Katrin Wille

The philosophical reading of Proust’s Recherche presented here suggests Proust’s aesthetic method as a model for philosophy. The term “aesthetic” refers to the constitutive role of sensation, perception, and sensuality for the practice of philosophising. In Proust’s peculiar descriptions a specific form of “sentient thinking” takes shape. This thinking is characterised by the entanglement of the particular as detailed description and the general as theoretical reflection. With reference to Proust, the philosophical practice of describing is developed into a central element of philosophy as aesthetic practice.

To consider formal languages as »articulation« of thought requires a »protological« investigation. The crucial question is how the mental structures are obtained, which are to be expressed by different types of symbols. With the following proposal I suggest as starting point the activity of distinguishing and not the logical analysis of the proposition. Formalization is not to be understood as an abstraction of an elementary form, but as a maximum withdrawal of definiteness, called »condensation«.