{"id":24031,"date":"2022-06-16T11:00:22","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T15:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/?p=24031"},"modified":"2024-10-21T11:03:19","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T15:03:19","slug":"merleau-ponty-descartes-and-the-meaning-of-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/circulatingnow.nlm.nih.gov\/2022\/06\/16\/merleau-ponty-descartes-and-the-meaning-of-painting\/","title":{"rendered":"Merleau-Ponty, Descartes, and the Meaning of Painting"},"content":{"rendered":"

William D. Adams, PhD will speak<\/a> on Thursday, June 23, 2022 at 2:00 PM ET. This talk is co-sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities<\/a> (NEH) and will be live-streamed<\/a> globally, and archived<\/a>, by NIH VideoCasting<\/a>. <\/em>Dr.\u00a0Adams is Former Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Former President, Colby College.<\/em> Circulating Now interviewed him about his research and <\/em>upcoming <\/em>talk<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Circulating Now:<\/strong> It\u2019s been a few years since we\u00a0hosted you<\/a>\u00a0at NLM in your official capacity as Chairman of NEH. It\u2019s nice to be back in touch. Would you tell us a little more about yourself and what you\u2019ve been doing lately?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/a>William D. Adams: <\/strong>After leaving NEH in May of 2017, I was invited to serve as a Senior Fellow at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in New York. I spent two years there, speaking and writing about the humanities and conducting my own research. At the end of the fellowship, I retired to Portland, Maine where I\u2019ve continued my research and writing on a variety of topics. I also spend a good deal of time in southern France, where my wife and I have a home. Some of my writing is posted on Medium<\/a> and on my personal website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CN:\u00a0<\/strong>Your talk, “Merleau-Ponty, Descartes, and the Meaning of Painting<\/a>,” explores\u00a0French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty\u2019s critique of Ren\u00e9 Descartes\u2019s theory of vision. Was there a primary question that sparked your interest in this topic?<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
La Dioptrique<\/em>,1637
National Library of Medicine #2331057R<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WA: <\/strong>For several years, I\u2019ve been working on a book about Merleau-Ponty and the painter Paul C\u00e9zanne. Merleau-Ponty\u2019s interest in painting was anchored in his interest in perception and especially visual perception. In the French tradition, Descartes is required reading for anyone interested in the topic of vision. To understand Merleau-Ponty, I\u2019ve had to understand his life-long interest in Descartes, along with his vehement criticisms of Descartes\u2019s methods and conclusions.<\/p>\n

CN:\u00a0<\/strong>Tell us about the two main figures of your talk who lived 300 years apart.\u00a0 Who were Merleau-Ponty and Descartes and what ties them together?<\/p>\n

WA: <\/strong>Merleau-Ponty came to philosophy as a high school student in Paris in the 1920s. At that time, certainly, Descartes was the most important figure in the history of French philosophy. Anyone interested in becoming a professional philosopher would have to come to terms with his work, one way or another. Notwithstanding their profound differences, Merleau-Ponty never stopped thinking about him. Descartes figures prominently in his doctoral dissertation, and a copy of the La<\/em> Dioptrique<\/em>, Descartes\u2019s revolutionary book on vision from 1637, was found open on Merleau-Ponty\u2019s desk in the study where he died suddenly in 1961.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
La Dioptrique<\/em>,1637
National Library of Medicine #2331057R<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Descartes was writing in the first half of the 17th century, it was still possible to think of mathematics, natural science, and philosophy as a single, unified enterprise. It\u2019s hard for us to imagine now, but it\u2019s one of the distinguishing features of Descartes\u2019s work. He was a great mathematician, a path-breaking natural scientist, and a philosopher of the first order. At the same time, and paradoxically, Descartes, by dividing the world into mental things and physical things, mind and body, object and subject, laid the groundwork for the fragmentation of knowledge that characterizes our own cultural circumstances. Merleau-Ponty pondered the fateful influence of Descartes\u2019s dualisms across his career.<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>Your talk deals with understanding how our bodies and our minds perceive and interpret the world. What did you learn about art\u2019s relationship to our physical selves?<\/p>\n

WA: <\/strong>Merleau-Ponty admired the poet Paul Val\u00e9ry\u2019s comment that \u201cthe painter brings her body,\u201d adding \u201cit is by lending her body to the world that the painter turns the world into a painting.\u201d \u00a0For Merleau-Ponty, painting is first and foremost an act of corporeal expression. No body, no painting, and no appreciation of painting. Thinking about painting in this way permits Merleau-Ponty to argue that painting is a highly developed form of vision that can teach us about every instance of vision.<\/p>\n

CN: <\/strong>You completed some research in the NLM collections, what did you study and how does it fit into your research?<\/strong><\/p>\n

WA: <\/strong>Because of the importance of Descartes\u2019s La Dioptrique<\/em><\/a> to Merleau-Ponty\u2019s philosophy of perception and vision, I wanted to see the original texts, and especially their illustrations of Descartes\u2019 theory of vision. This speaks to the importance of archives generally, and to NLM\u2019s collection of rare books in particular. While there are many copies of Descartes\u2019s illustrations on the web, seeing them in the flesh, so to speak, and in their original context, was both helpful and revealing. One senses more clearly the scope of Descartes\u2019s ambition. And the illustrations offer insight into Descartes\u2019s understanding of how visual images can be deployed to assist the understanding of concepts. It\u2019s a bit ironic. Concepts that are \u201cclear and distinct\u201d ought to be graspable by the mind alone. And yet, Descartes labored over illustrations.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/a>
La Dioptrique, Descartes\u2019s revolutionary book on vision,1637 National Library of Medicine #2331057R <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"A <\/a>
La Dioptrique,1637 National Library of Medicine #2331057R <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"La <\/a>
La Dioptrique,1637 National Library of Medicine #2331057R <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

CN: <\/strong>There is an intersection in your work between biomedical sciences and the humanities. In your view, what are the benefits of research at this intersection?<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
La Dioptrique<\/em>,1637
National Library of Medicine #2331057R<\/em><\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WA: <\/strong>Vision is a good example of a topic that can\u2019t be fully understood without natural science, philosophy, and art. The biomedical sciences have made astounding progress toward understanding the biological and chemical foundations of vision, but their discoveries need to be joined to explorations of the experience of vision. That\u2019s where art and philosophy enter the picture. We need to integrate the humanities and natural sciences, in both research and educational settings. Not easy to do, but essential.<\/p>\n

Watch on YouTube<\/h3>\n