EXCERPT ‘Speculative Realism: A One-Day Workshop’ took place on 27 April 2007 at Goldsmiths, University of London, under the auspices of the Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process, co-sponsored by Collapse. Rather than announcing the advent of a new theoretical ‘doctrine’ or ‘school’, the event conjoined four ambitious philosophical projects—all of which boldly problematise the subjectivistic and anthropocentric foundations of much of ‘continental philosophy’ while differing significantly in their respective strategies for superseding them. It is precisely this uniqueness of each participant that allowed a fruitful discussion to emerge. Alongside the articulation of various challenges to certain idealistic premises, a determination of the obstacles that any contemporary realism must surmount was equally in effect. Accordingly, some of the key issues under scrutiny included the status of science and epistemology in contemporary philosophy, the ontological constitution of thought, and the nature of subject-independent objects. However, as workshop moderator and co-organiser Alberto Toscano indicated, a common feature of the work presented was the implication that from a genuine interrogation of the continental tradition necessarily ensues a repudiation of the orthodoxies symptomatic of that tradition’s conceptual exhaustion (the most visible of which being the seemingly endless deluge of insipid secondary literature and the ‘X-ian’ identity of its authors), thus rendering the task of doing philosophy ‘in one’s own name’ essential once again. ‘Speculative Realism’, then, forces contemporary philosophy to make a decision, but it is not so much one concerning idealism or realism. Rather, at stake here is the possibility of a future for audacious and original philosophical thought as a discourse on the nature of reality—or, as one might otherwise call it: philosophy itself…