The Philosophy of Mannerism: From Aesthetics to Modal Metaphysics

Description

Sjoerd van Tuinen argues for the inseparability of matter and manner in the form of a group portrait of Leibniz, Bergson, Whitehead, Souriau, Simondon, Deleuze, Stengers, and Agamben. Examining afresh the 16th-century style of mannerism, this book synthesizes philosophy and aesthetics to demonstrate not only the contemporary relevance of artists such as Michelangelo or Arcimboldo but their broader significance as incorporating a form of modal thinking and perceiving. While looking at mannerism as a style that spurned the balance and proportion of earlier Renaissance models in favour of compositional instability and tension, this book also conceives of mannerism a-historically to investigate what it can tell us about continental modal metaphysics. Whereas analytical metaphysics privileges logical essence and asks whether something is possible, real, contingent, or necessary, continental philosophy privileges existence and counts as many modes as there are ways of coming-into-being. In three main parts, van Tuinen first explores the ontological, aesthetic, and ethical ramifications of this distinction. He then develops this through an extended study of Leibniz as a modal and indeed mannerist philosopher, before outlining in the final part a (neo)-mannerist aesthetics that incorporates diagrammatics, alchemy, and contemporary technologies of speculative design. Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Posthumanism Compositionism Metamodernism Continental Modal Metaphysics Matter and Manner Chapter 1: Philosophy and Art History The Problem of Mannerism The Concept of Mannerism The Late and the New The Paradox of Style Chapter 2: Mannerist Aesthetics Deleuze: The Reversal of Platonism Deleuze and Guattari: Major and Minor Usages Souriau: The Different Modes of Existence Whitehead: The Heritage of the New Chapter 3: Modal Individuation Genealogy of the Revolution Leibniz between Classicism and Modernism The Fluidity and Spontaneity of Manners Chapter 4: Speculative Pragmatism How Matter Comes to Matter Collective Effervescence Philosophy in a Minor Key Chapter 5: Disegno Disegno and Mimesis The Possible and the Virtual The Unfinished Diagrammatics Chapter 6: The Cosmic Artisan Contemporary Practice Alchemy Renewed Materialism Virtuosity Notes Bibliography Index