Redaktionel bemærkning: Følgende Ph.D.-afhandling udkommer i bogform efteråret 2000 på forlaget Multivers. Her bringes indholdsfortegnelsen og det engelske resumé, og interesserede kan indtil videre låne afhandlingen gennem Odense Universitetsbibliotek; - kommentarer og spørgsmål kan rettes til forfatteren selv via dette link.
ODENSE UNIVERSITET Januar 1998 Institut for Filosofi Ph.D.-afhandling:
Naturæstetik og filosofisk hermeneutik af Esben Buus Steffensen Vejleder:
Lektor Niels Thomassen, Filosofi.
Indholdsfortegnelse:
0. Indledning. 2
0.1 Konteksten 4 0.2 Filosofiske medspillere. 5 0.2.1 Seel. 6 0.2.2 Løgstrup. 10 0.2.3 Gadamer. 12 0.2.4 Peirce. 13 0.2.5 Habermas. 13
0.3 Problemformulering. 14 0.4 Disposition. 16
1. del: Sansning. 18
Kapitel 1: Seels teori. 18
1.1 Om æstetisk iagttagelse af natur. 18 1.2 Æstetisk naturiagttagelse og kunst. 23 1.3 Det naturskønnes analytik. 27
1.3.1 Kontemplation. 29 Kontemplation af objekter. 32 Kontemplation af rum. 34 1.3.2 Korrespondens. 36 1.3.3 Imagination. 42 1.4 Subjektet og de æstetiske betragtningsmåders enhed. 47
Kapitel 2: Løgstrups teori. 53
2.1 Den analoge metafysiske orden. 54 2.2 Antropocentrisme og -morfisme. 57
2.3 Sansningens selvstændighed, uformidlethed og afstandsløshed. 61 2.4 Kontemplation. 67 2.5 Korrespondens. 75 2.6 Imagination. 79 2.6.1"Lokalløse" følelsers og tankers fiktive rum. 83
2.6.2 Kunst som improvisation eller som fiktion. 86 2.6.3 Æstetisk suspension og sinds-"bevægelse". 90 2.7 Korrespondens-rummets æstetik og etik. 92 2.8 Sammenfatning og konklusion. 97
2.8.1 Sansning og (handlings-)rationalitet. 98
2. del: Forståelse.102
Kapitel 3: Mening: artikulation og tegn.102
3.1 Peirces semiotik.109 3.1.1 Indledning.109 3.1.2 Den semiotiske pyramide-model.110
Figur 1: Pyramide-modellen111 Figur 2: Gyldighedsfordringer118 3.1.3 Videnskab og sandhed.119 3.1.4 Begrebet "diskursivt univers".121 3.1.5 Diskursivt univers og metafysik.124
3.1.6 Diskursivt univers og perception.136 Ekskurs om vaner, krop og betydning.140 3.1.7 Tegntyper og artikulationsformer.142 Ikoner.143 Indekser.148 Symboler.151
3.1.8 Opsummering og perspektivering.155 Peirce og Seel.157
3.2 Gadamers hermeneutik.164
3.2.1 Fortolkning og sandhed som betinget skabelse.170 3.2.2 Sansningen, "det æstetiske" og kunsten.177 3.2.3 Tegn, billeder og symboler.183 3.2.4 Opsummering og perspektivering.189
3.3 Sammenfatning: Menings-, sags- og andre sammenhænge.193
3. del: Vurdering og værdsættelse.199
Kapitel 4: Værdi: smag, interesser og gyldighed.199
4.1 Værdifilosofiske traditioner og begreber.199 4.2 Værdifilosofi og kommunikativ handlingsteori.209 4.2.1 Habermas.209 4.2.2 Seel, Thomassen og Løgstrup.221 4.3 Æstetiske og etiske vurderinger af naturen.231
4.3.1 Kontemplationens værdier.232 4.3.2 Korrespondensens værdier.234 4.3.3 Imaginationens værdier.237 4.3.4 Naturskønhedens værdier.240 4.4 Æstetiske og teleologiske begreber om lykken og det gode liv.243
4.4.1 Indledning.244 4.4.2 Det teleologiske lykkebegreb: realisering af fastlagte ønsker, mål og livsudkast.255
4.4.3 Det æstetiske lykkebegreb: fyldte øjeblikke og transcen- derende ønsker/mål.260 4.4.4 Handlings- el. praksisformer, som er afgørende for
livets kvalitet.262
4.5 Opsummering: Natur, værdier og moral.266
Kapitel 5: Afslutning og resumé: Naturen som grænse, medspiller og kilde
til fornyelse.274
English summary.281
Forbemærkning til bilagene:287
Bilag 1: Kontemplation (af objekter).288
Bilag 2: Kontemplation (af rum).289 Bilag 3: Korrespondens (skøn el. positiv).290 Bilag 4: Korrespondens (skøn el. positiv).291 Bilag 5: Korrespondens (hæslig el. negativ).292
Bilag 6: Korrespondens (hæslig el. negativ).293 Bilag 7: Imagination (skøn el. positiv).294 Bilag 8: Imagination (skøn el. positiv).295 Bilag 9: Imagination (hæslig el. negativ).296
Bilag 10: Kontemplation, korrespondens og imagination.298
English summary: The title of this thesis is Aesthetics of nature and philosophical hermeneutics, and the following two questions constitute its starting point:
