Phenomenological Ontology of Breathing
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JYU DISSERTATIONS 17 Petri Berndtson Phenomenological Ontology of Breathing The Phenomenologico-Ontological Interpretation of the Barbaric Conviction of We Breathe Air and a New Philosophical Principle of Silence of Breath, Abyss of Air JYU DISSERTATIONS 17 Petri Berndtson Phenomenological Ontology of Breathing The Phenomenologico-Ontological Interpretation of the Barbaric Conviction of We Breathe Air and a New Philosophical Principle of Silence of Breath, Abyss of Air Esitetään Jyväskylän yliopiston humanistis-yhteiskuntatieteellisen tiedekunnan suostumuksella julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston Historica-rakennuksen salissa H320 syyskuun 28. päivänä 2018 kello 12. Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by permission of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Jyväskylä, in building Historica, auditorium H320, on September 28, 2018 at 12 o’clock noon. JYVÄSKYLÄ 2018 Editors Olli-Pekka Moisio Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä Ville Korkiakangas Open Science Centre, University of Jyväskylä Copyright © 2018, by University of Jyväskylä Permanent link to this publication: http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7552-4 ISBN 978-951-39-7552-4 (PDF) URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7552-4 ISSN 2489-9003 ABSTRACT Berndtson, Petri Phenomenological Ontology of Breathing: The Phenomenologico-Ontological Interpretation of the Barbaric Conviction of We Breathe Air and a New Philosophical Principle of Silence of Breath, Abyss of Air Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2018, 283 p. (JYU Dissertations ISSN 2489-9003; 17) ISBN 978-951-39-7552-4 (PDF) The general topic of my philosophical dissertation is phenomenological ontology of breathing. I do not investigate the phenomenon of breathing as a natural scientific problem, but as a philo- sophical question. Within our tradition, breathing has been normally understood as a mechanis- tic-materialistic physiological life-sustaining process of gas exchange and cellular respiration which does not really seem to have any essential connection to human being’s spiritual, mental or philosophical capacities. On the contrary to this natural scientific view, I argue that breathing can be understood as a philosophical question that has phenomenological, experiential, onto- logical, spiritual, bodily, mental, poetic, elemental, ethical, voluntary and mystical dimensions. My investigation conceptualizes breathing in the first place as a question of phenomenological ontology. Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenologico-ontological method of interrogation of the lived body’s experiential openness to the world and Being provides the most fundamental point of departure in this dissertation. Merleau-Ponty emphasized in his investigations the lived body’s perceptual openness to the world and Being. He argued famously for the primacy of perception. His thesis of the primacy of perception means that perception as the perceptual openness to the world and Being is the foundation which is always presupposed by all the other levels of our existence and being-in-the-world. In this dissertation, I challenge this idea of the primacy of perception with Merleau-Ponty’s own remarks about breathing. I argue that in his own remarks about breathing, he implicitly points toward a level which is even more funda- mental than the primacy of perception. In this dissertation, this level of our being-in-the-world I call the primacy of breathing. Breathing as the lived body’s respiratory openness to the world and Being is now understood as the foundation which is always presupposed by all the other dimensions of our being-in-the-world. These dimensions are, for example, our theoretical, prac- tical, social and perceptual ways of relating with the world. If the idea of the primacy of breath- ing is taken seriously, it means that all the questions of philosophy could be rethought, re- examined and re-experienced within the fundamental atmosphere of respiratory openness to the world and Being. In this dissertation, I initially try to rethink philosophy as a new philoso- phy of breathing. This new philosophy of breathing would be phenomenological ontology of breathing. The bases of this new phenomenological ontology of breathing are Merleau-Ponty’s remarks about breathing. My task is to explicate and interpret them with the help of Merleau- Ponty’s own phenomenological ontology. In my task of beginning philosophy anew as philoso- phy of breathing or as respiratory philosophy, I will also use the ideas of Martin Heidegger, Gaston Bachelard, Paul Claudel, Luce Irigaray, Edmund Husserl and David Kleinberg-Levin. My dissertation is divided into two main sections. In Section One, I construct within the frame- work of