Platonism is the philosophy of Plato and philosophical systems closely derived from it, though contemporary platonists do not necessarily accept all of the doctrines of Plato. Platonism had a profound effect on Western thought. Platonism at le ...

," and argues that they should try to reverse

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

instead. He is highly critical of the recent prominence of

ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...

and the

philosophy of life (; meaning 'philosophy of life') was a dominant philosophical movement of German-speaking countries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which had developed out of German Romanticism. emphasised the meaning, value and purpose of life a ...

continental philosophy Continental philosophy is a term used to describe some philosophers and philosophical traditions that do not fall under the umbrella of analytic philosophy. However, there is no academic consensus on the definition of continental philosophy. Pri ...

, 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. Grant views

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

and

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (; 27 January 1775 – 20 August 1854), later (after 1812) von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him be ...

as his major allies among classic philosophical figures, and generally opposes both

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

and Kant for what he sees as their tendency to reduce reality to its expressibility for humans. Grant is also influenced by the French philosopher

Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze ( , ; 18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volu ...

. Grant wrote his PhD thesis on Kant and Lyotard in the Department of Philosophy at

Warwick University , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

. Whilst at Warwick he was part of the

Cybernetic Culture Research Unit The Cybernetic Culture Research Unit (CCRU) was an experimental cultural theorist collective formed in late 1995 at Warwick University, England and gradually separated from academia until it dissolved in 2003. It garnered reputation for its idiosyn ...

. He states "I am a philosopher working on ontology and post-Kantian philosophy and German Idealism, especially Schelling, and on the philosophy of nature both historically and in the contemporary context. I have published widely in these areas, and am writing a monograph on the problem of nature in later Idealism to follow my Philosophies of Nature after Schelling (Continuum, 2006). I maintain an interest in the philosophy of technology and in art."

Bibliography

Original works

*Co-authored ''New Media: A Critical Introduction'' (London and New York: Routledge, 2003). *''Philosophies of Nature After Schelling'' (London and New York: Continuum, 2006). *''Idealism: The History of a Philosophy'' (with Jeremy Dunham & Sean Watson) (Durham: Acumen, 2010). *''On The World Soul and Other Naturephilosophical Writings." Translated from the German by Grant, Iain H. New York: State University Press of New York. ubmittedAvailable from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/26289.'' *Lindner, E. , ed. (2016) *Die Natur der Natur. Translated from the English by Lindner, Eckardt. Berlin: Merve. Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/26287. *Dunham, J. , Grant, I. H. and Watson, S. (2011) *Idealism: The History of a Philosophy. London: Acumen. Available from: http://eprints.uwe.ac.uk/12077.

English translations

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

References

External links

Profile at the University of the West of England

Webpage for ''Collapse'' journal featuring contributions by Iain Hamilton Grant and other "speculative realists"
*
New Media: A Critical Introduction, Second Edition
' {{DEFAULTSORT:Grant, Iain Hamilton British philosophers Living people Alumni of the University of Warwick Academics of the University of the West of England, Bristol 1963 births