Ontologies of the Future in Contemporary Philosophy: Stiegler and Meillassoux

With the concept of the future understood as uncertainty at their core, both Meillassoux and Stiegler’s projects ought to be read as two different solutions to the problem of correlationism: a purely speculative one, providing human mind access to the radical uncertainty (Meillassoux) and a technologically mediated, putting in question the very ontological distinction between human and reality (Stiegler). Claims of the thesis: 1) The concept of the future constitutes the heart of Meillassoux and Stiegler’s ontological projects. 2) The concept of the future in Meillassoux and Stiegler ought to be understood in terms of ontological uncertainty which enriches and empowers the concept of a-venir extracted from the thought of Deleuze and Derrida. 3) Both speculative (Meillassoux) and media-oriented (Stiegler) approaches to the uncertain real require reshaping the concept and the function of imagination. 4) The projects of Stiegler and Meillassoux ought to be read as shifting from the ontology of being to what we call the ontology of may-be which is characterized by the radical openness to change of not only future but also being as such. The research is pursued as a comparative analysis of Stiegler and Meillassoux which also re-actualizes their thought in the obvious relation to Kantian legacy and in less obvious and rarely discussed relation to such representatives of 20th century continental philosophy as Deleuze, Derrida, and others, as well as contemporary thinkers of future and ontology. By re-contextualizing Meillassoux and Stiegler’s ideas, the research is aimed at inquiring into Meillassoux and Stiegler’s projects as a whole and, therefore, revolves around their main opuses as well as publications and talks of a smaller scale. Therefore, the research is conducted by performing four methodical steps within the hermeneutic circle of interpretation: 1. Comparative analysis of Stiegler and Meillassoux’s ontological projects; 2. Re-contextualization of Stiegler and Meillassoux within the horizon of postmodern French thought, majorly represented by Deleuze and Derrida; 3. Re-evaluation of Stiegler and Meillassoux’s conceptual debt to Kantian transcendentalism; 4. Contextualization of Stiegler and Meillassoux’s stances on mediation by applying them to the realm of artistic practices.