phenomenological ontology a new notion of breathing as the primacy of breathing. In Section Two, I develop a phenomenological method that I call the method of ontologico- respiratory reduction. This method will lead us back to the primacy of breathing. Keywords: breathing, phenomenology, ontology, Merleau-Ponty, philosophy, Bachelard, Heidegger, Irigaray, elemental, silence, listening, poetry Author Petri Berndtson Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy [email protected] Supervisors Academy Professor Sara Heinämaa Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy University of Jyväskylä Lecturer Martina Reuter Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy University of Jyväskylä Reviewers Professor Patrick Burke Gonzaga University Distinguished Professor Edward S. Casey Department of Philosophy Stony Brook University Opponent Professor Patrick Burke Gonzaga University ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In Signs, Maurice Merleau-Ponty writes: “philosophy lives from everything which happens to the philosopher and his times.” The philosophy of breathing that I try to development in this phenomenologically and experientially - oriented dissertation has received its life from so many respiratory experiences and breathful events and so many important breathing human beings. The fol- lowing people, that I want to thank, have explicitly or implicitly inspired my PhD dissertation. First of all, I want to thank Distinguished Professor Juha Varto without whom my philosophical project of breathing would have never began as he was the one who suggested to me years ago that I could write my Master’s Thesis in a Merleau-Pontian fashion about phenomenological philosophy of breathing. I am also ever grateful for his unorthodox way of introducing me to the dimen- sionalities and possibilities of philosophizing in a phenomenological manner as a perpetual beginner. Secondly, I am truly grateful to my supervisor Professor Sara Heinämaa for her trust, interest and support for my dissertation on bodily phenomenology of breathing. If my phenomenological interrogation of breathing would had never started without Professor Varto in a similar manner I can say that without Professor Heinämaa’s important help I could have not completed this PhD dis- sertation on breath. Thank you so much, Professor Heinämaa! Next I want to thank my second supervisor Senior Lecturer Dr. Martina Reuter. She was also the supervisor of my Master’s Thesis on breath and her incredible help and support I will never forget. Thank you, Dr. Reuter! After these people, I want to express my deep gratitude to Professor Le- nart Škof who is my closest ally in the world of philosophy as he is my fellow respiratory philosopher. Ever since we met in the Spring of 2014 in Gozd Mar- tuljek, Slovenia at the Poesis of Peace conference, Professor Škof’s presence in my philosophical career has been truly transformative. I am so happy, excited and thankful for all the things and events that have manifested in the philosophical world of breath through our collaboration or just with his enthusiasm for the primacy of breath in the name of peace, hospitality and truth. The most won- derful thing of our collaboration till now is the book on respiratory philosophy titled Atmospheres of Breathing that we coedited in 2018. Looking forward with excitement, my dear fellow respiratory and aerial traveller, to all the possibili- ties and surprises what the future of respiratory philosophy holds for us. In addition to all of this, I am also grateful to Professor Škof for introducing me to Professor Pauline von Bonsdorff and Associate Professor Tamara Ditrich with both of whom I share many common interests. I owe a very special debt of gratitude to the pre-examiners Distinguished Professor Edward S. Casey and Professor Patrick Burke for their valuable and thorough comments that helped me to improve my dissertation. During my doctoral studies, I have presented different parts of my dissertation in the re- search seminar of the Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy at Univer- sity of Jyväskylä and in the phenomenological research seminar organized by the research community Subjectivity, Historicity, Communality (SHC) at the Uni- versity of Helsinki. University of Jyväskylä’s philosophical research seminar was led in different occasions either by Professor Heinämaa, Dr. Jussi Backman or Dr. Jussi Saarinen. SHC -research community’s phenomenological research seminar was led either by Professor Heinämaa, Senior Lecturer Dr. Joona Tai- pale or Dr. Mirja Hartimo. I am deeply thankful for all of these seminar leaders as well as for all the participants of these research seminars for such wonderful, exciting and enlightening philosophical discussions which have inspired and improved by dissertation and my philosophical skills of argumentation, listen- ing and conversation.