Diana Coole and Samantha Frost argue that social and political enquiry Essay - 1

Diana Coole and Samantha Frost argue that social and political enquiry needs a new ontology which incorporates matter. Why What problem are they trying to address and how persuasive is their solution - Essay Example Coole and Frost insist that emerging realities in the fields of sciences, arts, geography, and other disciplines are sufficient proof that matter contains more active and viable qualities that previously thought. A precise understanding of the case made by the two thinkers regarding the need for ontological reviews of political and social inquiries should begin with an assessment of the new qualities, which they assign to matter. Coole and Samantha argue that matter is an excess and a force. By this, they imply that it can influence actions, activities, and processes in as many areas as it is represented. Furthermore, the two philosophers adopt the position that matter has some form of relationality and an element of difference. According to their argument, these qualities make matter active, unpredictable, self-creative, and productive. These new perceptions of matter foster alternative views regarding the influence and relationship between matter and discourses such as political and social realities. Coole and Frost engages significantly with the problem of dualism, which makes it problematic in dealing with the cultural theory. Within the context of new materialism, the two authors seek to entrench the view that the mind is essentially a material entity. By this position, new materialism challenges the views adopted by transcendentalism and humanism, which emphasize on the duality between the mind and the body. New materialism suggests that the body is the object of the mind and the two are not entirely separate but relate in one uniform continuum. It is important to regard new materialism in light of the different aspects that relate to it. For instance, by emphasizing on the primacy of the material, this new approach promotes the matter to a level that articulates various concerns that relate to the characteristic of various discourses. Other proponents of the position adopted by Coole and Frost suggest that matter feels, suffers,