Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199244973
- eISBN:
- 9780191697425
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244973.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Critical Aesthetics and Postmodernism (Clarendon Press, 1993) argued that art and aesthetic experiences have the capacity to humanize. In this book, the author develops this theme in ...
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Critical Aesthetics and Postmodernism (Clarendon Press, 1993) argued that art and aesthetic experiences have the capacity to humanize. In this book, the author develops this theme in much greater depth, arguing that art can bridge the gap between philosophy's traditional striving for generality and completeness, and the concreteness and contingency of humanity's basic relation to the world. As the key element in his theory, he proposes an ecological definition of art. His strategy involves first mapping out and analysing the logical boundaries and ontological structures of the aesthetic domain. He then considers key concepts from this analysis in the light of a tradition in Continental philosophy (notably the work of Kant, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Hegel) which — by virtue of the philosophical significance that it assigns to art — significantly anticipates the ecological conception. On this basis the author is able to give a full formulation of his ecological definition. Art, in making sensible or imaginative material into symbolic form, harmonizes and conserves what is unique and what is general in human experience. The aesthetic domain answers basic needs intrinsic to self-consciousness itself, and art is the highest realization of such needs. In the creation and reception of art the embodied subject is fully at home with his or her environment.Less
Critical Aesthetics and Postmodernism (Clarendon Press, 1993) argued that art and aesthetic experiences have the capacity to humanize. In this book, the author develops this theme in much greater depth, arguing that art can bridge the gap between philosophy's traditional striving for generality and completeness, and the concreteness and contingency of humanity's basic relation to the world. As the key element in his theory, he proposes an ecological definition of art. His strategy involves first mapping out and analysing the logical boundaries and ontological structures of the aesthetic domain. He then considers key concepts from this analysis in the light of a tradition in Continental philosophy (notably the work of Kant, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Hegel) which — by virtue of the philosophical significance that it assigns to art — significantly anticipates the ecological conception. On this basis the author is able to give a full formulation of his ecological definition. Art, in making sensible or imaginative material into symbolic form, harmonizes and conserves what is unique and what is general in human experience. The aesthetic domain answers basic needs intrinsic to self-consciousness itself, and art is the highest realization of such needs. In the creation and reception of art the embodied subject is fully at home with his or her environment.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198236238
- eISBN:
- 9780191597268
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198236239.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
Considerable controversy has raged around the question of postmodern culture and its products. This book attempts to overcome some of the antagonistic viewpoints involved by developing themes from ...
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Considerable controversy has raged around the question of postmodern culture and its products. This book attempts to overcome some of the antagonistic viewpoints involved by developing themes from the work of Kant, Benjamin, and Merleau–Ponty in the context of themes from contemporary culture. Attention is paid to such topics as the relation between art and politics, the problematics of poststructuralist and feminist approaches to art, the emergence and re‐emergence of theories of the sublime, and the continuing possibility of artistic creativity. The central theme is that there are experiential constants around which art and philosophy constellate. At the same time, however, due account must be given of the ways in which such constants are historically mediated. By articulating various aspects of this relation, it is shown how postmodern sensibility can be more than that of an alienated consumerism. Understood in the proper theoretical context, it is grounded on experiences and artefacts that humanize.Less
Considerable controversy has raged around the question of postmodern culture and its products. This book attempts to overcome some of the antagonistic viewpoints involved by developing themes from the work of Kant, Benjamin, and Merleau–Ponty in the context of themes from contemporary culture. Attention is paid to such topics as the relation between art and politics, the problematics of poststructuralist and feminist approaches to art, the emergence and re‐emergence of theories of the sublime, and the continuing possibility of artistic creativity. The central theme is that there are experiential constants around which art and philosophy constellate. At the same time, however, due account must be given of the ways in which such constants are historically mediated. By articulating various aspects of this relation, it is shown how postmodern sensibility can be more than that of an alienated consumerism. Understood in the proper theoretical context, it is grounded on experiences and artefacts that humanize.
