Crack and Culture: On Representations of Movement in Anthropology and Philosophy

This book analyzes the representations of movement that reflect time. The author scrutinizes movement critically assuming that (1) movement is composed of change, (2) a change may be a crack, (3) the crack demonstrates a disturbance in the experienced movement, and (4) it is culture that is a remedy to the crisis caused by this disturbance. It is shown that artistic sensitivity allows for the detection of various cracks, and it is, among other examples, religious mythology and scientific narratives where one finds a multiplicity of representations to manage the consequences of this detection. Zaporowski sees these tools as purposefully constructed to respond to the human experience of discontinuity in the world and proposes to frame time cyclically while critically paying attention to the cracks as significant indicators that force one to amend one's conduct in an ordered fashion. He appeals to the notion of culture, which allows one to manage the cracked nature of movement. Culture conditions one's purposeful and ordered actions, and is subject to possible reconfigurations through a series of interactions. It allows for foreseeable conduct while at the same time being aware of possible and irreversible changes. This volume appeals to researchers, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in philosophy and anthropology.

Shows that time while being an a posteriori object requires human intervention which is partially a priori by nature Merges time and culture from a philosophical and anthropological perspective Philosophically presents culture as a remedy to seemingly irreversible challenges

Autorentext

Andrzej Zaporowski has an MA in Ethnography and a PhD in Philosophy and Habilitation in Cognition and Social Communication Studies. He is Associate Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland and Head of their Laboratory of History and Methodology of the Science of Culture. He is the author of books and articles in the methodologies of the humanities, cross-cultural communication and mind/language relations.

Klappentext

This book analyzes the representations of movement that reflects time. The author scrutinizes movement critically assuming that (1) movement is composed of change, (2) a change may be a crack, (3) the crack demonstrates a disturbance in the experienced movement, and (4) it is culture that is a remedy to the crisis caused by this disturbance. It is shown that artistic sensitivity allows for the detection of various cracks, and it is, among other examples, religious mythology and scientific narratives where one finds a multiplicity of representations to manage the consequences of this detection. Zaporowski sees these tools as purposefully constructed to respond to the human experience of discontinuity in the world and proposes to frame time cyclically while critically paying attention to the cracks as significant indicators that force one to amend one's conduct in an ordered fashion. He appeals to the notion of culture, which allows one to manage the cracked nature of movement. Culture conditions one's purposeful and ordered actions, and is subject to possible reconfigurations through a series of interactions. It allows for foreseeable conduct while at the same time being aware of possible and irreversible changes. This volume appeals to researchers, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in philosophy and anthropology.

Inhalt

Introduction.- Tools.- The Human Sciences.- Change.- Cracks.- Culture.- Proposal.- Conclusion.