Close(r)

Things are progressing here. And I am not just talking about the thesis, but I am talking about that too! I mean in each area of concern to me, things are moving forward! We got couches, my fellowship stipend should be coming in soon, my books are on their way, wedding details are coming together, reading is going well, and I think I may have found my argument for the thesis.

Aristotle and I might have to fight...

In general, flesh and the tongue are related to the organs of touch and taste, as air and water are to those of sight, hearing, and smell. Hence in neither the one case nor the other can there be any perception of an object if it is placed immediately upon the organ, e.g. if a white object is placed on the surface of the eye. This again shows that what has the power of perceiving the tangible is seated inside. Only so would there be a complete analogy with all the other senses. In their case if your lace the object on the organ it is not perceived, here if you place it on the flesh it is perceived; therefore the flesh is the medium of touch. (423b 18-26)

 So, in the passage above Aristotle concedes his first claim that flesh is the sense-organ of touch (423a 15-17: if we take 'body' to represent the whole organism, making the faculty of touch commensurate with the body, melding sense-organ and medium). Instead of taking the flesh to be the organ, he claims that it is seated inside; in fact, in other writings, he claims it is next to the heart. But this argument seems a little ad hoc to me -- touch must be analogous to the other senses, therefore the sense-organ and medium must be distinct entities. Perhaps, I am being a little unfair to Aristotle here, but I want to argue in my thesis for what seems to be his original claim: touch is a unique sense in which the sense-organ and the medium are one and the same. With that being said, I will have to develop why this structure works in other senses and why it doesn't have to apply to the sense of touch. In other words, why is touch unique?

Why this project? Well, I have been fascinated by a phenomenology of exposure for a while now, and it would be an interesting project to be able to develop a view of touch that does explicitly regard expose as its primary essence -- flesh, the organ, is out there. It is exposed. Even in having a medium, the sense of exposure is present for Aristotle, and he makes all animal life dependent on the sense of touch. But I think that in mediating the sense-organ and the object, a double distance is created that acts that a wedge in later philosophies. Meaning the immediacy that is interrupted by posing an internal organ could be further interrupted by posing that the body doesn't sense at all -- it is even further inward: the mind only perceives! Perhaps a slippery slope argument, but one that has played out. It may be my own reaction to the digital age of disembodiment, but I strongly react against dualistic notions or potential dualistic notions. This is something that may have to be reigned in to a degree, but for now it is motivating.

Anyways, I will keep whoever is reading this informed or just continue to work out these crazy and ridiculous thoughts of mine in a digital space (I do appreciate the irony). Peace!

The First Aristotle Articles

Bust of Aristotle. Isn't he great? That beard...

Bibliography

Well, this will be my first post regarding my project explicitly. I read and will be responding to two different articles. The first will be Myles Burnyeat's "De anima II 5." This article was first published in Phronesis, 47, 2002, p. 28-90. The second article is Rebecca Steiner Goldner's "Touch and Flesh in Aristotle's de Anima," published in Epoche: A Journal for the History of Philosophy, Spring, 2011, Vol.15(2), p.435-446. Lastly, Thomas K. Johansen's essay, "What's New in the De Sensu? The Place of the De Sensu in Aristotle's Psychology," found in Common to Body and Soul," edited by RAH King, published by Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, 2006, p. 140-164. Under each article heading, in text references will be given by page number, unless another author is indicated. Again, with those pleasantries out of the way, I begin.

Opening a Question

I believe it was Gadamer (or maybe it was Socrates, performatively) who said that the question is more fundamental to knowledge than the answer. The question is what opens up the horizon, enables an answer or answers, as the case may be.

So, I am trying to open up my question, establish one. And I am finding that in order to open up a question, I already have to know a lot. Well, sort of. The specificity of the thesis requires that the question be a specific question or project. This enables developed argumentation and a sustained reading of all sources; a dialogue, if you will.

As such, I have begun reading all sorts of things. Not only Aristotle, but articles on Aristotle, books on Aristotle, very specific articles that use terminology that I have no idea what it means in the course of the literature and tradition. It is similar to what I believe is the process of uncovering a new world. So, what are my questions?

How is touch described, both by Aristotle, Plato, and the Presocratics? What is touch's relation to the soul? How does touch function as a sense? What is the sense-organ of touch? Does touch have a medium analogous to the other senses? How has touch been treated in philosophers since Aristotle? What is the difference between touching something and grasping something? Does touch condition the other senses? Is touch in some sense more original or primary?

These are some of the questions I am exploring and the ones that I am learning what it means to ask.

Re-Opening a Blog

Well, I am back to blogging. And this time I will be updating more often, because I will be using this blog to express my thoughts and my confusion about things going in my philosophical education. So I apologize from the outset: this will be a little rawer than most blog entries one may read on the internet, but hopefully as the year goes on, the obscurities will lessen and there will be understanding -- both you and me, and between me and the text that I am reading.


HOUSEKEEPING:
I will be including bibliographic information, just in case there is anyone out there curious to read what I am reading and with whom a dialogue would develop. Citations will be in Chicago style, or if not, at least consistent. I will mainly be interacting with Aristotle, so I will be using the Bekker numbers liberally. Okay. That's housekeeping.


WHY?
A good question. I am currently a graduate student, and this year I will be working on my thesis, which is still in an infantile stage. And I need a place where I can process my thoughts, and since I am a verbal processor, I feel the need that I have to be talking to someone. Even if no one ever reads this blog, it will feel like I am talking to someone. Cool? And if someone is reading this, thank you so much! Seriously. Lots of validation going on. Also, if you think you have a thought or idea, please share. I'm going to need all the help I can get. I should learn how to cite from a blog post...


THE PROJECT:
The project that I am undertaking for my thesis is an investigation of the sense of touch in Aristotle, particularly in the de Anima. I will be focusing on how the sense of touch is paramount to the human soul, arguing how this is one of Aristotle's responses to Platonic dualism. Hopefully, I will be able to return to what started me on this project in the first place: contemporary phenomenology. In the last sixty years or so, there has been a growing, renewed interest in describing the phenomenon/phenomena of touch, and so Aristotle thoughts on it have been revisited. If I have the room, I will be defending Aristotle's notions of touch with Merleau-Ponty, and perhaps Jean-Louis Chrétien, Jacques Derrida, and Jean-Luc Nancy. But in the end, that may have to be a different project.


Well, if you are still reading this, thank you again. It will be an adventure, that's not in doubt. Will it be exciting? For some, I hope it will be. So, as Edmund Husserl admonished: to the things themselves!