1) Is it possible to give a philosophical description of the relations between sense perception (sensation/observation), understanding, and assessment (appreciation) of nature which points towards a theory of the good life ?
2) Which role, if any, can the experience of especially natural beauty play within a communicative ethics of nature ? Does this experience contain a normativity and a demand for recognition of the conditions of life of other human beings, and of animals ?
Philosophical ethics, when understood as investigations of both the right social practice and the individually good life, is the final theme and goal of the present thesis, which thereby touches upon theoretical as well as practical philosophy.
The essential question in relation to ethics is: How shall I act ? Ever since antiquity answers to this question have often been given on the basis of one out of two possible conceptions of the good life: either the good life has been considered as a life of activity and action, called vita activa, or as a life of passive observation and consideration, called vita contemplativa.
Contemplation, however, also contains a
special form of activity or action, namely a delightful or pleasant observation that in the philosophical theories of the antique world was often regarded as oriented primarily towards a non-sensational intelligible world. Plato
and Aristotle, among others, considered contemplation as containing an aim or a goal in itself, and therefore as a kind of praxis. Contrary to this, poiesis was a teleological activity, well-known from work or labour, which was
oriented towards a goal or aim outside the working process itself, for example the manufacturing of some predefined product or result. Ethics, however, is not only a question of active or passive conduct of life, but is
also concerned with the values that are pursued in the various ways of living. In other words, ethics is concerned with and attended to the preservation of particular values. In antiquity questions about the constitution, or
origin, of such values were often quickly transformed into an account of human and non-human nature. For Aristotle, however, an important step before this was the investigation of human praxis, that is the intersubjective and
communicative activities in which the performance and exercise of (human) values takes place.
This perspective is shared by the present thesis and
constitutes the starting point for descriptions of other activities such as "pure" (or "aesthetic") sense perception/sensation (in German: Wahrneh- mung, and in ancient Greek: aisthesis). From this follows that
(outer and inner) nature and its qualities is also here primarily investigated in an indirect manner, namely in connection with different sorts of human activities or actions. The present thesis is however not aristotelian in a
traditionel sense. Following the works of the German philosopher Martin Seel (born 1954, and teaching at the universities of Hamburg and Giessen) it seeks to define a formal and immanent goal of human life that can be called
world-open autonomy. In continuation of certain strains of phenomenological, hermeneutical and wittgensteinian philosophy, Seel regards himself as "post-metaphysician" but nevertheless tries to reconstruct what he
himself calls a universalism of the good (and the good life). He has published two books on this subject: Eine Ästhetik der Natur, (in English: An Aesthetics of Nature), Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1991, and Versuch über die Form
des Glücks, (in English: Essay on the Form of Happiness), Suhrkamp, F.a.M. 1995.
In part 1 of the present thesis Seel is contrasted with the Danish theologian and philosopher K.E. Løgstrup (1905-81). Løgstrup has formulated what could be called a modern metaphysics based on an intersubjective and communicative perspective. Løgstrup´s metaphysics has been strongly criticised, but nevertheless it has also inspired contemporary danish philosophers such as Niels Thomassen, University of Odense, to formulate a so-called communicative ethics (see: Thomassen: Communicative Ethics in Theory and Practice, Macmillan Press, London 1992).