Bonnie Mann
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195187458
- eISBN:
- 9780199786565
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195187458.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
This chapter focuses on a feminist account of the body that returns it to its flesh and blood, while taking into account the theoretical developments that turned the body into a text. Topics ...
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This chapter focuses on a feminist account of the body that returns it to its flesh and blood, while taking into account the theoretical developments that turned the body into a text. Topics discussed include history notes on feminism and the body, Judith Butler's work and the textualization of the body, Butler on Merleau-Ponty, and Merleau-Ponty on the body and place.Less
This chapter focuses on a feminist account of the body that returns it to its flesh and blood, while taking into account the theoretical developments that turned the body into a text. Topics discussed include history notes on feminism and the body, Judith Butler's work and the textualization of the body, Butler on Merleau-Ponty, and Merleau-Ponty on the body and place.
Iris Marion Young
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195161922
- eISBN:
- 9780199786664
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195161920.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
This essay describes experience and oppressions of feminine styles of comportment, tracing in a provisional way some of the basic modalities of feminine body comportment, manner of moving, and ...
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This essay describes experience and oppressions of feminine styles of comportment, tracing in a provisional way some of the basic modalities of feminine body comportment, manner of moving, and relation in space. It highlights the certain observable and rather ordinary ways in which women in society typically comport themselves and move differently from the ways that men do. The account developed here combines the insights of the theory of the lived body as expressed by Merleau-Ponty and the theory of the situation of women as developed by Beauvoir. It limits itself to the experience of women in contemporary advanced industrial, urban, and commercial society, offering specific observations, phenomenlogical interpretation, and implications for an understanding of the oppression of women.Less
This essay describes experience and oppressions of feminine styles of comportment, tracing in a provisional way some of the basic modalities of feminine body comportment, manner of moving, and relation in space. It highlights the certain observable and rather ordinary ways in which women in society typically comport themselves and move differently from the ways that men do. The account developed here combines the insights of the theory of the lived body as expressed by Merleau-Ponty and the theory of the situation of women as developed by Beauvoir. It limits itself to the experience of women in contemporary advanced industrial, urban, and commercial society, offering specific observations, phenomenlogical interpretation, and implications for an understanding of the oppression of women.
Jennifer A. Glancy
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195328158
- eISBN:
- 9780199777143
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328158.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Early Christian Studies
Arguing that social location is a kind of knowledge borne in the body, chapter 1 demonstrates the significance of that insight for a cultural history of Christian origins. The chapter’s theoretical ...
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Arguing that social location is a kind of knowledge borne in the body, chapter 1 demonstrates the significance of that insight for a cultural history of Christian origins. The chapter’s theoretical framework relies on the practice-oriented social theory of Pierre Bourdieu and the phenomenologically oriented approaches of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Linda Martín Alcoff. The inevitable cultural habituation of bodies—what is known as habitus—inclined Christians of the first centuries toward certain social arrangements rather than others and facilitated particular patterns of theological reflection. At the same time, what is known in the body exceeds social location; corporal knowing thus has an excessive quality, a claim explored at greater length in chapter 4. Central claims of chapter 1 are illustrated through a close reading of the story of the Syrophoenician woman in the Gospel of Mark.Less
Arguing that social location is a kind of knowledge borne in the body, chapter 1 demonstrates the significance of that insight for a cultural history of Christian origins. The chapter’s theoretical framework relies on the practice-oriented social theory of Pierre Bourdieu and the phenomenologically oriented approaches of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Linda Martín Alcoff. The inevitable cultural habituation of bodies—what is known as habitus—inclined Christians of the first centuries toward certain social arrangements rather than others and facilitated particular patterns of theological reflection. At the same time, what is known in the body exceeds social location; corporal knowing thus has an excessive quality, a claim explored at greater length in chapter 4. Central claims of chapter 1 are illustrated through a close reading of the story of the Syrophoenician woman in the Gospel of Mark.
Jennifer A. Glancy
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195328158
- eISBN:
- 9780199777143
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195328158.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Early Christian Studies
Chapter 4 examines the earliest representations of Mary in childbirth in writings dating from the second and early third centuries, including Odes of Solomon, Ascension of Isaiah, Protevangelium of ...
