TOPOLOGIES OF SENSES: the aesthetic practice of philosophy in Jacques Rancière

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Published: Dec 30, 2023
Keywords:
Aesthetics of topology Ontology of art Jacques Rancière Immanuel Kant Practice of philosophy Community of sense
Thomas Symeonidis
a:1:{s:5:"el_GR";s:49:"Ανωτάτη Σχολή Καλών Τεχνών";}
Abstract

The aim of this paper is to give prominence to the notion of topology in the thought of Jacques Rancière and to stress its importance for understanding the interconnections between aesthetics as a mode of thought, the notion of space and the practice of philosophy. In order to highlight the importance of topology as a conceptual ground for aesthetics and the respective aesthetic practice of philosophy in Rancière, I am introducing the basic lines for discussing the aesthetics of topology along with the generic notion of topology of senses which can be seen, on a first instance, as a variation of the notion of aesthetic community or equivalently, of  community of sense. The initial framework for abording the meaning and the functioning of a community of sense is to understand it as a dissensual figure. Based on Kant’s Critique of the Aesthetic Power of Judgment and Schiller’s Letters on the aesthetic education of humanity Rancière develops the idea of dissensus. My major hypothesis is that the idea of topology of senses is important for understanding the aesthetic practice of philosophy and the close associations that it bears with the ontology of the dissensual which is Rancière’s preferred ontological model among the various ontologies of art.

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