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Introduzione

2024-03-20T08:14:06+00:00

Presentazione

2024-03-20T08:15:18+00:00

Dai Frammenti sulla filosofia e la storia della filosofia

2024-03-20T14:39:48+00:00

La questione della temporalità dalla corporeità alla carne

2024-03-20T08:52:55+00:00

This essay discusses the conception of temporality elaborated by Merleau-Ponty in the Phenomenology of Perception, in order to show that this question is central to understanding the entire project configured by Merleau-Ponty in the first phase of his work, i.e. since The Structure of behavior, which represents the necessary complement to correctly understand the theses of the major work. But starting from the results acquired from the investigation, it can be seen how since that work Merleau-Ponty actually laid the foundations for a radicalization of the concept of temporality in the direction of the ontology of later writings, in particular of The Visible and the Invisible, the outcome of which unfortunately was not completed by the author.

Storia come campo e come dimensione del corpo: freccia e circolo, tradizione e innovazione in Maurice Merleau-Ponty

2024-03-20T14:40:26+00:00

Starting from some considerations about the present historical situation, characterized by the ecological crisis and the end of the globalization as it has been known in the last thirty years, an attempt is made to reintroduce the concept of history, against the idea of “the end of history” which had course since the Nineties. It is from this point of view that Merleau-Ponty’s theorization of history, especially in The Visible and the Invisible and in some courses of the College de France (Institution. Passivité, L’Origin of geometrie de Husserl), is reconsidered. A particular stress is given to the model of “circle-array”, which is present – even if not in these literal terms – in the philosopher’s theory of history and a parallel with the history’s models of Huizinga, Riegl and Kracauer is proposed, to clarify the concept of “simultaneity of times” and of “omnitemporality”, which are fundamental in Merleau-Ponty’s vision.

Parola del corpo e corpo della parola. Espressione, percezione, linguaggio tra Benjamin e Merleau-Ponty

2024-03-20T14:40:48+00:00

A convergence between Benjamin’s and Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of language is given by the two authors’ critique of the instrumental and functionalist (semiotic) conception of language, which neglects its ‘physiognomic’, mimetic, gestural and expressive aspects. Drawing on a common frame of reference, Benjamin and Merleau-Ponty investigate both the “word of the body”, i.e. the origin of language from synaesthetic and multisensory corporeity, and “the body of the word”, i.e. the capacity that the linguistic signifier has to be, at the same time, the communicative instrument of an abstract meaning, and the expressive medium of a concrete meaning, which offers itself to perception. For both, such a non-instrumental conception of language – typically hermeneutic – finds its highest expression in both poetic-literary writing and the particular style of exposition that is characteristic of authentic philosophical meditation.

Un’architettura di segni. Il pensiero di Merleau-Ponty tra fenomenologia ed ermeneutica

2024-03-20T14:41:08+00:00

This essay wants to show how Merleau-Ponty opens a middle path, which may appear both phenomenological and hermeneutic, between the two extremes of a vision that encompasses all otherness and prevents all development by crystallizing the figures of knowledge and the world, on the one hand, and a thought that avoids questioning the transcendence and the overflow of phenomena, thus reducing itself to silence, on the other. In his writings and in the transcripts of the courses, we witness the awareness of the dialectical dynamics between world and language, self and other, map and territory, which emerge in the very formulation of a question – or from the very fact that a question must be formulated. The world of perception is both the world in which perception occurs and the world that perception is made up of. The slightest rational questioning about one’s own perception implies an “architecture of signs”, a complex system of words, concepts, forms of writing, gestures, dialogic or interpretative acts that are part of the world and, together, cooperate in its practical and theoretical organization.

Beyond the Digital: The Virtuality of the Flesh in Merleau-Ponty’s The Visibile and the Invisible

2024-03-20T14:41:30+00:00

This paper aims to find, in Merleau-Ponty’s late thinking, a definition of the virtual which aligns with the latest advancements in digital technology while avoiding a reduction to the digital realm or a stark opposition to reality. The virtual is considered as a crucial characteristic in Merleau-Ponty’s late ontology, especially in The Visible and the Invisible, where a “virtual focus” or “virtual center” of the flesh is introduced. The argument posits that Merleau-Ponty’s monism of the flesh results in a dynamic view of virtuality, with significant ontological implications that reshape the relationship between the digital and the analogue. Merleau-Ponty’s concept of the virtual is defined by several key features: it applies to a monist perspective on reality, to a dynamic relationality between dialectic poles, and to the fabric of reality. This interpretation of the virtual implies a divergence from the digital, as virtuality belongs to the whole spectrum of reality.