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Chapter 4 examines the earliest representations of Mary in childbirth in writings dating from the second and early third centuries, including Odes of Solomon, Ascension of Isaiah, Protevangelium of James, and works by Tertullian. In a period in which Mary is not yet canonized as a uniquely sinless Eve, her virginity is interpreted in multiple and complex ways. Mary’s childbearing body is located in the context of both ancient and modern discourses about childbirth. Drawing theoretically on the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty as well as feminist philosophers including Elizabeth Grosz, Luce Irigiray, and Julia Kristeva, chapter 4 considers the parturient body—Mary’s body and, by extension, the bodies of other childbearing women—as a site of corporal knowledge. Corporal knowing begins in the womb.Less
Chapter 4 examines the earliest representations of Mary in childbirth in writings dating from the second and early third centuries, including Odes of Solomon, Ascension of Isaiah, Protevangelium of James, and works by Tertullian. In a period in which Mary is not yet canonized as a uniquely sinless Eve, her virginity is interpreted in multiple and complex ways. Mary’s childbearing body is located in the context of both ancient and modern discourses about childbirth. Drawing theoretically on the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty as well as feminist philosophers including Elizabeth Grosz, Luce Irigiray, and Julia Kristeva, chapter 4 considers the parturient body—Mary’s body and, by extension, the bodies of other childbearing women—as a site of corporal knowledge. Corporal knowing begins in the womb.
Monika Szuba
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474450607
- eISBN:
- 9781474477093
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474450607.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
Contemporary Scottish Writers and the Natural World examines the work of four Scottish poets – John Burnside, Kathleen Jamie, Robin Robertson and Kenneth White – in the light of philosophical ...
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Contemporary Scottish Writers and the Natural World examines the work of four Scottish poets – John Burnside, Kathleen Jamie, Robin Robertson and Kenneth White – in the light of philosophical considerations of the subject’s relation to the natural world and environmental thought. Drawing in particular on the phenomenological work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty on embodiment and Martin Heidegger on dwelling, the study explores the organic intimate interrelation between the self and the world, including human and non-human relations. The poets’ work is discussed in the context of the main premises of the phenomenological tradition that address the self’s relation with the world, focusing in particular on the sense of place, the vegetal and animal worlds, and foregrounding the dialogue between poetics, the subject and the landscape. The study considers a chiasmic human-non-human animal intertwining as particularly important in the poetry because of its lived experience of the world. Proposing a theoretically-informed discussion, which includes various modes of ecocritical apprehension, it analyses the subject’s perception of intimacy with the materiality of the natural world and the role of language in the registration of perceptual experience as explored in contemporary Scottish poetry.Less
Contemporary Scottish Writers and the Natural World examines the work of four Scottish poets – John Burnside, Kathleen Jamie, Robin Robertson and Kenneth White – in the light of philosophical considerations of the subject’s relation to the natural world and environmental thought. Drawing in particular on the phenomenological work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty on embodiment and Martin Heidegger on dwelling, the study explores the organic intimate interrelation between the self and the world, including human and non-human relations. The poets’ work is discussed in the context of the main premises of the phenomenological tradition that address the self’s relation with the world, focusing in particular on the sense of place, the vegetal and animal worlds, and foregrounding the dialogue between poetics, the subject and the landscape. The study considers a chiasmic human-non-human animal intertwining as particularly important in the poetry because of its lived experience of the world. Proposing a theoretically-informed discussion, which includes various modes of ecocritical apprehension, it analyses the subject’s perception of intimacy with the materiality of the natural world and the role of language in the registration of perceptual experience as explored in contemporary Scottish poetry.
David Woodruff Smith and Amie L. Thomasson (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199272457
- eISBN:
- 9780191709951
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272457.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Philosophical work on the mind flowed in two streams through the 20th century: phenomenology and analytic philosophy. The phenomenological tradition began with Brentano and was developed by such ...
