The Aesthetic Paths of Philosophy: Presentation in Kant, Heidegger, Lacoue-Labarthe, and Nancy 9781503626188

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THE AESTHETIC PATHS OF PHILOSOPHY

Cultural Memory

m the Present

Mieke Bal and Hent de Vries, Editors

THE AESTHETIC PATHS OF PHILOSOPHY Presentation in Kant, Heidegger, Lacoue-Labarthe, andNancy

Alison Ross

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS STANFORD, CALIFORNIA

2007

Stanford University Press Stanford, California ©2007 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ross, Alison The aesthetic paths of philosophy : presentation in Kant, Heidegger, Lacoue-Labarthe, and Nancy I Alison Ross. p. cm.-( Cultural memory in the present) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-o-8047-5487-3 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-o-8047-5488-o (pbk: alk. paper) r. Aesthetics. I. Title. BH39.R672 2007 n1' .85-dc22 Typeset by Westchester Book Group in n/13.5 Garamond

2006028408

Dedicated to the memory of my mother, Helen M Ross

Contents

Acknowledgments Abbreviations

I.

2. 3· 4· 5· 6.

Xl X111

Introduction: The Aesthetic Paths of Philosophy The Formulation of the Problem of Presentation in Kant' s Doctrine of Taste Pragmatic Anthropology in the Third Critique's Project of Aesthetic Presentation Heidegger' s Reading of Kant and His Historicisation of Relations of Presentation 'Technology' and 'Art' as Relations of Presentation in Heidegger' s Thought Lacoue-Labarthe: Aesthetic Presentation and the Figuring of the Political Nancy: Touching the Limits of Presentation Conclusion: The Path of Presentation

I09 134 165

Notes

169

Bibliography

217

Index

227

I

15 38 6r 90

Acknowledgments

The Arts Faculty at Monash University generously provided a grant to aid in the final preparation of this manuscript. Jeff Davies provided efficient and reliable bibliographic assistance. Arnir Ahmadi compiled the index. An earlier version of Chapter 4 appeared as 'The Work of the ArtWork: Art After Heidegger' s "Origin of the Work of Art" ' in the journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 37, no. 2, May 2006. I would like to thank Dr. Ullrich Haase for his permission to use this material here. Krzysztof Ziarek kindly invited me to participate in a panel on 'Heidegger' s Materialities' held as part of the annual IAPL conference at Syracuse University, USA, in May 2004. This panel was the first opportunity I had to present the reading of Heidegger defended in this book. My greatest debt is to Arnir Ahmadi. His comments on an earlier version of this project helped me to sharpen and refine the position that I argue for here.

Abbreviations

WORKS BY IMMANUEL KANT

CJ

Critique ofjudgment, trans. Werner S. Pluhar (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1987).

CPrR IUH

Critique of Practical Reason, 3rd ed., trans. Lewis White Beck (New York: Macmillan, 1993). 'Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Intent,' in Perpetual Peace and Other Essays on Politics, History and Morals, trans. Ted Humphrey (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983), 291-41.

WORKS BY MARTIN HEIDEGGER

AWP

'The Age of the World Picture' in The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, trans. W. Lovitt (New York: Harper and Row, 1977), II5-55·

FCM

The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude, trans. W. McNeill and N. Walker (Bloomington and

IM

An Introduction to Metaphysics, trans. R. Manheim (New

KB

Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics, trans. Richard T aft

Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995). Haven: Yale University Press, 1959). (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1997). OT&B On Time and Being, trans. J. Stambaugh (New York: Harper and Row, 1972). OWA 'The Origin of the Work of Art' in Poetry, Language, Thought, trans. A. Hofstadter (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), 17-78. PI 'The Principle of Identity' in Identity and Difference, trans. J. Stambaugh (New York: Harper and Row, 1969).

xrv

QCT

SB WIT

Abbreviations 'The Question Concerning Technology' in The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, trans. W. Lovitt (New York: Harper and Row, 1977), 3-35. Schelling's Treatise on the Essence of Human Freedom, trans. J. Stambaugh (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1985). What Is Called Thinking?, trans. J. Glenn Gray (New York: Harper and Row, 1968).

WORKS BY PHILIPPE LACOUE-LABARTHE

PEX TYP

Poetry as Experience, trans. Andrea Tarnowski (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999). 'Typography,' in Typography: Mimesis, Philosophy, Politics, ed. Christopher Fynsk (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998), 43-139·

WORKS BY JEAN-LUC NANCY

BSP

EF

G SW TM

'Of Being Singular Plural,' in Being Singular Plural, trans. Robert D. Richardson and Anne E. O'Byrne (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000), 1-101. The Experience of Freedom, trans. Bridget McDonald (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993). The Gravity of Thought, trans. Fran