Toccare il blu. Tracce di una aptologia a partire da Merleau-Ponty

2024-03-20T14:41:56+00:00

The essay seeks to trace, from the Phenomenology of Perception to The Visible and the Invisible, an itinerary that can reveal the traces of a different way of doing philosophy, certainly belonging to a tradition that we could define, with Jacques Derrida, “a certain philosophical history of touch”. Letting ourselves be stimulated by the reading that Derrida offers in Le Toucher, Jean-Luc Nancy, a tribute text dedicated to his friend, we will try to reconstruct this philosophical history of touch, to compare Merleau-Ponty’s thought with that of Husserl and Nancy on this theme, but also to find perhaps unsuspected legacies from later philosophers.

Nous sommes tous devant le même écran : Merleau-Ponty et l’expérience cinématographique

2024-03-20T14:42:33+00:00

In phenomenological aesthetics, the experience unfolded by the work of art has always been a space for achieving a suspension of our ordinary experience. From this position, we wonder whether we can apply the same power to cinematographic art. Thanks to the various techniques employed by the seventh art, it can inaugurate a particularly successful experience of epoché. Merleau-Ponty succeeds in capturing this potential, interweaving his philosophical project with the event that cinema reveals. It is the possibility, on the one hand, of living a shared experience, and on the other, of immersing ourselves in another experience, taking us out of an exclusively subjective dimension. The analysis of Bresson’s film, Au hasard Balthazar, will help us understand the cinematic vision of the French phenomenologist, who finds in the cinematic medium a veritable interlocutor for his philosophy.

Il corpo come spazio espressivo. La figura del templum divinatorio in Merleau-Ponty

2024-03-20T14:42:56+00:00

The term “to contemplate” originates from the divinatory practice of ornithomancy, the augural observation of the flight of birds, which, alongside the rite of hepatoscopy, the interpretation of the entrails of sacrificial animals, played an important role in Etruscan-Latin ritual practices. The divinatory observation was preceded by the delimitation of a boundary, called templum, within which the signs would assume the meaning of divine omens. Con-templating then is nothing other than the gesture of looking within the boundaries of the templum. This divinatory device is evoked in some passages of Merleau-Ponty’s work in order to illuminate the lived body as an eminently expressive space, which bestows meanings that transcend its objective space, and as a virtual contour that mediates interobjective and intersubjective relations, outlining a topological dimension.

Tracing Thought. The Chiasm of Writing between Derrida and Nishida

2024-03-20T14:43:30+00:00

The purpose of this article is to investigate the plexus between writing and thinking. This goal is pursued through a comparison between the calligraphic practice of Japanese philosopher Nishida Kitarō and Jacques Derrida’s conception of écriture. Although there are some significant differences between the approaches of the two philosophers, both agree in showing how thought is produced inseparably from the bodies that express it and the written signs that convey it. The aesthetic dimension is thus inseparable from the theoretical, like the two edges of différance. The Nishidian notions of kōiteki chokkan 行為的直観 (active intuition) and narikiru 成り切る (knowing by becoming) will thus be explored through dialogue with Derridean notions of différance and écriture.

Cartoline dal fronte. La fotografia di guerra tra anestesia morale e pratica critica della trasparenza in Susan Sontag

2024-03-20T14:43:49+00:00

This essay examines Susan Sontag’s reflections on war photography. Beginning with the observation that much of the world’s conflict is invisible to us, while there are wars that we see in photographs and videos every day, Sontag analyzes the relationship between the beholder and the image that captures the pain and suffering of the others. The essay examines the evolution of Sontag’s thinking about photography from her initial understanding of it as an agent of moral anaesthetization and detachment from a concrete relationship to suffering. Sontag’s thinking turns out to be in part a precursor of Byung-Chul Han’s reflections on the palliative society. However, Sontag moves from an initially “apocalyptic” position of the medium of photography to a reassessment of photography as a critical art, as a medium that enhances empathy, but which must above all contribute to reflection. Only an unsentimental reflection on war photography can help to increase its capacity for protest and its impact on reality. The photographer makes himself transparent, takes away his agency and does not engage in war to show a part of the world; he risks his life to make suffering a source of moral action and of social change. In line with this position, Eyal Weizman also uses the medium of the image to call for instances of justice in war scenarios through forensic architecture.

