Representation and Sensibility. The Rancière-Lyotard Debate on Art If representation means making something present again, what is its relationship to sensibility, especially in art? Could the work of art represent our sensory inputs, or does such representation always fall short of the adequate re-presentation of the sensory? The debate on representation and sensibility has been reopened within a new framework with Rancière’s distinction between three historical regimes of art. This article sets out by casting doubt on Rancière’s assumption that representation (...) could be reduced to one of these three regimes. Secondly, discussion turns to Rancière’s criticism of Lyotard’s notion of unrepresentability, particularly with regard to ‘Auschwitz’. Thirdly, the question is put why these two authors have such different readings of Kant’s aesthetics: Rancière’s choice for beauty is actually a choice for representation, whereas to Lyotard, the unrepresentable sublime creates the space for the event in our sensibility. Finally, it is shown that Rancière, though acknowledging a tension between ‘spirit’ and ‘letter’, ignores the meaning of avant-garde art, whereas Lyotard distrusts realistic, representative art. (shrink)

In one of the essays in his recent book on Christianity, La déclosion (2005), Nancy discusses the relationship between Judaism and Christianity. Nancy opens this discussion with a reference to Lyotard’s book on this relationship: Un trait d’union (1993). Both Lyotard and Nancy examine a very early figure in the emergence of Christianity from Judaism—whereas Lyotard focuses on the epistles of Paul, Nancy reads the epistle of James. Lyotard concludes that the hyphen in the expression ‘Judeo-Christian’ actually conceals ‘the most (...) impenetrable abyss within Western thought’. With this abyss, Lyotard refers to the point of departure of Judaism: the event in which a Voice has left behind letters, inaugurating an interminable work of interpretation. For Nancy, however, it is rather Christianity, and therefore, Western culture, which is deconstructive in nature. Its composition is co-original with a decomposition, and therefore, with an openness. In James, Nancy finds an emphasis on praxis, in such a way that existence is to be understood as transcendent within itself. With this reading of James, Nancy seems to deny that there is a fundamental difference between Judaism and Christianity. In order to clarify the differences between Lyotard and Nancy, it is shown that, in Lyotard’s view, an unsublatable alterity comes with aisthèsis, whereas in Nancy’s view, alterity comes with existence as such. (shrink)

Heidegger’s geophilosophy In Heidegger’s ‘Black Notebooks’, his geophilosophy, the fact that he attributes a crucial importance to different places, becomes more evident than in his other works. The effect of this geophilosophy is that ontological difference – the key point of Heidegger’s thinking – is mixed up with, or replaced by, ontic differences. If in Being and Time Dasein’s ‘ground’ is an openness to Being, later this word often refers to Germany as a specific country. In 1939, just before the (...) start of World War II, Hölderlin’s view of the relationship between ‘the own’ and ‘the foreign’ inspires Heidegger to see the possibility of a complementary relationship between the German and the Russian people. During and after World War II, Heidegger’s criticism of ‘Western’ metaphysics is strongly colored by his hostility to England, France and the U.S.A. In response to metaphysical universalism he relates different types of it to specific regions on earth. Remarkably, his criticism of metaphysics brings him to both support and criticize the notion of race. (shrink)

A long and persistent consideration of Heidegger's involvement with Nazism can be found in the work of the French philosopher Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe . Starting from a re-evaluation of mimesis as a productive relationship between technè and physis, Lacoue-Labarthe detects in mimesis an original supplementarity, forgotten by metaphysics. According to Lacoue-Labarthe, Heidegger respects this supplementarity bothin Sein und Zeit and in 'The Origin of the Work of Art' , whereas Heidegger's Rectorial Address of 1933 represents a retroversion into metaphysics. In this (...) article, I argue that Lacoue-Labarthe's diagnosis is correct, where he proves that Heidegger's Address is dominated by 'onto-typology', i.e. a desire to have the Gestalt of the German people presented. However, first of all I show that also — what I call — 'onto-physiology' is important in Heidegger's metaphysical thinking in the Address. Second, I show that not all of the Address is a repetition of western metaphysics: notably Heidegger's treatment of knowledge cannot be taken to be metaphysical. A final question is whether Heidegger's involvement with Nazism coincides with his falling back into metaphysics. In fact, Lacoue-Labarthe gives cause for believing this is not the case and that Heidegger's Nazism is to be found just as much in his retreat from metaphysics. (shrink)

Hoofdstukken over het maatschappijbeeld van verschillende filosofen en filosofische stromingen, waarbij de begrippen macht en rationaliteit centraal staan.