"Groundbreaking when first published in 1969, this book is now of even greater relevance to make the reader aware of the need to educate the visual sense, a ...

This volume provides a valuable discussion of Husserl's lifelong project of the critique of science which makes no attempt to conflate the pre-World War I ...

Cette édition numérique a été réalisée à partir d'un support physique, parfois ancien, conservé au sein du dépôt légal de la Bibliothèque nationale de France, conformément à la loi n° 2012-287 du 1er mars 2012 relative à l'exploitation des Livres indisponibles du XXe siècle. Pages de début Avant-propos La réduction phénoménologique et la double vie du sujet I - Intentionnalité et intersubjectivité 1. Intentionnalité et transcendance (Husserl et Heidegger) 2. Le concept de noème (Husserl) 3. Le monde (Husserl) II - (...) Perception 1. Finitude et téléologie de la perception (Husserl) 2. Perception et herméneutique (Husserl, Cassirer et Heidegger) 3. Perception et vie naturelle (Husserl et Merleau-Ponty) III - Temporalité, historicité, langage 1. Origine du temps et temps originaire (Husserl et Heidegger) 2. La présence du passé (Husserl) 3. L'encadrement du souvenir (Husserl, Proust et Barthes) 4. La voix de son maître (Husserl et Derrida) Conclusion Pages de fin. (shrink)

In the fall of 1957 the University of California Press expanded Arnheim’s 1933 book _Film_ by four essays and brought that landmark work back into print as _Film as Art._ Now nearly fifty years after that re-edition, the book continues to occupy an important place in the literature of film. Arnheim’s method, provocative in this age of technological wizardry, was to focus on the way art in film was derived from that medium’s early limitations: no sound, no color, no three-dimensional (...) depth. (shrink)

The major part of this paper is devoted to the task of showing that Husserl's account of knowledge and truth in terms of a synthesis of fulfilment falls prey neither to a form of “metaphysics of presence” nor to a “myth of interiority” or mentalism. Husserl's presentation of the desire to know, his awareness of irreducible forms of absence at the heart of the intuitive presence of the object of knowledge and his formulation of general rules concerning the possible accomplishment (...) of a synthesis of fulfilment are therefore carefully examined. Special attention is also given to the fact that the determination of knowledge and truth provided by the Sixth Logical Investigation rests on an account of an original interweaving between the thing, consciousness, and language. Unlike in Husserl's earlier and later works, no attempt is thereby made to subordinate any of these three elements involved in all knowledge to one of the others. (shrink)

This essay is an attempt to reconcile the disturbing contradiction between the striving for order in nature and in man and the principle of entropy implicit in the second law of thermodynamics - between the tendency toward greater organization and the general trend of the material universe toward death and disorder.