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Philosophical work on the mind flowed in two streams through the 20th century: phenomenology and analytic philosophy. The phenomenological tradition began with Brentano and was developed by such great European philosophers as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau–Ponty. As the century advanced, Anglophone philosophers increasingly developed their own distinct styles and methods of studying the mind, and a gulf seemed to open up between the two traditions. This volume aims to bring them together again, by demonstrating how work in phenomenology may lead to significant progress on problems central to current analytic research, and how analytical philosophy of mind may shed light on phenomenological concerns. Leading figures from both traditions contribute specifically written essays on such central topics as consciousness, intentionality, perception, action, self-knowledge, temporal awareness, and mental content. This book demonstrates that these different approaches to the mind should not stand in opposition to each other, but are mutually illuminating.Less
Philosophical work on the mind flowed in two streams through the 20th century: phenomenology and analytic philosophy. The phenomenological tradition began with Brentano and was developed by such great European philosophers as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau–Ponty. As the century advanced, Anglophone philosophers increasingly developed their own distinct styles and methods of studying the mind, and a gulf seemed to open up between the two traditions. This volume aims to bring them together again, by demonstrating how work in phenomenology may lead to significant progress on problems central to current analytic research, and how analytical philosophy of mind may shed light on phenomenological concerns. Leading figures from both traditions contribute specifically written essays on such central topics as consciousness, intentionality, perception, action, self-knowledge, temporal awareness, and mental content. This book demonstrates that these different approaches to the mind should not stand in opposition to each other, but are mutually illuminating.
David Woodruff Smith and Amie L. Thomasson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199272457
- eISBN:
- 9780191709951
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272457.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
This volume involves both disciplinary and historical issues, and aims to integrate results and methods of the two disciplines in the interest of philosophy as a whole. There has been a long-standing ...
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This volume involves both disciplinary and historical issues, and aims to integrate results and methods of the two disciplines in the interest of philosophy as a whole. There has been a long-standing assumption that — for historical, methodological, or doctrinal reasons — analytic philosophy of mind has little in common with the tradition of phenomenology that began with Brentano, and which was developed by Husserl and continued through such figures as Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau–Ponty. This volume overturns that assumption by demonstrating how work in phenomenology may lead to progress on problems central to both classical phenomenology and contemporary philosophy of mind. Specifically, the essays gathered here (all written for the volume) bring ideas from classical phenomenology into the recent debates in philosophy of mind, and vice versa, in discussions of consciousness, intentionality, perception, action, self-knowledge, temporal awareness, holism about mental state contents, and the prospects for ‘explaining’ consciousness.Less
This volume involves both disciplinary and historical issues, and aims to integrate results and methods of the two disciplines in the interest of philosophy as a whole. There has been a long-standing assumption that — for historical, methodological, or doctrinal reasons — analytic philosophy of mind has little in common with the tradition of phenomenology that began with Brentano, and which was developed by Husserl and continued through such figures as Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau–Ponty. This volume overturns that assumption by demonstrating how work in phenomenology may lead to progress on problems central to both classical phenomenology and contemporary philosophy of mind. Specifically, the essays gathered here (all written for the volume) bring ideas from classical phenomenology into the recent debates in philosophy of mind, and vice versa, in discussions of consciousness, intentionality, perception, action, self-knowledge, temporal awareness, holism about mental state contents, and the prospects for ‘explaining’ consciousness.
Taylor Carman
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199272457
- eISBN:
- 9780191709951
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272457.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
Dennett's intellectualist theory of consciousness trades on an equivocation between weaker and stronger claims that might be leveled against traditional psychology and epistemology. Only the weaker ...
