ABSTRACT
The title of this paper is intended to offer a challenge to one of the most pervasive assumptions in contemporary cultural studies; that which is embedded in the term ‘superficial’ and which implies that there is a relationship between surface and lack of importance. At the heart of Western philosophy lie a series of interrelated assumptions, embedded in metaphor, which greatly constrain our ability to comprehend major transformations in the modern world. The culprit is the pervasive ideology of what may be called ‘depth ontology’ whereby we tend to assume that everything that is important for our sense of being lies in some deep interior and must be long-lasting and solid, as against the dangers of things we regard as ephemeral, shallow or lacking in content. These become highly problematic metaphors when we encounter a cosmology which may not share these assumptions, and rests upon a very different sense of ontology.
