Abstract

Willard McCarty, Modelling What There Is: Ontologising in a Multidimensional World

The incursion of digital computing machinery into the public sphere and the return of “ontology” from philosophical exile occurred almost simultaneously, circa 1948. In this essay I ask, what do the modelling machine and philosophers’ irreconcilable accounts of “what there is” have to do with each other? Are the ontological pluralism of the former and the multi-centric multi-naturalism of the latter kin? If so, then recent anthropology has much to say to digital humanities.

Paolo Monella Curriculum
DH bibliography
Paolo Monella home page