On the Way to Feeling through <i>Aisthesis</i> and the <i>Logos</i> that Inhabits it. In Dialogue with Renaud Barbaras

Abstract

This article aims to elucidate the meaning of feeling and sensing by delving into genetic phenomenology and dialoguing with phenomenological ontology, particularly with Métaphysique du sentiment by R. Barbaras. Our approach begins by displaying the senses of the body and what we call body “re-flection”, always linked to aisthesis (lato and stricto sensu) as well as affectivity. We later tackle the correlation between phenomenology and aesthetics as an example of passivity in the activity of sensing. We will understand this dynamic as an ontological movement that combines aisthesis and logos and demands to be expressed. Cézanne will be present in our research as he was in the work of Merleau-Ponty and Maldiney, because his painting embodies that movement in which creation is necessary to experience and express Being, and because philosophy and art are both essential to sensing and thinking. We will accept Barbaras criticism of the Maldiney, while continuing to develop Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological ontology to shed light on le sentir.