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Dennett's intellectualist theory of consciousness trades on an equivocation between weaker and stronger claims that might be leveled against traditional psychology and epistemology. Only the weaker claims find support in the empirical evidence to which he appeals. Merleau–Ponty, by contrast, while also dismissive of pure qualia, argues that intellectualism takes for granted the constancy hypothesis by making sensory qualities dependent in principle on sensory stimuli. O'Regan and Noë advance an alternative ‘sensorimotor’ approach to perception that remains behavioristic, like Dennett's theory, by describing perceptual experience as constituted by a knowledge of causal contingencies between sensory inputs and behavioral outputs. But perception is not just what we do, it's what we are. Phenomenology is inescapable, since it is what allows us to specify at the outset what any theory of perception or consciousness must be a theory of.Less
Dennett's intellectualist theory of consciousness trades on an equivocation between weaker and stronger claims that might be leveled against traditional psychology and epistemology. Only the weaker claims find support in the empirical evidence to which he appeals. Merleau–Ponty, by contrast, while also dismissive of pure qualia, argues that intellectualism takes for granted the constancy hypothesis by making sensory qualities dependent in principle on sensory stimuli. O'Regan and Noë advance an alternative ‘sensorimotor’ approach to perception that remains behavioristic, like Dennett's theory, by describing perceptual experience as constituted by a knowledge of causal contingencies between sensory inputs and behavioral outputs. But perception is not just what we do, it's what we are. Phenomenology is inescapable, since it is what allows us to specify at the outset what any theory of perception or consciousness must be a theory of.
Charles Siewert
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199272457
- eISBN:
- 9780191709951
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199272457.003.0014
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind
In Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau–Ponty holds that sensory consciousness of place exhibits an indeterminacy that shows it is, in a sense, non-representational. But he thinks this does not ...
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In Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau–Ponty holds that sensory consciousness of place exhibits an indeterminacy that shows it is, in a sense, non-representational. But he thinks this does not preclude its having a kind of intentionality. This chapter offers an interpretation and defense of this view. Directing visual attention involves changes to the phenomenal character of experience that cannot be specified by attributing verbal or imagistic content to it. In that sense the character of experience is non-representational. And partly because our anticipation of future experience is not to be construed in terms of beliefs incorporating sensorimotor conditionals, these attentional changes in experience are not conceivable independently of the exercise of sensorimotor skills. However, experience is assessable as correct or illusory in virtue of having such character. Thus, visual experience has, in virtue of its phenomenal character, a distinctively sensorimotor kind of intentionality.Less
In Phenomenology of Perception, Merleau–Ponty holds that sensory consciousness of place exhibits an indeterminacy that shows it is, in a sense, non-representational. But he thinks this does not preclude its having a kind of intentionality. This chapter offers an interpretation and defense of this view. Directing visual attention involves changes to the phenomenal character of experience that cannot be specified by attributing verbal or imagistic content to it. In that sense the character of experience is non-representational. And partly because our anticipation of future experience is not to be construed in terms of beliefs incorporating sensorimotor conditionals, these attentional changes in experience are not conceivable independently of the exercise of sensorimotor skills. However, experience is assessable as correct or illusory in virtue of having such character. Thus, visual experience has, in virtue of its phenomenal character, a distinctively sensorimotor kind of intentionality.
Leonard Lawlor
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823226535
- eISBN:
- 9780823235742
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823226535.003.0008
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter argues that what Merleau–Ponty is attempting to do, perhaps in all of his work, is to reconceive sensing, to use Merleau–Ponty's French, to reconceive, sentir. ...
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This chapter argues that what Merleau–Ponty is attempting to do, perhaps in all of his work, is to reconceive sensing, to use Merleau–Ponty's French, to reconceive, sentir. But to do this, one must privilege a particular sense, more precisely, a specific experience. It argues that Merleau–Ponty privileges vision—and one should not overlook the ambiguity of this term.Less
This chapter argues that what Merleau–Ponty is attempting to do, perhaps in all of his work, is to reconceive sensing, to use Merleau–Ponty's French, to reconceive, sentir. But to do this, one must privilege a particular sense, more precisely, a specific experience. It argues that Merleau–Ponty privileges vision—and one should not overlook the ambiguity of this term.
Sean D. Kelly
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195386196
- eISBN:
- 9780199866748
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386196.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
When we perceive an object or one of its properties, it is natural to think that the perception involves a representation of the thing or property seen. This paper argues that perception necessarily ...
