In recent years, Goethe’s morphology has garnered renewed attention across various disciplinary fields, including the life sciences, the history of philosophy, the philosophy of science, as well as in aesthetic and theoretical domains. It is within this latter area that this article seeks to further investigate how Goethe addresses the theme of natural anomaly. By adopting a phenomenological perspective, it will be shown how anomalous cases, far from indicating a mere exception to the rule, serve as keys to accessing the (...) nature of the _Urphänomen_, revealing its intrinsic indeterminateness, plasticity and temporality. In particular, the _Urphänomen_ manifests the coexistence of formation and transformation, self-differentiation and trans-differentiation, retention of past forms and protension to new ones. Thus, in Goethean works the concept of ‘anomaly’ undergoes a semantic metamorphosis, enabling it to transcend its immediate field of application and generate theoretical implications whose potential has not yet been fully explored. (shrink)

In recent years, Goethe’s morphology has garnered renewed attention across various disciplinary fields, including the life sciences, the history of philosophy, the philosophy of science, as well as in aesthetic and theoretical domains. It is within this latter area that this article seeks to further investigate how Goethe addresses the theme of natural anomaly. By adopting a phenomenological perspective, it will be shown how anomalous cases, far from indicating a mere exception to the rule, serve as keys to accessing the (...) nature of the Urphänomen, revealing its intrinsic indeterminateness, plasticity and temporality. In particular, the Urphänomen manifests the coexistence of formation and transformation, self-differentiation and trans-differentiation, retention of past forms and protension to new ones. Thus, in Goethean works the concept of ‘anomaly’ undergoes a semantic metamorphosis, enabling it to transcend its immediate field of application and generate theoretical implications whose potential has not yet been fully explored. (shrink)

This article aims to highlight some possible readings of Jean-François Lyotard's Anima minima that, as things stand, appear to be under-researched, thus favouring the qualification of the French philosopher's work as a mere ornament for his broader investigation on the sublime. As a framework, the article argues Lyotard's parodic use of the concept of anima in relation to the original Aristotelian meaning, i.e. through a resemantisation such as to coincide with another Stagirite’s concept that is at its antipodes: that of (...) automa. However the core of the work is the Lyotard's interpretation through the semiotic of impulses developed by Pierre Klossowski in his Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle. Therefore emerges a characterisation of the concept of anima minima as the most radical of principles both for an aesthetics of contingency and for a perceptual model of the automa, in antithesis to an apophantic aesthetics of the subject. (shrink)

About twenty years ago, a number of researchers proposed interpreting certain works and artists in relation to a category apparently distant from the concept of waste or reject: the sublime. What I attempt to do in this paper is to investigate: a) how a link can be established between the sublime and contemporary art; b) how contemporary art can express the sublime through the use of materials and sounds that are considered ‘waste’; c) to what extent this use can take (...) on a critical-political significance. (shrink)

About twenty years ago, a number of researchers proposed interpreting certain works and artists in relation to a category apparently distant from the concept of waste or reject: the sublime. What I attempt to do in this paper is to investigate: a) how a link can be established between the sublime and contemporary art; b) how contemporary art can express the sublime through the use of materials and sounds that are considered ‘waste’; c) to what extent this use can take (...) on a critical-political significance. (shrink)

This essay aims to test the categories and strategies of philosophy to reflect on one of the most common materials we encounter in our everyday experience: plastic. The first part moves from the historical conception of the plastic arts of two authors of the Goethezeit. Herder stresses the truthful dimension of the sense of touch and, consequently, of the plastic arts, while Hegel points out the transformative potential of plasticity. The second part focuses on Barthes’s essay Plastic, extrapolating three main (...) theses: a) Plastic abolishes the hierarchy of substances; b) Plastic is not a substance, it is the very idea of transformation and has a negative constitution; c) Plastic is entirely swallowed up by use. In the third part, I will consider some contemporary artworks that precociously grasped the specificity and potential of plastics instantiating the conceptuality developed by Barthes and reactivating plasticity in plastic artworks. (shrink)

By distinguishing between the age before art and the age of art, recent studies have reinforced the idea of art as a distinctly modern phenomenon. Prior to the advent of art, what we now consider artworks were primarily sacred objects, whose ontological status was fully realized in acts of worship. From this historical reconstruction arises the hypothesis that the artwork emerged through the secularization of the sacred object, wherein its sacredness was replaced by aesthetic value. In this essay, we aim (...) to demonstrate that both the sacred object and the artwork originate from the use of the frame as a device of meaning. When a framed space is believed to be linked to supernatural forces, the frame designates a sacred space (or object). Conversely, when the frame encloses a profane world distinct from the external one - yet capable of offering a deeper understanding of it - the frame defines an artwork. (shrink)

By distinguishing between the age before art and the age of art, recent studies have reinforced the idea of art as a distinctly modern phenomenon. Prior to the advent of art, what we now consider artworks were primarily sacred objects, whose ontological status was fully realized in acts of worship. From this historical reconstruction arises the hypothesis that the artwork emerged through the secularization of the sacred object, wherein its sacredness was replaced by aesthetic value. In this essay, we aim (...) to demonstrate that both the sacred object and the artwork originate from the use of the _frame_ as a device of meaning. When a framed space is believed to be linked to supernatural forces, the frame designates a sacred space (or object). Conversely, when the frame encloses a profane world distinct from the external one - yet capable of offering a deeper understanding of it - the frame defines an artwork. (shrink)

In this paper, I aim to provide a historical-philosophical introduction as a preliminary step towards a comparison between Husserl’s and Fichte’s thought. In doing so, I aim to provide the foundations for a response to the absence of a systematic work that comprehensively addresses the comparison between the philosophy of Fichte and Husserl. My primary focus will be Husserl’s explicit references to Fichtean philosophy. First, I will briefly reconstruct the historical and intellectual context in which Husserl engaged with Fichte’s thought. (...) I will then examine the lectures Husserl delivered at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau during the academic years 1917–1918. Finally, I will analyse various passages from Husserl’s corpus in which he directly addresses Fichte’s philosophy. By the end, it should be evident that Husserl attributes particular significance to Fichte’s teleological framework, the concept of practical philosophy, and the transcendental dimension of Fichte’s theoretical system. (shrink)