Article/Publication Details
Views: 5773

HORIZON AND VISION.
THE PHENOMENOLOGICAL IDEA OF EXPERIENCE VERSUS THE METAPHYSICS OF SIGHT

Abstract
Can the nature of «vision» be captured by a metaphysics of sight or only by a phenomenological description of «seeing»? Furthermore, the relation between a metaphysics of sight and a Phenomenology of «seeing» can be presented in two different ways: a relation of continuity as well as of opposition. The first one takes necessarily the Phenomenology of «seeing» as only preparatory for the Metaphysics of sight as such. The second one affirms that we have to do with two opposite ways of questioning the nature of the prominent approach of mankind to the world, the theôrein. The aim of this paper is to show how this second way is possible if and only if we affirm that the Phenomenology of «seeing» is a method to keep away the problems and the paradoxes of the first way and of an a-critical acceptation of the metaphysics of sight. What provides to give to Phenomenology of «seeing» an anti-metaphysical commitment is the idea of horizon as transcendental structure of «seeing». Seeing as «experiencing» as well as «theorizing» became a contextual seeing, essentially related to a contextual situation. More generally, each appearance (phainomenon) consists of a whole system of appearances that are contentless but are also potential manifestations of the same type. The structure of possibility of horizon is a modal (not substantial) structure, denying any possible statement concerning the metaphysical nature of seeing or the possibility of a «metaphysical» seeing as such.

Key words
Theôria, vision, Augustine, inner Space, Husserl, transcendental phenomenology, horizon, mathesis universalis.

References

• Aristotle, (1831–1870). Complete works. Berlin: Prussian Academy of Sciences.
• Aristotle, (1951). Eudemian Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Aristotle, (1962). Nicomachean Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Augustine, (1955). Confessions. Washington: Catholic University of America Press.
• Augustine, (2002). On the Trinity (Books 8–15). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Augustinus, (1845) Enarrationes in Psalmos. In Patrologia Latina (Vol. 36). Paris : Apud Garnier Fratres, Migne.
• Augustinus, (1861). De vera Religione. Liber Unus. In Patrologia Latina (Vol. 34. Col. 0121–0172) (121–173). Paris : Apud Garnier Fratres, Migne.
• Augustinus, (1877). Confessionum Libri Tredecim. In Patrologia Latina (Vol. 32. Col. 0657–0868) (659–868). Paris : Apud Garnier Fratres, Migne.
• Augustinus, (1886). De trinitate libri quindecim. In Patrologia Latina (Vol. 42. Col. 0819–1098) (819–1101). Paris : Apud Garnier Fratres, Migne.
• Augustinus, (1998). Über Schau und Gegenwart des unsichtbaren Gottes. Texte mit Einführung und Übersetzung von Erich Naab. Stuttgart-Bad Canstatt: Frommann-holzboog.
• Barbaras, R. (2008). Introduction à une phénoménologie de la vie. Paris: Vrin.
• Brachtendorf, J. (2000). Die Struktur des menschlichen Geistes nach Augustinus : Selbstreflexion und Erkenntnis Gottes in De trinitate. Hamburg: Meiner.
• Canullo, C. (2004). La fenomenologia rovesciata: percorsi tentati in J.-L. Marion, M. Henry e J.-L. Chrétien. Torino: Rosenberg & Sellier.
• Descartes, R. (1996). Oeuvres Complètes. Vol. 10. Paris: Vrin.
• Fraisopi, F. (2009a). L'ouverture de la vision. Kant et la «phénoménologie implicite» de la Darstellung. Hildesheim — Zürich — New York: Olm.
• Fraisopi, F. (2009b). Expérience et horizon chez Husserl. Contextualité et synthèse à partir concept de «représentation vide». Studia Phaenomenologica, 9, 455–476.
• Fraisopi, F. (2010). Questions de co-intentionnalité. Expérience et structure d'horizon. Bulletin d'analyses phénoménologiques, 8, 46–63.
• Fraisopi, F. (2012). La complexité et les phénomènes. Nouvelles ouvertures entre science et philosophie. Paris: Hermann.
• Frontisi-Ducroux, F., & Vernant, J. P. (1997). Dans l'oeil du miroir. Paris: Odile Jacob.
• Gilson, E. (1988). La philosophie au Moyen Âge. Paris: Payot.
• Heidegger, M. (1990). Metaphysische Anfangsgründe der Logik im Ausgang von Leibniz. (GA 26). Frankfurt a. M: Klostermman.
• Henry, M. (1991). Quatres principes de la phenomenology. Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale, 96 (1), 3–26.
• Henry, M. (2000). Incarnation. Pour une phénoménologie de la chair. Paris: Seuil.
• Herodotus, (1988). The History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
• Husserl, E. (1969). Formal and transcendental Logic. Den Haag: Nijoff.
• Husserl, E. (1973). Cartesianische Meditationen und Pariser Vorträge (Hua I). Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (1975). Logische Untersuchungen. Erster Teil. Prolegomena zur reinen Logik (Hua XVIII). Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff.
• Husserl, E. (2002). Logische Untersuchungen. Ergänzungsband, Erster Teil, Entwürfe zum Umarbeitung der VI. Untersuchung und zur Vorrede für die Neuauflage der Logischen Untersuchungen, (Sommer 1913) (Hua XX/1). Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer.
• Husserl, E. (2012). Ideas. General Introduction to Pure Phenomenology. London: Routledge.
• Jaeger, W. (1939). Paideia: the Ideals of Greek Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Marion, J.-L. (1997). Etant donné. Essai d'une phénomenologie de la donation. Paris: PUF.
• Marion, J.-L. (2004). Réduction et donation. Recherches sur Husserl, Heidegger et la phénoménologie. Paris: PUF.
• Marrou, H.-I. (1958). Saint-Augustin et la fin de la culture antique. Paris: de Boccard.
• Nightingale, A. W. (2004). Spectacles of Truth: Theoria in its Cultural Context. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Plato, (1900). Platonis Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Rausch, H. (1982). Theoria: Von ihrer sakralen zur philosophischen Bedeutung. München: W. Fink.
• Roochnik, D. (2009). What is Theoria? Nicomachean Ethics Book 10.7–8. Classical Philology, 104 (1), 69–82.
• The Holy Bible, (2006). Toronto: Nelson.
• Vernant, J.-P. (1989). L'individu, la Mort, l'Amour. Paris: Gallimard.
• Zahavi, D. (2002). Metaphysical Neutrality in Logical Inverstigations. In D. Zahavi & F. Stiernfelt (Eds.), One Undred Years of Phenomenology (93–108). Dordrecht-Boston-London: Kluwer.