Merleau-Ponty and Nishida

Adam Loughnane

Description

In Merleau-Ponty and Nishida, Adam Loughnane initiates a fascinating new dialogue between two of the twentieth century's most important phenomenologists of the Eastern and Western philosophical worlds. Throughout the book, the reader is guided among the intricacies and innovations of Merleau-Ponty's and Nishida's ontological approaches to artistic expression with a focused look at a rarely explored connection between faith and negation in their philosophies. Exploring the intertwining of these concepts in their broader ontologies invokes a reappraisal of the ambiguous status of religion and art in the writings of both thinkers. Measuring these ambiguities, the ontologies of Flesh and Basho are read in-depth alongside great artworks and the motor-perceptual practices of seminal landscape artists such as Cézanne, Sesshū, Taiga, and Hasegawa, as well as other major figures of European, Chinese, and Japanese art history. Loughnane studies these artists' bodily practices, focusing on the intimate relations realized with the landscapes they paint, and illuminating a valence of their expressive disciplines as a motor-perceptual form of faith. Merleau-Ponty and Nishida is an exciting intercultural reading, expanding two philosophers' projects toward new horizons of research, revealing incitements in their writings that challenge unambiguous distinctions between art, philosophy, faith, and ultimately philosophy East and West.
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments

Introduction Faith, Flesh, and Basho
Nishida between Religion and Philosophy
Merleau-Ponty between Philosophy and Religion
Artistic Expression East and West
Ambiguity, Negation, and Faith

1. Ontology, Ambiguity, and Negation
Motor-Perceptual Fabric: Faith and Transitivity
Nishida and Phenomenology
Substance and Relation: Separation and Non-Obstruction
Nishida's "Absolute Negation"
Negation: Chiasm, "Continuity of Discontinuity"
Merleau-Ponty Counter Sartre's Nullite Absolue
Nishida: "Absolute Negation" and the "I-Thou" Relation
Representation and Perceptual Negation: From Non-Subject to Non-Object

2. Perceptual Fabric: Space, Time, and Light
Vision and Multi-Perspectivalism: Seeing-Seen
Representation, Ocularcentrism, and Multi-Perspectivalism
Multi-Perspectival Perception
The Three Graces
Guo Xi: Angle of Totality
"Dragon Veins": The Visible and Invisible in Daoism
Merleau-Ponty: Multi-Perspectivalism and "Depth"
Time and Negation I: Ecstatic Temporality
Nishida: "Eternal Now" and "Internal-qua-External Perception"
Skin and Bones in Rodin and Taiga
Multi-perspectivalism Creation and Obstruction
The Expanded Body: Vision and Touch
Tool as Non-Objective Bodily Extension
Space: Distance and Proximity
"Distanceless Distance"
Light, Tools, and the Aesthetics of Transparent Mediality
Molyneux's Problem: Obstruction and Light
Nishida: Full Reversibility and Expression
Everything Touching or Nothing at All

3. Motor-Perceptual Fabric: Time and Motion
Sesshū Tōyō: Zen, Vision, and Motion
Cézanne's "Germinations" with the Landscape
Time: From Perception to Motor-Perception
Motion: Volitional Character of the World
Activity-Passivity
Ontologies of Expression
Motor-Background: "Solicitations" and "Unity of Act and Act"
Body and Expression in Time
Nishida's "Historical Body" and "Historical World"
Time and Negation II: "Deep Present" and "Absolute Present"
From Multi-Perspectival to Multi-Volitional
"Optimal Grip" and the Force of Tradition
New Art: Creating the Visible
Copy and Original
"New Art": Objectivity and Faith
Tradition as Historical-Volitional Ecstasis
New Solicitations, New Continuity of Act, and Act
From Creating the Conditions of Visibility to Creating the Conditions of Motor-Visibility
Vision as Motion
Motion as Vision
"Acting-Intuition"
Color(lessness) and Motion(lessness)
Motor-Chromaticity
The Color of Negation

4. Expression as "Motor-Perceptual Faith"
"Seeing without a Seer" and Moving without a Mover
Motor-Perceptual "Blind Spot" as Dynamic Obstruction
Nishida: "Seeing Without a Seer"
Mirroring, Mapping, and Seeing
History of Motor-Visibility
Klee: "End-Forms" and "Formative Forces"
The Invisibility of the Self as "Style" and the Temporality of Risk
Coherent Deformation and the Force of Tradition
Overcoming Reflection, Embracing Risk
Holography, Infinity, and Risk
Reflection and Faith
Spontaneity and Non-Willing
The Materiality of Spontaneous Expression: Bernard Leach and Pottery as Throwing-Thrown
The Fallacy of Motor-Perceptual Neutrality and Uni-Directional Expression
Spontaneity and the Temporality of Risk
The Limits of Reflection and Doubt: The Pre-Reflective and the Necessity of Faith
Faith, Negation, and Volition in the Pre-Reflective
Conclusion: Motor-Perceptual Faith between Philosophy, Religion, and Art
Secularizing the Spiritual: Nishida's "Inverse Polarity" and "Interexpression"
Spiritualizing the Secular: Merleau-Ponty and "Anatheism"

Works Ci

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Esthétique et philosophie de l'art
• Philosophie de la religion
• Philosophy of religion

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 19 décembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438476131
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 15 Mo

Extrait

Merleau-Ponty and Nishida
Merleau-Ponty and Nishida
Artistic Expression as Motor-Perceptual Faith
ADAM LOUGHNANE
Cover image: Sesshū Tōyō (1420–1506), Splashed Ink Landscape, 1495. Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan. (Wikimedia Commons)
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2019 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Loughnane, Adam, 1978– author.
Title: Merleau-Ponty and Nishida : artistic expression as motor-perceptual faith / Adam Loughnane.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018048809 | ISBN 9781438476117 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438476131 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Art and philosophy. | Phenomenology. | Philosophy and religion. | Nishida, Kitarō, 1870–1945. | Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1908–1961.
Classification: LCC BH39 .L68 2019 | DDC 181/.12—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018048809
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
L IST OF I LLUSTRATIONS
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
I NTRODUCTION Faith, Flesh, and Basho
Nishida between Religion and Philosophy
Merleau-Ponty between Philosophy and Religion
Artistic Expression East and West
Ambiguity, Negation, and Faith
C HAPTER 1 Ontology, Ambiguity, and Negation
Motor-Perceptual Fabric: Faith and Transitivity
Nishida and Phenomenology
Substance and Relation: Separation and Non-Obstruction
Nishida’s “Absolute Negation”
Negation: Chiasm, “Continuity of Discontinuity”
Merleau-Ponty Counter Sartre’s Nullité Absolue
Nishida: “Absolute Negation” and the “I-Thou” Relation
Representation and Perceptual Negation: From Non-Subject  to Non-Object
C HAPTER 2 Perceptual Fabric: Space, Time, and Light
Vision and Multi-Perspectivalism: Seeing-Seen
Representation, Ocularcentrism, and Multi-Perspectivalism
Multi-Perspectival Perception
The Three Graces
Guo Xi: Angle of Totality
“Dragon Veins”: The Visible and Invisible in Daoism
Merleau-Ponty: Multi-Perspectivalism and “Depth”
Time and Negation I: Ecstatic Temporality
Nishida: “Eternal Now” and “Internal-qua-External Perception”
Skin and Bones in Rodin and Taiga
Multi-perspectivalism Creation and Obstruction
The Expanded Body: Vision and Touch
Tool as Non-Objective Bodily Extension
Space: Distance and Proximity
“Distanceless Distance”
Light, Tools, and the Aesthetics of Transparent Mediality
Molyneux’s Problem: Obstruction and Light
Nishida: Full Reversibility and Expression
Everything Touching or Nothing at All
C HAPTER 3 Motor-Perceptual Fabric: Time and Motion
Sesshū Tōyō: Zen, Vision, and Motion
Cézanne’s “Germinations” with the Landscape
Time: From Perception to Motor-Perception
Motion: Volitional Character of the World
Activity-Passivity
Ontologies of Expression
Motor-Background: “Solicitations” and “Unity of Act and Act”
Body and Expression in Time
Nishida’s “Historical Body” and “Historical World”
Time and Negation II: “Deep Present” and “Absolute Present”
From Multi-Perspectival to Multi-Volitional
“Optimal Grip” and the Force of Tradition
New Art: Creating the Visible
Copy and Original
“New Art”: Objectivity and Faith
Tradition as Historical-Volitional Ecstasis
New Solicitations, New Continuity of Act, and Act
From Creating the Conditions of Visibility to Creating the Conditions of Motor-Visibility
Vision as Motion
Motion as Vision
“Acting-Intuition”
Color(lessness) and Motion(lessness)
Motor-Chromaticity
The Color of Negation
C HAPTER 4 Expression as “Motor-Perceptual Faith”
“Seeing without a Seer” and Moving without a Mover
Motor-Perceptual “Blind Spot” as Dynamic Obstruction
Nishida: “Seeing Without a Seer”
Mirroring, Mapping, and Seeing
History of Motor-Visibility
Klee: “End-Forms” and “Formative Forces”
The Invisibility of the Self as “Style” and the Temporality of Risk
Coherent Deformation and the Force of Tradition
Overcoming Reflection, Embracing Risk
Holography, Infinity, and Risk
Reflection and Faith
Spontaneity and Non-Willing
The Materiality of Spontaneous Expression: Bernard Leach and Pottery as Throwing-Thrown
The Fallacy of Motor-Perceptual Neutrality and Uni-Directional Expression
Spontaneity and the Temporality of Risk
The Limits of Reflection and Doubt: The Pre-Reflective and the Necessity of Faith
Faith, Negation, and Volition in the Pre-Reflective
Conclusion: Motor-Perceptual Faith between Philosophy, Religion, and Art
Secularizing the Spiritual: Nishida’s “Inverse Polarity” and “Interexpression”
Spiritualizing the Secular: Merleau-Ponty and “Anatheism”
