| Region: | Western philosophy |
| Era: | Contemporary philosophy |
| Iain Hamilton Grant | |
| School Tradition: | Continental philosophy Speculative realism (transcendental materialism) |
| Alma Mater: | University of Reading Warwick University |
| Nationality: | British |
| Main Interests: | Naturphilosophie, German Idealism, Ontology[1] |
| Influences: | Gilles Deleuze, Plato, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, Nick Land |
| Influenced: | Jeremy Dunham, Ben Woodard |
| Notable Ideas: | Transcendental materialism |
Iain Hamilton Grant (born 21 November 1963, in Bristol) is a British philosopher. He is a senior lecturer at the University of the West of England in Bristol, United Kingdom. His research interests include ontology, European philosophy, German Idealism (especially Schelling), and both contemporary and historical philosophy of nature. He is often associated with the recent philosophical current known as Speculative Realism.[2]
Grant was initially known as a translator of the prominent French philosophers Jean Baudrillard and Jean-François Lyotard. His reputation as an independent philosopher comes primarily from his book On an Artificial Earth.[3] In this book, Grant heavily criticizes the repeated attempts of philosophers to "reverse Platonism," and argues that they should try to reverse Immanuel Kant instead. He is highly critical of the recent prominence of ethics and the philosophy of life in continental philosophy, which in his view merely reinforce the undue privilege of human being. Against these trends, Grant calls for a renewed treatment of the inorganic realm.[4]
Grant views Plato and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling as his major allies among classic philosophical figures, and generally opposes both Aristotle and Kant for what he sees as their tendency to reduce reality to its expressibility for humans. Grant is also influenced by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze.
Grant wrote his PhD thesis on Kant and Lyotard in the Department of Philosophy at Warwick University. Whilst at Warwick he was part of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit.
He states "I am a philosopher working on ontology and post-Kantian philosophy and German Idealism, especially Schelling, and on the philosophy of nature both historically and in the contemporary context. I have published widely in these areas, and am writing a monograph on the problem of nature in later Idealism to follow my Philosophies of Nature after Schelling (Continuum, 2006). I maintain an interest in the philosophy of technology and in art."[5]