Metaphysics in the Era of the Image: Marion on Image, Idol and Icon
Author:LI Bingquan, Lecturer, School of Liberal Arts, Renmin University of China
Abstract:
Reflection on the issue of “image” is an important topic in contemporary French philosophy. Jean-Luc Marion’s critique of the metaphysics of subjectivity in his discourse on “the era of the image” is a response to Heidegger’s thesis “the end of metaphysics”. According to Marion, at the heart of the question of image is a question of visibility and appearance, especially the appearance of the invisible, and thus is closely related to the question of phenomenality and the status of subjectivity. By investigating Marion’s key concepts “idol” and “icon,” this paper tries to see how the world of the image we inhabit embodies a metaphysics of subjectivity with which Marion identifies as “idol”. Having recourse to the debate of iconoclasm in church history, this paper goes further to see how the icon, and thus a phenomenology of iconic givenness, can overcome the metaphysics of subjectivity of our times.
Keywords:
Idol, Metaphysics of Subjectivity, Icon, the Other
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