W ORKS C ITED AND B IBLIOGRAPHY
I NDEX
Illustrations 1.1 Andreas Vesalius, “Optic chiasm,” De humani corporis fabrica . 1543 1.2 “Muscle-tendon Chiasm” by the author 2.1 Raphael, The Three Graces . 1505 (Musée Condé, Chantilly, France) 2.2 Guo Xi, Early Spring . 1072 (National Palace Museum, Beijing) 2.3 Hasegawa Tōhaku, Pine Trees . 1595 (Tokyo National Museum) 2.4 Auguste Rodin, The Three Shades . 1886 (Musée Rodin, Paris) 2.5 Ike no Taiga, True Views of Mt. Asama . 1776 (Yabumoto Collection, Japan) 3.1 Sesshū Tōyō, Splashed Ink Landscape . 1495 (Tokyo National Museum) 3.2 Paul Cézanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire . 1904 (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 3.3 Méret Oppenheim, Fur Lined Teacup . 1936 (Museum of Modern Art, New York) 4.1 Eadweard Muybridge, The Horse in Motion . 1878 (Harry Ransom Center, Austin, Texas) 4.2 Théodore Géricault, Epsom Derby . 1821 (Musée du Louvre, Paris)
Acknowledgments
My deepest and most heartfelt gratitude goes to Graham Parkes for the immense support, which made this book possible. Most of this work took form while I was a graduate student under his supervision, and it was his encouragement to develop those ideas into a monograph that has eventually led to this book. As far as unrepayable debts go, I gladly remain indebted to one of the most humane and generous teachers, scholars, and mentors I have had the great luck to encounter within or outside academia.
I would also like to thank the staff, students, and administration in the Philosophy department at University College Cork for their support while carrying out this work. The earliest version of this research benefited greatly from the thoughtful commentary of my examining committee, including Julia Jansen and Brook Ziporyn. The impetus for this project actually began in 2010 with a set of questions provoked by Ziporyn’s writings on Merleau-Ponty and Buddhist philosophy, which put me on a trajectory of research further influenced a year later by Lucy Schultz’s illuminating presentation at the first East–West meeting of the Collegium Phaenomenologicum in Citta di Castello, Italy. My gratitude goes to both for initiating inquiry that has kept me busy for the good part of the last decade.
I must also extend a very special thanks to Professor Kazashi Nobuo for his contribution to my project and his gracious hosting while I worked on this book as a Japan Foundation Post-Doctoral researcher at Kobe University. While in Japan, I was also fortunate to receive the kind support of many whom I must thank, those being Oie Shinya, Okuburi Akiko, Katsube Naoki, and Motobayashi Yoshiaki, as well as the staff in the Graduate Department of Humanities.
I profited significantly from close readings of early drafts by Jason Dockstader and two anonymous readers of the manuscript originally submitted to SUNY. My gratitude also goes to anonymous reviewers from Philosophy East and West and the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy , whose thoughtful readings and insightful criticism were immensely valuable in expanding and strengthening the content of my writing. Ralf Müller deserves special mention for his greatly-appreciated assistance in navigating the language of Nishida’s Zenshū .
I would like to acknowledge the generous support without which I could not have had the time or freedom to complete this work. I thank the Irish Research Council for its patronage while undertaking the initial stages of this project during my Doctoral studies, and the Japan Foundation for a fellowship to continue this research in Japan, and finally to UCC for providing assistance to bring my original manuscript to completion through the CACSSS Research Publication Fund. Many thanks also go to Philosophy East and West , the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy , and Performance Philosophy for permission to reprint material from existing publications.
My thanks go to all others who contributed directly or indirectly to my work. For the many discussions and debates that began in person and continue throughout these pages, and for those who took care of me, offered residencies in their spare bedrooms and kitchen tables, friendship, inspiration, criticism, and support to see me through to the end of this endeavor; those include—but I’m sure not limited to—my parents Don and Anne Marie, my brother Ryan, Matt Miles, David Rafferty, Karen Houle, Scott Marratto, Alexandra Morrison, Alessandro Salice, Frank Chouraqui, Natalie Heller, Jason Dockstader, Alex Robins, Marco Pellitteri, Charis Eisen, and Sergei Gepshtein. Annette Loy deserves special mention for the love, support, and patience that helped see me through the final stages of this work. I would also like to thank my research assistants Ciara O’Mahony and Lauren Walsh-Dermody for their excellent work in h