I have compared Seel´s and Løgstrup´s theories of sense perception or sensation, especially as regards their partially different views of so-called aesthetical contemplation. For Seel this is a specific modern type of sense perception based on approximately pure (eventually synaesthetical) sensuous impressions. To Løgstrup the interesting point about sensation as such is that it points towards a metaphysical and speculative concept of sense perception which with Seels terminology could be called theoretical (or "metaphysical") contemplation.
As regards natural beauty, Seel and Løgstrup are offering different theoretical explanations. For Seel, natural beauty is constituted through an interplay of 3 different types of sense perception or sensation, and he stresses the fundamental ambivalence of this type of (normative) experience. For Løgstrup the mode of sensation which by Seel is called correspondence, is of fundamental importance not only for the experience of natural beauty, but also for the human way of being in the world as such. Beyond the aesthetical contemplation and correspondence, Seel also describes a so-called imaginative mode of sensation in relation to nature. The three modes are in this thesis illustrated by enclosed copies of works of art.
In part 2 the concept of nature is considered in
relation to human forms of signification and verbal articulation. Two other philosophers (and human scientists) are now introduced, mainly because Seel has not written very much on the subject of philosophy of language, and
semantics. I therefore use the American semiotician Ch.S. Peirce´s (1839-1914) theory of sign-production as presented by the Danish semiotician, Jørgen Dines Johansen, University of Odense, in his: Dialogic Semiosis. An Essay on
Signs and Meaning, Indiana University Press, Indianapolis 1993. The purpose is to achieve concepts for the understanding of the interplay between (immediate, dynamical and final) objects of signification and the various types of
signs and processes of articulation which can be distinguished theoretically and scientifically. Peirce´s theory also contains basic phenomenological concepts as regards the nearness, or proximity, of sensuous experience in
relation to the phenomena that are being articulated. The next step is an attempt to combine (or prolonge) this semiotic approach with Hans-Georg Gadamers philosophical hermeneutics, which is based on a holistic theory
of meaning and understanding. In doing so, I am able to point towards a possible way out of the problem which the exclusive orientation of Gadamers hermeneutics towards text-interpretation implies, namely a tendency towards
idealism of language. Peirce, by the way, named a part of his own semiotic theory "hermeneutics", and in Johansens exposition and interpretation I find a clarification of the different aspects of validity in relation to
signification, articulation and understanding.
In the hermeneutics of Gadamer nature is considered a partner or fellow player whose own "rhytms" are important for at least certain kinds of language-use, especially lyrical poetry. "Within" language nature, so to speak, shows up in relation to especially the sign-type which Gadamer calls the "picture" (in German: Bild): when we, by the reception of a work of art (for example a piece of literature), tend to dwell on the sensuous qualities of a presented "picture", this contemplative activity produces a kind of new reality that, according to Gadamer, has metaphysical implications, and is called by him a "primeval picture" (in German: Urbild).
In part 3 the overall theme is human assessment (or appreciation) of nature, or "otherness". A brief sketch is made of the main traditions within philosophy of value, namely teleological and deontological ethics. This is followed by a theoretical interplay which introduces elements from the theory of communicative action put forward by the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas. Habermas´ theory has, at specific points, been criticised by Seel, Thomassen, Johansen and others. Nevertheless, I am interested in possible consequences of this type of communicative theory of action for the philosophy of value, and especially for a theory of the good life.
At this point, Løgstrup enters the stage again (accompanied by Thomassen), because he has argued in favour of an ethical theory which represents a kind of third way i relation to the two just mentioned. This proposal I compare briefly with Habermas and with Seel´s sketch of a post-metaphysical and eudamonistic (happiness-) ethics, and then I go on with a further explanation of Seels three main types of assessment of nature, namely the assessments based on aesthetical contemplation, aesthetical correspondence, or aesthetical imagination. The conclusion to this is that the experience of natural beauty - as the supreme normative form of so-called "aesthetical nature" - includes a positive appreciation of contingencies which are given by or related to perceivable sensuous qualities of natural, that is: more or less selfsustained objects and spaces (landscapes).
