Prof. Dr. Bernhard Waldenfels: Das Unsichtbare im Sichtbaren (Podcast)

What is perception? We commonly say that we can perceive what is there. But what does that mean exactly? Is invisibility simply that which we cannot perceive? The philosopher Professor Dr. Bernhard Waldenfels explores this question of the relationship between visibility and invisibility by drawing attention to the distortions and paradoxes of perception. For before we perceive something, something must catch our attention—but how can something catch our attention if we don't perceive it first? The lecture, which is available here as a podcast, is moderated by Academy Director Dr. Frank Vogelsang. "Something catches my attention—that is the most elementary experience, the simplest description of seeing." Waldenfels points to this fundamental fact in his lecture. That something catches our attention is not the result of a conscious decision. It happens; we have no control over it. It's similar with thoughts: Thoughts begin with an "inspiration." “Thinking begins with an idea, not with a hypothesis, external funding, or projects. Ideas don't attract external funding; I can't guarantee that I'll have 50 new ideas next year,” Waldenfels said, taking a subtle jab at the routine of academic life. Waldenfels describes seeing, in this sense, as a “visual adventure”: Something catches my eye—this is the most fundamental and simplest experience—and I respond to it. In doing so, we discover what seeing actually is. There is something like a “productive stumble” that prevents everything from remaining in lockstep. Every perception is always simultaneously an external perception. We don't sit metaphorically in an armchair and observe the world. We are always already engaged with the world, and then the following applies: “The experience of the external only becomes powerful when it touches something within myself.” The experience of the external makes it clear that in perception, we don't remain focused on ourselves, but rather orient ourselves toward the world. The world is always also the unknown, which we only discover through experience. Therefore, there is always the invisible within the visible, according to Waldenfels. Here, phenomenology, which Albert Camus described as "learning to see again," is related to the visual arts: The painter Paul Klee, for example, also attempted to convey this visible invisible in his paintings. "What reveals itself is always simultaneously more and different. Experience points beyond itself," says Waldenfels. Waldenfels's remarks demonstrate that even everyday perception is anything but trivial. What reality is must always be rediscovered, or put another way: Reality always contains a secret, something undiscovered, something invisible. Lecture given at the Evangelical Academy in the Rhineland as part of the conference "Is God Invisible? From the Classical Question of Theodicy to Modern Claims to Rationality." About the speaker: Professor Dr. Bernhard Waldenfels (born 1934) studied philosophy, psychology, classical philology, theology, and history in Bonn, Innsbruck, Munich, and Paris, earning his doctorate with a dissertation on "Socratic Questioning: Aporia, Elenchos, Anamnesis." From 1976 until his retirement in 1999, he was Professor of Philosophy at Ruhr University Bochum. Waldenfels is considered one of the most important thinkers in contemporary German-language phenomenology. Phenomenological studies are central to his research and writing. He has also conducted research on key texts by Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, Levinas, Ricœur, and Derrida, as well as translating and editing their works. He is particularly interested in problems of strangeness and otherness, life-time and historical-time, perception, and image. ... More information: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhar... More about the "Scientific Modernity" research area at the Protestant Academy in the Rhineland: mensch-welt-gott.de #Perception #Phenomenology #Podcast