Posthuman Ontology: A New State in the Field of Relationality

Abstract

Over the past 30 years, a critical approach known as “ontological turn” has taken shape in the Western academic world to question human-centered research and the diminution of nonhuman actors as a device to serve the understanding of the phenomenon in human society. This approach integrates previously the divided domains of natural science and humanities-social sciences into new modes of knowledge making such as environmental humanities, science and technology studies, affect studies, or multispecies and animal studies, etc. These works have a common point, which is to challenge established binary opposition of humans/nonhumans and nature/culture. This research article aims to study, compile and synthesize important academic works on ontology that appear in the stream of thought in order to present a new definition of “posthuman ontology,” its turning points and development in the history of thought. Finally, I propose the key idea—"new state in the field of relationality"—as experimental tool for knowledge making concerning ontology that potentially opens up new areas of knowledge in the Thai academic world.