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When we perceive an object or one of its properties, it is natural to think that the perception involves a representation of the thing or property seen. This paper argues that perception necessarily involves more. In particular, perceptual experience already involves a kind of normative self-referentiality. That is to say, it is part of the very experience of the size, shape, or color of an object, for example, that I am drawn to improve the experience by changing the distance to or angle of presentation of the object, or the lighting context in which it is seen. Perception, in other words, already involves a normative engagement with the object perceived.Less
When we perceive an object or one of its properties, it is natural to think that the perception involves a representation of the thing or property seen. This paper argues that perception necessarily involves more. In particular, perceptual experience already involves a kind of normative self-referentiality. That is to say, it is part of the very experience of the size, shape, or color of an object, for example, that I am drawn to improve the experience by changing the distance to or angle of presentation of the object, or the lighting context in which it is seen. Perception, in other words, already involves a normative engagement with the object perceived.
Andrew Inkpin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262033916
- eISBN:
- 9780262333955
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262033916.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Language
This book examines the disclosive function of language—what language does in revealing or disclosing the world. It takes a phenomenological approach to this question, defined by the need to accord ...
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This book examines the disclosive function of language—what language does in revealing or disclosing the world. It takes a phenomenological approach to this question, defined by the need to accord with the various experiences speakers can have of language. Based on this commitment, it develops a phenomenological conception of language with important implications for both the philosophy of language and recent work in the embodied-embedded-enactive-extended (4e) tradition of cognitive science. The book draws extensively on the work of Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, showing how their respective conceptions of language can be combined to complement each other within a unified view. From the early Heidegger, it extracts a basic framework for a phenomenology of language, comprising both a general overall picture of the role of language and a more specific model of the disclosive function of words. Merleau-Ponty’s views are used to explicate the generic “pointing out”—or presentational—function of linguistic signs in more detail, while the late Wittgenstein is interpreted as providing versatile means to describe their many pragmatic uses. Having developed this unified phenomenological view, the book then explores its broader significance, arguing that it goes beyond the conventional realism/idealism opposition, that it challenges standard assumptions in mainstream post-Fregean philosophy of language, and that it makes a significant contribution not only to the philosophical understanding of language but also to 4e cognitive science.Less
This book examines the disclosive function of language—what language does in revealing or disclosing the world. It takes a phenomenological approach to this question, defined by the need to accord with the various experiences speakers can have of language. Based on this commitment, it develops a phenomenological conception of language with important implications for both the philosophy of language and recent work in the embodied-embedded-enactive-extended (4e) tradition of cognitive science. The book draws extensively on the work of Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, showing how their respective conceptions of language can be combined to complement each other within a unified view. From the early Heidegger, it extracts a basic framework for a phenomenology of language, comprising both a general overall picture of the role of language and a more specific model of the disclosive function of words. Merleau-Ponty’s views are used to explicate the generic “pointing out”—or presentational—function of linguistic signs in more detail, while the late Wittgenstein is interpreted as providing versatile means to describe their many pragmatic uses. Having developed this unified phenomenological view, the book then explores its broader significance, arguing that it goes beyond the conventional realism/idealism opposition, that it challenges standard assumptions in mainstream post-Fregean philosophy of language, and that it makes a significant contribution not only to the philosophical understanding of language but also to 4e cognitive science.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199244973
- eISBN:
- 9780191697425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244973.003.0004
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
To be alienated is to be estranged from something. In the case of abstract art, its critics have held that such works are alienated in the sense of embodying a flight from reality into a vacuous ...
