Becoming "the Blind Poet"

• TSUSHIMA Michiko

  筑波大学

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

• 「盲目の詩人」になること
• Arendt's "De-sensing Operation" in Imagination
• アーレントにおける構想力の「脱感覚化の働き」

Abstract

In her later period, Hannah Arendt dedicated her thinking to the analysis of "the life of the mind." This does not mean that she departed from politics and returned to philosophy; rather it means that she explored the political possibility of the mind-the mind which is open to others, i.e., the possidility of a mind based on "plurality." Focusing mainly on her discussion in The Life of the Mind and her lectures on Kant, the present paper proposes that the mind which is open to others is only possible through what Arendt calls a "de-sensing operation" in imagination. As her metaphor-becoming "the blind poet"-indicates, this "de-sensing operation" means closing the senses by which objects are given to us in their objectivity. In this operation, we transform sensory objects into represented images, and thereby prepare the objects for judgment.<BR>The "de-sensing operation" does not simply involve the transformation of the object. It essentially involves the transformation of the relation between the mind and its object of judgment; the mind is liberated from the "subjective private conditions" which limit the judgment of the object. In other words, the "de-sensing operation" gives the mind "freedom of movement." It makes it possible for the mind to move from standpoint to standpoint, enlarge itself (in the sense of Kant's "enlarged mentality"), and be open to the perspectives of others.

Journal

• Philosophy (Tetsugaku)

  Philosophy (Tetsugaku) 2007 (58), 219-235,26, 2007-04-01

  The Philosophical Association of Japan

Details

• CRID: 1390282680300205568
• NII Article ID: 130003661489
• DOI: 10.11439/philosophy1952.2007.219
• ISSN: 18842380
• ISSN: 03873358
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • CiNii Articles
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed