Viruses beyond epistemic fallacy.

Abstract

The call for contributions rightly underscores the magnitude of the COVID‐19 crisis; virtually all aspects of life are affected. Moreover, no human is safe; the pandemic is global – thus threatening to subvert any territorial demarcation that inhabitants or analysts instigate. This levelling effect provokes questions about existence across or beyond human delineations (especially those purported to be ‘ontological’), and a perceptive anthropology should confront this challenge squarely. Specifically, I argue for theory rooted in a philosophical realism that overcomes epistemic fallacies (Bhaskar 2008: 397), i.e. the mistaken presumption that queries about existence can only be framed in terms of queries about human knowledge, such as in terms of people’s ‘concepts’. The core question is, to reiterate Laidlaw’s critique, ‘[W]hat on earth happens at the boundaries between ... different ontologies, and when things or people cross from one to another?’ (2012: np). Or, to rephrase the challenge: What, exactly, are ‘the things’ that now traverse all kinds of human‐made boundaries? Contemplate the logical implications of multi‐naturalist ontology! Presently, scientists agree that coronaviruses are behind the epidemic, while some (sceptics or