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To be alienated is to be estranged from something. In the case of abstract art, its critics have held that such works are alienated in the sense of embodying a flight from reality into a vacuous realm of theory, which renders them unintelligible to the majority of people. This chapter argues that the former claim is true only in a restricted sense, and that, if freed from this restriction, the latter claim need not apply. Section I outlines a theory of alienation inspired by Schiller, but derived substantially from Merleau-Ponty and Hegel, with some nods towards Marx and Heidegger. Section II relates this to the theoretical justifications offered by some abstract artists for their work, and suggests that, whilst such theories do indeed involve an element of alienation, this is irrelevant from an aesthetic point of view. Section III argues further that, grounded in terms of a complex notion of aesthetic experience, abstract artworks actually turn out to be disalienating in both ontological and political terms.Less
To be alienated is to be estranged from something. In the case of abstract art, its critics have held that such works are alienated in the sense of embodying a flight from reality into a vacuous realm of theory, which renders them unintelligible to the majority of people. This chapter argues that the former claim is true only in a restricted sense, and that, if freed from this restriction, the latter claim need not apply. Section I outlines a theory of alienation inspired by Schiller, but derived substantially from Merleau-Ponty and Hegel, with some nods towards Marx and Heidegger. Section II relates this to the theoretical justifications offered by some abstract artists for their work, and suggests that, whilst such theories do indeed involve an element of alienation, this is irrelevant from an aesthetic point of view. Section III argues further that, grounded in terms of a complex notion of aesthetic experience, abstract artworks actually turn out to be disalienating in both ontological and political terms.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199244973
- eISBN:
- 9780191697425
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199244973.003.0007
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
This chapter discusses Merleau-Ponty's theory of painting, outlined in his final published paper, ‘Eye and Mind’ (1961). The theory embodies some of the crucial changes which had taken place in his ...
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This chapter discusses Merleau-Ponty's theory of painting, outlined in his final published paper, ‘Eye and Mind’ (1961). The theory embodies some of the crucial changes which had taken place in his overall philosophical position since The Phenomenology of Perception (1945). Section I traces the development of Merleau-Ponty's overall philosophical position, and Section II relates it to the development of his theory of painting as exemplified in the essays ‘Cezanne's Doubt’ (1945), ‘Indirect Language and the Voices of Silence’ (1952), and ‘Eye and Mind’. Section III evaluates Merleau-Ponty's theory of painting, and argues that whilst ‘Eye and Mind’ offers acute insights into the links between vision and painting, it needs to be supplemented by a development of some of the points made in his earlier work.Less
This chapter discusses Merleau-Ponty's theory of painting, outlined in his final published paper, ‘Eye and Mind’ (1961). The theory embodies some of the crucial changes which had taken place in his overall philosophical position since The Phenomenology of Perception (1945). Section I traces the development of Merleau-Ponty's overall philosophical position, and Section II relates it to the development of his theory of painting as exemplified in the essays ‘Cezanne's Doubt’ (1945), ‘Indirect Language and the Voices of Silence’ (1952), and ‘Eye and Mind’. Section III evaluates Merleau-Ponty's theory of painting, and argues that whilst ‘Eye and Mind’ offers acute insights into the links between vision and painting, it needs to be supplemented by a development of some of the points made in his earlier work.
Mark A. Wrathall
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195327939
- eISBN:
- 9780199852444
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327939.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Moral Philosophy
This chapter offers a phenomenological interpretation and development of Nietzsche's observation that “a perspectival, deceptive character belongs to existence”. It uses Merleau–Ponty and Heidegger ...
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This chapter offers a phenomenological interpretation and development of Nietzsche's observation that “a perspectival, deceptive character belongs to existence”. It uses Merleau–Ponty and Heidegger to explore what it means to experience perceptual deception and asks to what degree are people themselves responsible for the deceptions that occur in perceptual experience. It holds that “the phenomenology of deception points us to the inherently meaningful structure of the perceptual world”. Through studying how these deceptions occur, people realize how deeply they are mentally and creatively engaged with perceptual phenomena.Less
This chapter offers a phenomenological interpretation and development of Nietzsche's observation that “a perspectival, deceptive character belongs to existence”. It uses Merleau–Ponty and Heidegger to explore what it means to experience perceptual deception and asks to what degree are people themselves responsible for the deceptions that occur in perceptual experience. It holds that “the phenomenology of deception points us to the inherently meaningful structure of the perceptual world”. Through studying how these deceptions occur, people realize how deeply they are mentally and creatively engaged with perceptual phenomena.
Christian Gilliam
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474417884
- eISBN:
- 9781474435178
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474417884.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
Christian Gilliam argues that a philosophy of ‘pure’ immanence is integral to the development of an alternative understanding of ‘the political’; one that re-orients our understanding of the self ...
