Gaston Bachelard : a philosophy of the surreal / Zbigniew Kotowicz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kotowicz, Zbigniew, 1950- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bachelard, Gaston, 1884-1962.

Bachelard, Gaston.

Physical Description:

ix, 212 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2016]

Summary:

Analyses Bachelard's work on epistemology, poetic imagination and temporality Gaston Bachelard was a seminal figure in contemporary French philosophy. Together with Jean Cavailles, Georges Canguilhem and Michel Foucault he shaped the style of thinking characteristic of contemporary philosophy of science known as the 'French epistemological' school. While in France Bachelard is a towering presence, and his influence is visible in the writings of many different thinkers well beyond philosophy of science, he remains little known in the Anglophone world. Zbigniew Kotowicz offers, for the first time in English, an in-depth presentation of the entire spectrum of Bachelard's work - epistemology, poetic imagination and temporality - and he also explores an old philosophical tradition that Bachelard's thought opens up ̃ atomism - a doctrine that has been almost forgotten and is much misunderstood. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The New Scientific Mind 23

The Epistemological Rupture 23

The Epistemological Obstacle 29

The Ruses of Prejudice 31

Naivety 34

Science and History 43

Rationalism 48

Truth, Dialectics, the Philosophy of No 51

Mathematics, la phénoménotechnique 52

Against Substance 59

Pythagorism (and further thoughts on la phénoménotechnique) 66

Some Concluding Remarks 71

Appendix to Chapter 1: 'Surrationalism' / Gaston Bachelard Bachelard, Gaston 77

2 The Imaginary 82

The Turn 82

The Imagining Faculty 86

Imagination and Violence 88

Narcissism 92

The Body, Hylozoism 95

A Psychoanalysis of a Philosophical Mind 98

The Four Elements 100

The Imaginary and Philosophy 103

Overcoming Pain, Overcoming Death 105

Topophilia 107

Masculine Death, Feminine Death 115

3 The Poetics of Time 119

The Instant 119

Duration 124

The Void 126

Rhythm and Vibration 129

Against Bergson 131

The Void and Nothingness 136

Concluding Remarks 144

Appendix: Bachelard and Atomism 157

Some Preliminary Remarks on Democritus, Epicurus and Pierre Gassendi 157

Democritus and Hylozoism 162

The Atom in Contemporary Thought 164

The Void 168

Four Atomist systems 171

Bachelard and Atomism (Epistemology) 172

Bachelard and Atomism ('Metaphysics') 176

On Philosophical Aspirations 178.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 182-205) and index.

ISBN:

9781474417211

1474417213

OCLC:

944470088