In Eco-critical circles, Morton is probably best known for his coining of the hyper-object, which he defines as those objects that are on such a large scale that they are difficult for a human subject to apprehend. Global warming, for instance, is a hyper-object. He is also an advocate for object-oriented ontology, which is the philosophic movement that responds to the positivist certainty of phenomenology and the bracketed subject by claiming that all objects are equally real and all withdraw from perception.

His work on the aesthetic and ambiance in Ecology without Nature also troubles the boundary between subject and object. Ambient aesthetics are those that attempt to incorporate the subject into his surroundings, breaking down the distinction between subject and environment. However, as he suggests, the dissolve of this boundary is ultimately always unsuccessful, just as is the belief that the concept of “nature” can help people improve the ecology. Like Bruno Latour, Morton argues that nature is defined only in negation to the human, which is actually includes. For Morton, the boundary between human and nature is as faulty as the belief that art can fully transcend the subject.

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