From the Introduction: The papers collected in this book are based on the assumption that art, as any other activity of the mind, is subject to psychology, accessible to understanding, and needed for any comprehensive survey of mental functioning. The author believes, furthermore, that the science of psychology is not limited to measurements under controlled laboratory conditions, but must comprise all attempts to obtain generalizations by means of facts as thoroughly established and concepts as well defined as the investigated situation (...) permits. Therefore the psychological findings offered or referred to in these papers range all the way from experiments in the perception of shape or observations on the art work of children to broad deliberations on the nature of images or of inspiration and contemplation. It is also assumed that every area of general psychology calls for applications to art. The study of perception applies to the effects of shape, color, movement, and expression in the visual arts. Motivation raises the question of what needs are fulfilled by the production and reception of art. The psychology of the normal and the disturbed personality searches the work of art for manifestations of individual attitudes. And social psychology relates the artist and his contribution to his fellow men. A systematic book on the psychology of art would have to survey relevant work in all of these areas. My papers undertake nothing of the kind. They are due to one man's outlook and interest, and they report on whatever happened to occur to him. They are presented together because they turn out to be concerned with a limited number of common themes. Often, but unintentionally, a hint in one paper is expanded to full exposition in another, and different applications of one and the same concept are found in different papers. I can only hope that the many overlappings will act as unifying reinforcements rather than as repetitions. These papers represent much of the output of the quarter of a century during which I have been privileged to live, study, and teach in the United States. To me, they are not so much the steps of a development as the gradual spelling-out of a position. For this reason, I have grouped them systematically, not chronologically. For the same reason, I did not hesitate to change the words I wrote years ago wherever I thought I could clarify their meaning. Removed from my original intimacy with the content, I approached the text as an unprepared reader, and when I stumbled, I tried to repair the road. In some instances, I recast whole sections, not in order to bring them up to date, but in the hope of saying better what I meant at the time. Some of the earlier papers led to my book, _Art and Visual Perception_, which was written in 1951 and first published in 1954- Sections of the articles on perceptual abstraction, on the Gestalt theory of expression, and on Henry Moore are incorporated in that book. Others continued where the book left off, for instance, the attempts to describe more explicitly the symbolism conveyed by visual form. The short piece on inspiration provided the substance for the introductory chapter on creativity in my more recent book, Picasso's Guernica. Finally, in rereading the material, I was surprised to find how many passages point to what is shaping up as my next task, namely, a presentation of visual thinking as the common and necessary way of productive problem solving in any human activity. Ten of the papers in this book were first published in the _Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism_. To mention this is to express my indebtedness to the only scholarly periodical in the United States devoted to the theory of art. In particular, Thomas Munro, its first editor, showed a great trust in the contribution of psychology. He made me feel at home among the philosophers, art historians, and literary critics whose lively propositions inhabit the hostel he founded and sustained. To him, as well as to my friends of the University of California Press, who are now publishing my fourth book, I wish to say that much of what I thought about in these years might not have been cast into final writing, had it not been for their sympathy, which encouraged the novice and keeps a critical eye on the more self-assured pro. There are a few scientific papers here, originally written for psychological journals but free, I hope, of the terminological incrustation that would hide their meaning from sight. There are essays for the educated friend of the arts. And there are speeches, intended to suggest practical consequences for art education, for the concerns of the artist, and for the function of art in our time. These public lectures are hardly the products of a missionary temperament. In fact, I marveled why anybody would go to a theorist for counsel, illumination, and reassurance in practical matters. However, when I responded to such requests I noticed, bewildered and delighted, that some of my findings pointed to tangible applications, which were taken to be useful. (shrink)

A close link between empathy and understanding has often been attributed to Dilthey, but in fact one seldom finds the German word for empathy—Einfühlung— in his writings. For this and other reasons one should be reluctant to reduce Dilthey’s theory of Verstehen to a form of empathy.1 The relation between Einfühlung and Verstehen is much more explicit in Husserl. By working out what this relation is for Husserl in Book Two of Ideen zu einer reinen Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie and (...) in some other late writings, we can see how phenomenology transformed the aesthetic meaning of Einfühlung, which had been originally established by the psychologist Theodor Lipps. In addition to distinguishing several senses of empathy, I will compare them to a range of related phenomena such as sympathy and pity, divination and transposition, appreciative understanding and critical understanding. (shrink)

In the fall of 1957 the University of California Press expanded Arnheim’s 1933 book _Film_ by four essays and brought that landmark work back into print as _Film as Art._ Now nearly fifty years after that re-edition, the book continues to occupy an important place in the literature of film. Arnheim’s method, provocative in this age of technological wizardry, was to focus on the way art in film was derived from that medium’s early limitations: no sound, no color, no three-dimensional (...) depth. (shrink)

Philosophers have thought more about the nature of thinking than about anything else. After Plato and Aristotle, philosophers’ main concern was to promote good, that is, correct, thinking. Because correct thinking was achieved best in propositional statements, thinking became a matter of logic, and logic became a discipline dealing with the formulation of true predicative sentences.In the twentieth century, many philosophers expressed their dissatisfaction with this view. Some, such as Heidegger, have pointed to the ontological presuppositions of a logic that (...) makes truth a matter of correspondence between predicative sentences and the reality of states of affairs. Other philosophers, such as Deleuze, have .. (shrink)

The influence that the meditations of Husserl's later years may have had on the younger generation is, as yet, difficult to assess. And it is, in fact, not important whether this question can or cannot be answered. Husserl, obviously, was not less sensitive to the problems arising from the intellectual and cultural situation as it developed around 1920, than were those who have emphatically made the Lebenswelt the primary object of their inquiries and the starting point for the reconstruction of (...) philosophy. (shrink)

