Speculative Political Theory: Quentin Meillassoux and “the Great Outdoors” of Politics

This paper illuminates the political dimensions of Quentin Meillassoux’s thought and argues that his speculative materialism presents a challenge to contemporary political theory as it demands the recognition of the real limits of politics. Having embraced the possibility of a world without correlation, Meillassoux’s philosophy opens up to at least two possibilities in this regard. The first is expressed by his quasi-messianic consideration of a “world without politics” grounded in the notions of “ancestrality” and “the fourth World” of absolute justice. The second possibility is characterized by a nihilistic acceptance of the end of humanity—“extinction”—that indexes the limit of politics in terms of its pending abolition. Meillassoux’s philosophy thus contributes to the emergence of speculative political theory that rests on the acknowledgement of the absolute limits of the political form of being.