Hardcover
2008 · New York
by Serres, Michel; Sankey, Margaret (Trans.); Cowley, Peter (Trans.)
New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. Hardcover. Good +. Hardcover. 9 1/4" X 6 1/4". xiv, 348pp. Rubbing, toning, and shelf wear to covers, corners, and edges of maroon cloth over boards. Spine lettered in gilt. Small scratch to front cover Mild sticker residue to rear cover. Gentle bumps to head and tail of spine. Faint dust-spotting to top of text block. Pages are clean and unmarked. Binding is sound.
ABOUT THIS BOOK:
Marginalized by the scientific age with its metaphysical and philosophical systems, the lessons of the senses have been overtaken by the dominance of language and the information revolution.
Exploring the deleterious effects of the systematic downgrading of the senses in Western philosophy, Michel Serres - a member of the Académie Française and one of France's leading philosophers - traces a topology of human perception. Writing against the Cartesian tradition and in praise of empiricism, he demonstrates repeatedly, and lyrically, the sterility of systems of knowledge divorced from bodily experience.
The fragile empirical world, long resistant to our attempts to contain and catalog it, is disappearing beneath the relentless accumulations of late capitalist society and information technology. Data has replaced sensory pleasure, we are less interested in the taste of a fine wine than in the description on the bottle's label. What are we, and what do we really know, when we have forgotten that our senses can describe a taste more accurately than language ever could?(Publisher). (Inventory #: 16383)
ABOUT THIS BOOK:
Marginalized by the scientific age with its metaphysical and philosophical systems, the lessons of the senses have been overtaken by the dominance of language and the information revolution.
Exploring the deleterious effects of the systematic downgrading of the senses in Western philosophy, Michel Serres - a member of the Académie Française and one of France's leading philosophers - traces a topology of human perception. Writing against the Cartesian tradition and in praise of empiricism, he demonstrates repeatedly, and lyrically, the sterility of systems of knowledge divorced from bodily experience.
The fragile empirical world, long resistant to our attempts to contain and catalog it, is disappearing beneath the relentless accumulations of late capitalist society and information technology. Data has replaced sensory pleasure, we are less interested in the taste of a fine wine than in the description on the bottle's label. What are we, and what do we really know, when we have forgotten that our senses can describe a taste more accurately than language ever could?(Publisher). (Inventory #: 16383)
