Actants, Things, and Objects
Those working on object-oriented ontology, or materialist philosophy more broadly, are troubling the distinction between subject and object, which has so effectively centered the universe on the liberal human subject.
These three terms are often used somewhat interchangeably in discussions of philosophical materialism. Actant is the term most closely associated with Bruno Latour, who uses it to mean anything and all things that affect other objects. The problem with the term object, though that is sometimes used as well, is that it is nearly impossible to remove from the subject/object binary, which is what many of the theorists are attempting to effect. Though perhaps the vaguest term, thing, is less specific than Latour’s term and allows the writer to avoid reminding the reader of a false subject/object binary.
These three terms are often used somewhat interchangeably in discussions of philosophical materialism. Actant is the term most closely associated with Bruno Latour, who uses it to mean anything and all things that affect other objects. The problem with the term object, though that is sometimes used as well, is that it is nearly impossible to remove from the subject/object binary, which is what many of the theorists are attempting to effect. Though perhaps the vaguest term, thing, is less specific than Latour’s term and allows the writer to avoid reminding the reader of a false subject/object binary.
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