Fenomenologia dell’esistenza nomade. Una linea di fuga deleuzeana

2024-03-20T08:43:39+00:00

The article delves into the relationship between space and the formation of social groups, with a special focus on nomadic populations. It examines these societies, which are often misunderstood or undervalued by their sedentary counterparts. In doing so, it challenges widespread prejudices and uncovers the intricate cultural dynamics and preferences of nomads. The text dives deep into the ‘nomadic magma,’ highlighting the nomads’ resistance to a simplistic, linear understanding of human history.
Additionally, the article seeks to explore the importance of space in defining a social conglomerate. It questions the prevailing belief that time is more crucial than space in identifying a discernible human collective. This leads to a pivotal inquiry: How do our interactions with the space around us shape the formation of social groups? Specifically, how does our environment and our relationship with it define our lifestyle? This perspective not only sheds light on everyday practices but also reveals the deep cultural, social, and philosophical connotations associated with a nomadic way of life. The methodological foundation of the research is grounded in the “Treatise on Nomadology” from Deleuze & Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus. This is not only implicitly referenced throughout the study but is also directly engaged with in an effort to unravel the characteristics of the ‘nomad science’.

Per un’estetica dell’erranza Marrani, nicodemiti e filosofi in transito nel mondo globalizzato del XVI e XVII Secolo

2024-03-20T08:46:04+00:00

The Jews of Spain, in 1492, were forced to convert to Christianity or leave the country. But even those who agreed to convert, the Marranos, were always persecuted by the Inquisition and often burned at the stake. The Marranos also therefore sought refuge elsewhere.This exodus took them to Portugal, Italy, the Arab countries and the Ottoman Empire, and then, starting from Holland, also to Asia and the Americas. In this way, the Marranos were among the most important actors in trade and relations on a global scale. Furthermore, forced to continuously change religion, status, nation and ideologies, the Marranos are at the basis of the formation of the new subjectivities of the modern age, represented by artists and writers such as Cervantes and Velázquez, by theologians such as Servetus, by philosophers such as Spinoza, by mystics like Teresa of Avila.

L’arte del kintsugi: frammento e totalità nell’estetica giapponese

2024-03-20T14:44:17+00:00

The Japanese art of kintsugi, that is the art of repairing broken or shattered porcelain with precious metals, transforms the shattering of an object into an opportunity for artistic expression. This essay examines the philosophical implications of this technique and shows why the underlying aesthetics is almost incompatible with many of the assumptions of Western aesthetics. Notably, the Buddhist background of this technique does not associate the idea of fragment with any symbolic or allegorical meaning, forbidden by the ultimate horizon of the becoming of reality and, therefore, also of art. From here, other fundamental notions of aesthetics such as those of creation, work of art, expression, etc., also take on a radically different meaning in the aesthetics of kintsugi than in the West.

Il principio di identità tra Heidegger ed Eraclito

2024-03-20T14:44:37+00:00

Abstract: By considering the works of Heidegger and Heraclitus, this paper aims to offer a new reading of the principle of identity. I will discuss how the traditional expression of the law of identity A=A can be thought of as a reductive formulation of the experience of identity. I will argue that the principle of identity can be seen as a dynamic principle that can be recognised as the result of a synthetic inner movement. Therefore, I will attempt to combine a) early Heidegger’s ontology construed on the basis of modality; b) an interpretation of Heraclitus’ fragment 103 and of the notion of ξυνόν; and c) Heidegger’s analysis of the principle of identity. By means of these conceptual steps, it will be possible to discover that the formula “A is A” conceals a rather complex content, which allows us to consider identity as the synthetic result of a dynamic experience.