« C’est une question de point de vue… » On associe aujourd’hui la perspective à l’individualisme, à l’affirmation d’une vérité privée et indépassable. C’est oublier la tradition de la perspectiva communis, celle qui fait de la perspective le vecteur d’un horizon commun. Au croisement de la science, de l’art et de la philosophie, le livre exhume une tradition que l’on se doit de redécouvrir : le point de vue, ce n’est pas seulement ce qui divise, c’est aussi ce qui se partage. Au l...

Las imágenes siempre han provocado reacciones ambivalentes. Sean miradas fascinadas o repulsión iconoclasta, las imágenes sin embargo raramente fueron vistas como verdaderas fuentes de conocimiento. Hoy en día, parece que la crítica tradicional del espectáculo ha dado paso a una aceptación incondicional de lo visual. Sin embargo, no es en absoluto obvio que nuestras interacciones cotidianas con las imágenes también implican que entendemos cómo funcionan. La imagen diáfana recorre la histor...

This book is a defense of perspectivism in the age of post-truth. At the crossroads of science, art, and philosophy, it unearths a tradition that we must rediscover: the point of view is not only what divides, it is also what is shared.Today, perspective is associated with individualism and personal viewpoints. But in an age of post-truth, the only robust answer to relativism lies in fact in a reappraisal of perspectivism. In discussion with contemporary new realisms of various sor...

In this book, Emmanuel Alloa offers a handrail for venturing into the complexities of the work of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–61). Through a comprehensive analysis of the three main phases of Merleau-Ponty’s thinking and a thorough knowledge of his many unpublished manuscripts, the author traces how Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy evolved and exposes the remarkable coherence that structures it from within.Alloa teases out the continuity of a motive that traverses ...

Images have always stirred ambivalent reactions. Yet whether eliciting fascinated gazes or iconoclastic repulsion from their beholders, they have hardly ever been seen as true sources of knowledge. They were long viewed as mere appearances, placeholders for the things themselves or deceptive illusions. Today, the traditional critique of the spectacle has given way to an unconditional embrace of the visual. However, we still lack a persuasive theoretical account of how images work.E...

Images have always stirred ambivalent reactions. Yet whether eliciting fascinated gazes or iconoclastic repulsion from their beholders, they have hardly ever been seen as true sources of knowledge. They were long viewed as mere appearances, placeholders for the things themselves or deceptive illusions. Today, the traditional critique of the spectacle has given way to an unconditional embrace of the visual. However, we still lack a persuasive theoretical account of how images work.E...

Pensar lo visual antropológicamente conlleva comprender las formas en que distintos pueblos alrededor del mundo se han enfrentado a lo que hacen las imágenes –no siempre diferenciada de la escritura–, así como el lugar que se les ha asignado en la vida y en la muerte, en la «cultura» y en la «naturaleza». La reflexión resultante lleva indefectiblemente a interrogar el estatuto de lo humano, y su transformación concomitante a las mutaciones de lo visual, una vez que las imágenes se obtienen...

Assesses the importance of Merleau-Ponty to current and ongoing concerns in contemporary philosophy.Maurice Merleau-Ponty is widely recognized as one of the major figures of twentieth-century philosophy. The recent publication of his lecture courses and posthumous working notes has opened new avenues for both the interpretation of his thought and philosophy in general. These works confirm that, with a surprising premonition, Merleau-Ponty addressed many of the issu...

This book critically engages with the idea of transparency whose ubiquitous demand stands in stark contrast to its lack of conceptual clarity. The book carefully examines this notion in its own right, traces its emergence in Early Modernity and analyzes its omnipresence in contemporary rhetoric. Today, transparency has become a catchword outplaying other Enlightenment values like empowerment, sincerity and the notion of a public sphere. In a suspicious manner, transparency is entangled in ...