Language and imagination play a prominent role in Merleau-Ponty’s early reflections on literature. The “literary use of language” is opposed to usual or ordinary language, and it is also assigned the task of rejuvenating the latter. Merleau-Ponty is here openly inspired by Saussure and more secretly by Bergson. Poetic language is said to effect a coherent deformation of a linguistic code and to liberate signifiers from their subordination under a subjective meaning that directly refers to external objects. Literature also illustrates, (...) in exemplary fashion, the creative power of imagination and the effective force of fictions. This is where the discussion with Sartre comes into the picture. The article explores, in particular, what personal identity and the meaning of real facts owe not only to language but also to the imagination of possibilities. It further investigates the different notions of truth that apply to literary works of art. Literature is also shown to undermine the conception of the relation between fact and meaning, actuality and possibility, reality and fiction, truth and semblance in terms of dual oppositions. Most importantly, literary fictions and narratives can make a real change in the life of writers and readers by unfolding their unrealized personal potentialities, by refining their emotional sensibility, and by distancing them from themselves. In all this, an imaginative mode of ‘projection’ plays a central role. Le langage et l’imagination jouent un rôle de premier plan dans les réflexions de Merleau-Ponty sur la littérature. « L’usage littéraire du langage » est opposé au langage usuel ou ordinaire, et la tâche lui est également dévolue de rajeunir ce dernier. Merleau-Ponty s’inspire ouvertement de Saussure et plus secrètement de Bergson. Le langage poétique est dit effectuer une déformation cohérente du code linguistique et libérer les signifiants de leur subordination à une signification subjective qui réfère directement aux objets externes. La littérature illustre également, de manière exemplaire, la puissance créatrice de l’imagination et la force effective de la fiction. Ici la discussion avec Sartre entre en jeu. Mon article explore en particulier ce que l’identité personnelle et la signification des faits réels doit non seulement au langage, mais également à l’imagination des possibilités. Il discute également les différentes notions de vérité qui s’appliquent aux oeuvres d’art littéraires. Je montre aussi que la littérature empêche de concevoir comme des oppositions duelles les relations entre fait et signification, actualité et possibilité, réalité et fiction, vérité et vraisemblance. Par dessus tout, les fictions et narrations littéraires peuvent provoquer de réels changements dans la vie des écrivains et des lecteurs en déployant leurs potentialités personnelles non réalisées, en affinant leur sensibilité émotionnelle et en se distanciant d’eux-mêmes. Dans tout cela, le mode imaginatif de la projection joue un rôle central.Linguaggio e immaginazione rivestono un ruolo centrale nelle prime riflessioni di Merleau-Ponty sulla letteratura. L’“uso letterario del linguaggio” viene opposto al linguaggio ordinario o quotidiano e al primo viene inoltre assegnato l’incarico di rinnovare il secondo; in questo, Merleau-Ponty si ispira apertamente a Saussure e, in modo meno manifesto, a Bergson. Il linguaggio poetico è ritenuto in grado di imprimere una deformazione coerente a un determinato codice linguistico e di liberare i significanti dalla loro subordinazione a un significato soggettivo che si riferisce direttamente a oggetti esterni. La letteratura, inoltre, illustra in modo esemplare il potere creativo dell’immaginazione e la forza effettiva della finzione letteraria. È qui che entra in gioco la discussione con Sartre. Questo articolo esplora, in particolare, ciò che l’identità personale e il significato dei fatti reali debba non solamente al linguaggio, ma anche all’immaginazione delle possibilità; indaga inoltre le diverse nozioni di verità che possono essere applicate all’opera d’arte letteraria. L’articolo mostra poi come la letteratura possa mettere in discussione il carattere di opposizione binaria della relazione tra fatto e significato, attualità e possibilità, realtà e finzione, verità e verisimiglianza. In maniera significativa, le finzioni e le narrazioni letterarie possono cambiare la vita di scrittori e lettori svelando le loro potenzialità personali irrealizzate, raffinando la loro sensibilità emotiva e ponendoli a distanza da se stessi. In tutto questo, una modalità immaginativa di “proiezione” svolge un ruolo di primaria importanza. (shrink)

The Italian translation of R. Virchow’s conference of 1859 "Atome und Individuen". Virchow’s emphasis on the federal structure of the biological individual as composed of "cell-territories" supersedes the previous cellular atomis, and can be considered as a turning point in the establishment of a modular approach to the organism.