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Christian Gilliam argues that a philosophy of ‘pure’ immanence is integral to the development of an alternative understanding of ‘the political’; one that re-orients our understanding of the self toward the concept of an unconscious or ‘micropolitical’ life of desire. He argues that here, in this ‘life’, is where the power relations integral to the continuation of post-industrial capitalism are most present and most at stake.
Through proving its philosophical context, lineage and political import, Gilliam ultimately justifies the conceptual necessity of immanence in understanding politics and resistance, thereby challenging the claim that ontologies of ‘pure’ immanence are either apolitical or politically incoherent.Less
Christian Gilliam argues that a philosophy of ‘pure’ immanence is integral to the development of an alternative understanding of ‘the political’; one that re-orients our understanding of the self toward the concept of an unconscious or ‘micropolitical’ life of desire. He argues that here, in this ‘life’, is where the power relations integral to the continuation of post-industrial capitalism are most present and most at stake.
Through proving its philosophical context, lineage and political import, Gilliam ultimately justifies the conceptual necessity of immanence in understanding politics and resistance, thereby challenging the claim that ontologies of ‘pure’ immanence are either apolitical or politically incoherent.
Hunter Vaughan
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231161336
- eISBN:
- 9780231530828
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231161336.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This text interweaves phenomenology and semiotics to analyze cinema's ability to challenge conventional modes of thought. Merging Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception with Gilles ...
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This text interweaves phenomenology and semiotics to analyze cinema's ability to challenge conventional modes of thought. Merging Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception with Gilles Deleuze's image-philosophy, the text applies a rich theoretical framework to a comparative analysis of Jean-Luc Godard's films, which critique the audio-visual illusion of empirical observation (objectivity), and the cinema of Alain Resnais, in which the sound-image generates innovative portrayals of individual experience (subjectivity). Both filmmakers radically upend conventional film practices and challenge philosophical traditions to alter our understanding of the self, the world, and the relationship between the two. Films discussed in detail include Godard's Vivre sa vie (1962), Contempt (1963), and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967); and Resnais's Hiroshima mon amour (1959), Last Year at Marienbad (1961), and The War Is Over (1966). Situating the formative works of these filmmakers within a broader philosophical context, the book pioneers a phenomenological film semiotics linking two disparate methodologies to the mirrored achievements of two seemingly irreconcilable artists.Less
This text interweaves phenomenology and semiotics to analyze cinema's ability to challenge conventional modes of thought. Merging Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception with Gilles Deleuze's image-philosophy, the text applies a rich theoretical framework to a comparative analysis of Jean-Luc Godard's films, which critique the audio-visual illusion of empirical observation (objectivity), and the cinema of Alain Resnais, in which the sound-image generates innovative portrayals of individual experience (subjectivity). Both filmmakers radically upend conventional film practices and challenge philosophical traditions to alter our understanding of the self, the world, and the relationship between the two. Films discussed in detail include Godard's Vivre sa vie (1962), Contempt (1963), and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967); and Resnais's Hiroshima mon amour (1959), Last Year at Marienbad (1961), and The War Is Over (1966). Situating the formative works of these filmmakers within a broader philosophical context, the book pioneers a phenomenological film semiotics linking two disparate methodologies to the mirrored achievements of two seemingly irreconcilable artists.
Paul Crowther
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198236238
- eISBN:
- 9780191597268
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198236239.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Aesthetics
A critique of Derrida's approach to language using ideas from Merleau–Ponty. Focuses on an extended reappraisal of the notion of différance, and stresses the continuity that exists between perception ...
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A critique of Derrida's approach to language using ideas from Merleau–Ponty. Focuses on an extended reappraisal of the notion of différance, and stresses the continuity that exists between perception and our reading of texts and other symbolic formations. This continuity stabilizes presence and meaning, and is grounded on our existence as embodied beings.Less
A critique of Derrida's approach to language using ideas from Merleau–Ponty. Focuses on an extended reappraisal of the notion of différance, and stresses the continuity that exists between perception and our reading of texts and other symbolic formations. This continuity stabilizes presence and meaning, and is grounded on our existence as embodied beings.
