notion : Speculative gestures
Speculative gestures
Should we replace the categories of modern thought with new ones that are better suited to the changes we are witnessing, allowing us to understand them better? We are convinced that no new philosophical compass will suffice, and no all-encompassing theory will provide the answers that are needed for these transformations. The crisis of our ways of thinking is not only that of a philosophy that once found the conditions for the possibility of experience in these categories, but also that of the human sciences (whose scientificity relies on granting authority to facts or states of affairs) and of political discourse (which is divided between pedagogy – stating what 'is' – and a call for 'values'). On the other hand, speaking of 'speculative gestures' means, for us, initiating an engaged thought for and by a possibility that must be initiated and made visible in the present. Such a commitment, by the attention it requires to the virtualities embedded in a situation as it unfolds, strangely aligns with the forms of pragmatism found in William James. Indeed, the meaning of activating a possibility depends on its consequences and the confirmation provided by the changes it may bring to the present. This implies, in turn, that speculative engagement is understood as thinking about consequences, rather than as a utopia or an imaginary projection onto the present. It is neither about ignoring the facts nor granting them authority. Using 'speculative gestures' in plural form refers not only to the plurality of situations but also, and perhaps primarily, to the plurality of those without whom these possibilities, which need to be initiated, would lack consistency—not just to be felt, thought, or imagined, but to make people think, feel, or imagine. (Debaise & Stengers, 2015)