The form of this normative experience is furthermore of great importance for the assessment of the value or quality of a total human life, including its separate incidents and situations. But here the normativity of natural beauty is not the only kind of normativity; the intersubjective and communicative relations to other human beings contain another type of normativity associated with the recognition of mutual rights. These two types of normativity, that is the individually good and the socially right, are according to Seel fundamentally different and can only be associated more or less partly on the basis of this (insoluble) tension.
This tension also lies behind the two possible concepts of human happiness, namely the teleological and the asthetical concept, which by the way can be seen as transfigurations of the ancient concepts of a vita activa and vita contemplative. The teleological concept focuses on human actions as being consciously oriented towards the achievement of preestablished goals and thereby contributing to the happiness of the person. Contrary to this, the aesthetical concept is related to contemplation in so far as this implies openness and awareness of unexpected (aesthetical) qualities of the moment and situation. Seel´s ambition is however to make a theoretical unification of the two concepts (or dimensions) of human happiness, and the result is his own conception of a world-open autonomy.
In trying to unfold this conception he describes four distinct types of human action that are indispensable as (if only virtual) dimensions of a good life, namely: work (in German: Arbeit), interaction (in German: Interaktion), play (in German: Spiel), and contemplation (in German: Betrachtung); the last mentioned can be seen as a kind of action which is related to the aesthetical concept of happiness as well as to aesthetical contemplation.
To sum up, mans relations to nature in sensation, understanding, and assessment or appreciation has been investigated as preparation for a theory of the good life.
Nature has through the different steps been examined as a (more or less) selfsustaining aesthetical and sensous aspect of modern culture and modern life-worlds.
But nature has also other, non-aesthetical aspects, and even though
the border between nature and culture/civilization is historical and relative, nature is still capable of exercising resistance (or limitation) towards culturalization and civilization (in a broad sense). I have shown how natural
and other phenomena are relatively autonomous dimensions vis à vis especially the corresponding aesthetical sensation, and in the iconical and indexical modes of signification and articulation the positive qualities of the objects
are relevant in a constitutive manner. Finally, the assessment of nature based on especially the corresponding observation depends (of course) on the actual qualities of the objects and landscapes (spaces). Furthermore, nature
also exercises resistance in non-aesthetical ways: certain forms of human stress can be regarded as a symptom of how mans own (partly historically established) nature reacts to his actual way of life. Examples of non-reactional
expressions of natures own powers are sublime natural phenomena such as a sea or ocean with roaring waves, very tall and rough mountains etc.
From an
aesthetical point of view nature appears as a border towards human activities when observed in a contemplative manner. Nature then becomes strange, mystical or elevated, or perhaps even sacred. The presented analysis of the good
life indicates that it is important for mans own happiness and welfare to let nature now and then appear as a border for human unfolding. This "otherness" of (aesthetical) nature can eventually (still) be brought about by
its being untouched by any man before, or just by its novelty for an actually observing person. Beyond being a negative and relational border for human culture, nature has also inherent (and eventually intrinsic) values
that are accessible through for instance sense perception. Or perhaps it would be more correct to say that certain human activities or modes of relating to, and assessing, specific natural phenomena can be of inherent (or
intrinsic) value. When we place ourselves in a corresponding sensational relation to natural objects and spaces, nature plays the role of a partner whose values and positively given qualities are of vital importance for our own
well-being, prosperity and happiness.
Finally, when we attend to nature in the imaginative (aesthetical) sensation it appears as a source of renewal because of its variety and variation. When we project pictures and signs of art upon natural phenomena and spaces, the variation of nature allows for a possible "answer", or "improvisation". When this happens, our picture of nature tends to change, and with that our interpretation of culture and civilization, too.
The concept of human subjectivity which has here been described as world-open autonomy is related to the presented conception of nature in the following way: subjective identity and autonomy (freedom) should not be seen as absolute (unambiguous) and preestablished entities, but regarded as relative to outer (and inner) nature, as well as to other human beings. Human identity and self-consciousness are embedded in a permanently changing and projecting (life-)history that includes relations to other living entities whom the subject is not from the outset quite familiar with, nor master of.
|