The Five Senses: A Philosophy of Mingled Bodies (Bloomsbury Revelations)

Marginalized by the scientific age the lessons of the senses have been overtaken by the dominance of language and the information revolution. With The Five Senses Serres traces a topology of human perception, writing against the Cartesian tradition and in praise of empiricism, he demonstrates repeatedly, and lyrically, the sterility of systems of knowledge divorced from bodily experience. The fragile empirical world, long resistant to our attempts to contain and catalog it, is disappearing beneath the relentless accumulations of late capitalist society and information technology. Data has replaced sensory pleasure, we are less interested in the taste of a fine wine than in the description on the bottle's label. What are we, and what do we really know, when we have forgotten that our senses can describe a taste more accurately than language ever could? The book won the inaugural Prix Médicis Essai in 1985. The Revelations edition includes an introduction by Steven Connor. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Sense and Sensibility: Translating the Bodily Experience Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1 Veils Birth Tattoos Canvas, veil, skin Hermes and the peacock Subtle Variation Vair4 Mists Common sense Mixture, unveiling Chapter 2 Boxes Healing at Epidaurus Three kinds of audible Soft and hard Passages Cells Chapter 3 Tables Animal spirits Memory Statue Death Birth Chapter 4 Visit (Local) landscape (Global) displacement Method and rambling (the global and the local) Circumstances Mingled place Chapter 5 Joy Stained glass Healing in France Signature Notes Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- Sense and Sensibility: Translating the Bodily Experience -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- Chapter 1 Veils -- Birth -- Tattoos -- Canvas, veil, skin -- Hermes and the peacock -- Subtle -- Variation -- Vair 4 -- Mists -- Common sense -- Mixture, unveiling -- Chapter 2 Boxes -- Healing at Epidaurus -- Three kinds of audible -- Soft and hard -- Passages -- Cells -- Chapter 3 Tables -- Animal spirits -- Memory -- Statue -- Death -- Birth -- Chapter 4 Visit -- (Local) landscape -- (Global) displacement -- Method and rambling (the global and the local) -- Circumstances -- Mingled place -- Chapter 5 Joy -- Stained glass -- Healing in France -- Signature -- Notes