The Philosophical Image: Rethinking Philosophical Understanding in the Early Modern Dutch Republic

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Philosophy (MA) (120 EC)

Iacob, Anisia (2023)

The Philosophical Image: Rethinking Philosophical Understanding in the Early Modern Dutch Republic

Master thesis | Philosophy (MA) (120 EC)

The underlying claim of the investigation is that images don’t act as just mnemonic or decorating devices for the text but are instead an integral part of the philosophical knowledge disseminated through the text. By denying the auxiliary or even decorative role of images and viewing them as an integral part of a philosophical system, the thesis challenges the common-sensical view that image doesn’t have a place within the philosophical text which is seen as closer and more connected to thinking. As it can be noticed, the investigation relies on a historical account, an analysis of seventeenth-century accounts on the conception and role of images in thinking, followed by a contemporary phenomenological and embodied analysis, informed by neuroscientific finds, to give an answer to the main research question. Namely, what is the role that printed images have within an early modern philosophical publication for thinking and understanding?

image

understanding

early modern philosophy