The always more and the nothing. An anthropological journey
Type de matériel :
22
This article starts from an artistic experience: the art of fado, expression of the Lusitanian feeling of saudade. Distinguishing, following Levinas, the totality that aims for perfection and the infinite that nothing can reabsorb, the author finds himself faced with a paradox: the superlative affirmation of the infinite − the greater than the greatest (the unlimited), the more beautiful than the most beautiful (the sublime) − requires the detour of negation in order to be thought. “Negative theology” and the approach of Manzini, who published in the Renaissance period a book titled Il Niente (Nothing), link up rather strangely the Chinese notions of wu and the Japanese notion of mu (void) in a process of letting go of the absolute nature of meaning. They believe that in order to get nearer to the more, it is necessary to resort to less and to nothing. If relations to infinity resist being expressed in logical propositions, they can nevertheless be shown and it is this tension between expressing and showing, highlighted by Wittgenstein, which is re-examined. Infinity defeats language but can also put it back to work.
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