Quasi-Things: The Paradigm of Atmospheres (SUNY series in Contemporary Italian Philosophy)

Eastward? -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index;Preface -- Where I Started From: A Pathic Aesthetics -- How I Got Here: Atmospheres -- Where I Got: Quasi-Things -- One Quasi-Things Come and Go and We Cannot Wonder Where They've Been (Starting from the Wind) -- Things as a Prototype -- Is There Something in the Air? -- Quasi-Things: The Wind -- It Blows Whenever and Wherever It Wants -- Two Quasi-Things Assault and Resist Us: Feelings as Atmospheres -- (Neophenomenological) Depsychologization of Emotionality -- Atmospherological Premises -- Depsychologization: A Metaphysical Reification? -- Are Atmospheres Supervening or Are They a Simple "in-between"? -- Authority and Dynamism: Numinosity and Atmospheric Interactions -- Can Atmospheres Be Produced as Percepts and Entities? -- Intentionality: Is It Just a Myth? -- Noticing and Feeling: Subject-Dependence? -- More Ethics, Fewer Atmospheres? -- Three Quasi-Things Are Felt (though Not Localized): The Isles of the Felt-Body -- The (Felt) Body -- Feeling Oneself as a Felt-Body -- Beyond the Body Schema -- All Out! -- But the Felt-Body Is Also a Task -- Four Quasi-Things Are Proofs of Existence: Pain as the Genesis of the Subject -- Atmospheric Pain -- What Is It For? -- Incommunicability? -- For a (Good) Regression -- Five Quasi-Things Affect Us (Also Indirectly): Vicarious Shame -- Shame Has Not Disappeared-It Has Emigrated -- Personal Shame as an Atmospheric Quasi-Thing -- "Internal Hemorrhage" and Social Stigmatization -- Another Atmosphere: Vicarious Shame -- Atmospheric Games -- Six Quasi-Things Communicate with Us: From the Gaze to the Portrait (and Back) -- Felt-Bodily Communication -- The (Atmospheric) Character of the Face -- The Gaze as a Quasi-Thing (Gesture) -- Seven Quasi-Things Are the More Effective the Vaguer They Are: Twilightness -- Not the Light but in the Light -- The Vague, the Ephemeral, the Nebulous -- Twilightness Contents 6 Preface 8 Where I Started From: A Pathic Aesthetics 8 How I Got Here: Atmospheres 11 Where I Got: Quasi-Things 16 One Quasi-Things Come and Go and We Cannot Wonder Where They’ve Been (Starting from the Wind) 24 Things as a Prototype 24 Is There Something in the Air? 29 Quasi-Things: The Wind 32 It Blows Whenever and Wherever It Wants 37 Two Quasi-Things Assault and Resist Us: Feelings as Atmospheres 42 (Neophenomenological) Depsychologization of Emotionality 42 Atmospherological Premises 44 Depsychologization: A Metaphysical Reification? 47 Are Atmospheres Supervening or Are They a Simple “in-between”? 49 Authority and Dynamism: Numinosity and Atmospheric Interactions 52 Can Atmospheres Be Produced as Percepts and Entities? 61 Intentionality: Is It Just a Myth? 64 Noticing and Feeling: Subject-Dependence? 67 More Ethics, Fewer Atmospheres? 70 Three Quasi-Things Are Felt (though Not Localized): The Isles of the Felt-Body 78 The (Felt) Body 78 Feeling Oneself as a Felt-Body 82 Beyond the Body Schema 86 All Out! 88 But the Felt-Body Is Also a Task 89 Four Quasi-Things Are Proofs of Existence: Pain as the Genesis of the Subject 92 Atmospheric Pain 92 What Is It For? 93 Incommunicability? 95 For a (Good) Regression 96 Five Quasi-Things Affect Us (Also Indirectly): Vicarious Shame 102 Shame Has Not Disappeared—It Has Emigrated 102 Personal Shame as an Atmospheric Quasi-Thing 105 “Internal Hemorrhage” and Social Stigmatization 107 Another Atmosphere: Vicarious Shame 109 Atmospheric Games 113 Six Quasi-Things Communicate with Us: From the Gaze to the Portrait (and Back) 116 Felt-Bodily Communication 116 The (Atmospheric) Character of the Face 117 The Gaze as a Quasi-Thing (Gesture) 119 Seven Quasi-Things Are the More Effective the Vaguer They Are: Twilightness 126 Not the Light but in the Light 126 The Vague, the Ephemeral, the Nebulous 129 Twilightness 131 Eastward? 133 Notes 136 Bibliography 180 Index 204 "In this book, Tonino Griffero introduces and analyzes an ontological category he terms "quasi-things." These do not exist fully in the traditional sense as substances or events, yet they powerfully act on us and on our states of mind. He offers an original approach to the study of emotions, regarding them not as inner states of the subject, but as atmospheres, that is as powers poured out into the lived space we inhabit. Griffero first outlines the general and atmospheric characters of quasi-things, and then considers examples such as pain, shame, the gaze, and twilight--which he argues is responsible for penetrating and suggestive moods precisely because of its vagueness. With frequent examples from literature and everyday life, Quasi-Things provides an accessible aesthetic and phenomenological account of feelings based on the paradigm of atmospheres."--Cover