Interpreting Excess Jean-Luc Marion, Saturated Phenomena, and Hermeneutics

by Mackinlay, Shane

• ISBN13: 9780823231089
• ISBN10: 0823231089
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-12-01
• Publisher: Fordham University Press

Summary

JJean-Luc Marion's theory of saturated phenomena is one of the most exciting developments in phenomenology in recent decades. It opens up new possibilities for understanding phenomena by beginning from rich and complex examples such as revelation and works of art. Rather than being curiosities or exceptions, these "excessive" or "saturated" phenomena are, in Marion's view, paradigms. He understands more straightforward phenomena, such as the objects of the natural sciences, as reduced and impoverished versions of the excess given in saturated phenomena.Interpreting Excess is a systematic and comprehensive study of Marion's texts on saturated phenomena and their place in his wider phenomenology of givenness, tracing both his theory and his examples across a wide range of texts spanning three decades.The author argues that a rich hermeneutics is implicit in Marion's examples of saturated phenomena but is not set out in his theory. This hermeneutics makes clear that attempts to overthrow the much-criticized sovereignty of the Cartesian ego will remain unsuccessful if they simply reverse the subject-object relation by speaking of phenomena imposing themselves with an overwhelming givenness on a recipient. Instead, phenomena should be understood as appearing in a hermeneutic space already opened by a subject's active reception. Thus, a phenomenon's appearing depends not only on its givenness but also on the way it is interpreted by the receiving subject. All phenomenology is, therefore, necessarily hermeneutic.Interpreting Excess provides an indispensable guide for any study of Marion's saturated phenomena. It is also a significant contribution to ongoing debates about philosophical ways of thinking about God, the relation between hermeneutics and phenomenology, and philosophy "after the subject."

Author Biography

SHANE MACKINLAY is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Catholic Theological College (Melbourne College of Divinity).

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations	p. ix
Preface	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Marion's Claims	p. 15
The Hermeneutic Structure of Phenomenality	p. 35
The Theory of Saturated Phenomena	p. 57
Events	p. 75
Dazzling Idols and Paintings	p. 117
Flesh as Absolute	p. 130
The Face as Irregardable Icon	p. 159
Revelation: The Phenomenon of God's Appearing	p. 178
Conclusion: Revising the Phenomenology of Givenness	p. 216
Notes	p. 221
Selected Bibliography	p. 263
Index	p. 279
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