The Barbarian Principle

Description

Toward the end of his life, Maurice Merleau-Ponty made a striking retrieval of F. W. J. Schelling's philosophy of nature. The Barbarian Principle explores the relationship between these two thinkers on this topic, opening up a dialogue with contemporary philosophical and ecological significance that will be of special interest to philosophers working in phenomenology and German idealism.
Acknowledgments
Sigla

Part I. Orientations

1. The Reawakening of the Barbarian Principle
Jason M. Wirth

2. Prefatory Meditations
Patrick Burke

Part II. Schelling and Nature

3. Unfolding the Hidden Logos (Or: Much Ado about Nothing)
Joseph P. Lawrence

4. Schelling on Plato’s Timaeus
Kyriaki Goudeli

5. On the Relation Between Nature and History in Schelling’s Freedom Essay and Spinoza’s Thelogico-Political Treatise
Jeffrey A. Bernstein

6. Eternal Times: Schelling on Creation, Contemporaneity, and the Unconscious
Vasiliki Tsakiri

Part III. Merleau-Ponty and Schelling in Conversation

Section 1: Overviews

7. Être sauvage and the Barbarian Principle: Merleau-Ponty’s Reading of Schelling
Robert Vallier

8. Être brut or Nature: Merleau-Ponty Surveys Schelling
Josep Maria Bech

Section 2: Particular Themes

9. Freedom as the Experience of Nature: Schelling and Merleau-Ponty on the Open Space in Nature
Annette Hilt

10. Finding the Body’s Place in Nature: Merleau-Ponty on Schelling’s “Phenomenology of Pre-Reflective Being”
Angelica Nuzzo

11. Nature and Self-Knowledge: On Schelling’s Ambiguous Role in Merleau-Ponty’s The Concept of Nature
Carolyn Culbertson

12. Reading the Barbarous Source: Merleau-Ponty’s Structural History and Schelling
Stephen H. Watson

13. Nature’s Inside
Bernard Flynn

Section 3: Art and Nature

14. Listening for the Voice of the Light: Mythical Time through the Musical Idea
Jessica Wiskus

15. The Eye and the Spirit of Nature: Some Reflections on Merleau-Ponty’s Reading of Schelling Concerning the Relationship between Art and Nature
Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback

16. The Art of Nature: On the Agony of the Will in Schelling and Merleau-Ponty
Jason M. Wirth

Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Philosophie
• Épistémologie
• Philosophie de l'esprit
• Sciences de la nature
• Sciences de l'environnement
• Epistémologie
• Epistémologie
• Epistémologie
• Philosophy
• Vladimir Vernadsky

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 04 septembre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438448480
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Barbarian Principle
SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy

Dennis J. Schmidt, editor
The Barbarian Principle
Merleau-Ponty, Schelling, and the Question of Nature
Edited by
Jason M. Wirth
with
Patrick Burke
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2013 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The barbarian principle : Merleau-Ponty, Schelling, and the question of nature / edited by Jason M. Wirth with Patrick Burke.
pages cm. — (SUNY series in contemporary continental philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “Essays explore a rich intersection between phenomenology and idealism with contemporary relevance”—Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4847-3 (alk. paper)
1. Philosophy of nature. 2. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1908–1961. 3. Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von, 1775–1854. I. Wirth, Jason M., 1963– editor of compilation.
BD581.B355 2013
113—dc23
2012047515
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Elizabeth Bledsoe Sikes, the principle in Barbarian Principle
Contents
Acknowledgments
Sigla
Part I Orientations
CHAPTER ONE The Reawakening of the Barbarian Principle
Jason M. Wirth
CHAPTER TWO Prefatory Meditations
Patrick Burke
Part II Schelling and the Question of Nature
CHAPTER THREE Unfolding the Hidden Logos (Or: Much Ado about Nothing)
Joseph P. Lawrence
CHAPTER FOUR Schelling on Plato’s Timaeus
Kyriaki Goudeli
CHAPTER FIVE On the Relation Between Nature and History in Schelling’s Freedom Essay and Spinoza’s Theologico-Political Treatise
Jeffrey A. Bernstein
CHAPTER SIX Eternal Times: Schelling on Creation, Contemporaneity, and the Unconscious
Vasiliki Tsakiri
Part III Merleau-Ponty and Schelling in Conversation
Section 1: Overviews
CHAPTER SEVEN Être sauvage and the Barbarian Principle: Merleau-Ponty’s Reading of Schelling
Robert Vallier
CHAPTER EIGHT Être brut or Nature: Merleau-Ponty Surveys Schelling
Josep Maria Bech
Section 2: Particular Themes
CHAPTER NINE Freedom as the Experience of Nature: Schelling and Merleau-Ponty on the Open Space in Nature
Annette Hilt
CHAPTER TEN Finding the Body’s Place in Nature: Merleau-Ponty on Schelling’s “Phenomenology of Pre-Reflective Being”
Angelica Nuzzo
CHAPTER ELEVEN Nature and Self-Knowledge: On Schelling’s Ambiguous Role in Merleau-Ponty’s The Concept of Nature
Carolyn Culbertson
CHAPTER TWELVE Reading the Barbarous Source: Merleau-Ponty’s Structural History and Schelling
Stephen H. Watson
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Nature’s Inside
Bernard Flynn
Section 3: Art and Nature
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Listening for the Voice of the Light: Mythical Time through the Musical Idea
Jessica Wiskus
CHAPTER FIFTEEN The Eye and the Spirit of Nature: Some Reflections on Merleau-Ponty’s Reading of Schelling Concerning the Relationship between Art and Nature
Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback
CHAPTER SIXTEEN The Art of Nature: On the Agony of the Will in Schelling and Merleau-Ponty
Jason M. Wirth
Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
We would like to raise a glass of Brunello in thanks to our colleagues and friends at both Seattle University and Gonzaga University in Florence for their ongoing support. We also would like to express our gratitude to Chiasmi International where an earlier version of Robert Vallier’s essay appeared as “ Être Sauvage and the Barbaric Principle: Merleau-Ponty’s Reading of Schelling” ( Chiasmi International , vol. 2 [2000], 83–107). Finally, at a time of unprecedented global rage against our earth, we would like to offer this volume as a small and properly barbarian contribution to what Gary Snyder felicitously dubbed a “practice of the wild.”
Sigla
Frequently cited works by Merleau-Ponty and Schelling adhere to the following sigla. Less frequently used editions by these authors, as well as all other works by other authors, are cited in the respective endnotes.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
French citations AD1 Les aventures de la dialectique . Paris: Gallimard, 1955. EP Éloge de la philosophie . Paris: Gallimard, 1953. N1 La nature: Notes, cours du Collège de France . Edited by Dominique Séglard. Paris: Seuil, 1995. NC Notes des cours, 1959–1961 . Edited by Stéphanie Ménasé. Paris: Gallimard, 1996. O L’oeil et l’esprit . Paris: Gallimard, 1964. PP1 Phénoménolgie de la perception . Paris: Gallimard, 1945. RC Résumés de cours, Collège de France 1952–1960 . Paris: Gallimard, 1968. SNS1 Sens et non-sens . Paris: Nagel, 1948; reprint: Paris: Gallimard, 1996. S1 Signes . Paris: Gallimard, 1960. SC La structure du comportement . Presses universitaires de France, 1942. VI1 Le visible et l’invisible . Edited by Claude Lefort. Paris: Gallimard, 1964.
English translation citations AD2 The Adventures of the Dialectic . Translated by Joseph Bien. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973. EM Eye and Mind . Translated by Carleton Dallery. In: The Primacy of Perception . Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1964, 159–190. IPP In Praise of Philosophy . Translated by John Wild and James M. Edie. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1963. Includes Themes from the Lectures at the Collège de France, 1952–1960 . MPA The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader: Philosophy and Painting . Edited by Galen Johnson. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1993. This collection includes the new translation of Eye and Mind by Michael Smith. N2 Nature: Course Notes from the Collège de France . Translated by Robert Vallier. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2003. PP2 The Phenomenology of Perception . Translated by Colin Smith. London: Routledge Kegan Paul, 1962; New York: Humanities Press, 1962. PRP The Primacy of Perception . Edited and translated by James Edie. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1964. PW The Prose of the World . Translated by John O’Neill. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1973. S2 Signs . Translated by Richard C. McCleary. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1964. SNS2 Sense and Non-Sense , trans. Hubert L. Dreyfus and Patricia Allen Dreyfus. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1964. SB The Structure of Behavior . Translated by Alden Fisher. Boston: Beacon, 1963. Reprinted: Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1983. VI2 The Visible and the Invisible . Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1968.
FWJ Schelling
German citations
Where possible, citations follow the standard pagination, which adheres to the original edition established after Schelling’s death by his son, Karl. It lists the division, followed by the volume, followed by the page number. Hence, (I/1, 1) would read, division I, volume 1, page 1. This pagination is preserved in Manfred Schröter’s critical reorganization of this material. Schellings Sämtliche Werke . Stuttgart-Augsburg: J.G. Cotta 1856–1861; Schellings Werke: Nach der Originalausgabe in neuer Anordnung . Edited by Manfred Schröter. Munich: C.H. Beck, 1927.
Frequently cited English translations AW The Ages of the World , third draft (1815). Translated by Jason Wirth. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2000. F1 Freedom Essay. Translated by James Gutmann. Philosophical Inquiries into the Nature of Human Freedom . LaSalle, IL: Open Court, 1936. F2 Freedom Essay. Translated by Pricilla Roy. Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom and Related Matters . In: Philosophy of German Idealism: Fichte, Jacobi, and Schelling . Edited by Ernst Behler. New York: Continuum, 1987. F3 Freedom Essay. Translated by Jeff Love and Johannes Schmidt. Philosophical Investigations into the Essence of Human Freedom . Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006. STI The System of Transcendental Idealism (1800). Translated by Peter Heath. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978.
PART I
Orientations
CHAPTER ONE
The Reawakening of the Barbarian Principle
Jason M. Wirth
φύσις κρύπτεσθαι φιλεῖ
—Heraclitus (DK frag. 123) 1
In what follows, I would like to speak both to our motivation for this collection of essays and then to the character of the essays themselves.
I
In his provocative essay in Signs on Husserl and the problem of non-philosophy and non-phenomenology, “The Philosopher and His Shadow,” Merleau-Ponty takes up the question of what eludes philosophy but which cannot nonetheless be dismissed from philosophy. “What resists phenomenology within us—natural being, the ‘barbarian’ source Schelling spoke of—cannot remain outside phenomenology and should have its place within it. The philosopher must bear his shadow, which is not simply the factual absence of future light” (S2, 178). 2 In the working notes to the Visible and the Invisible , Merleau-Ponty proposes a “psychoanalysis of Nature” that takes up the question of the “ever new” and “always the same” in Nature, that is, “the barbarian principle” (VI2, 267), that which haunts the face of Nature.
Let us be clear: To take up the project of a psychoanalysis of Nature is to enter into an analytic relationship with the ψυχή of Nature, but that in turn assumes that Nature is both whole (Nature as such is thinkable) and animated. In a sense, it asks that we reengage the anima mundi of the Ancients, Nature as a living creature, animated by its ψυχή or anima . Otherwise, what is there to psychoanalyze? At the same time, the sensibilities that have largely governe