The Empiricism of Michel Serres: A Theory of The Senses between Philosophy of Science, Phenomenology and Ethics

Abstract

The paper presents the philosophy of the French philosopher Michel Serres, with an accent on his working method and unusual methodology. Starting from the thesis that the empiricist trait of Serres’ philosophy remains underexposed if one simply receives his work as that of a structuralist epistemologist, Serres’ monograph The Five Senses (1985) is then discussed in more detail. Here we see both a radical empiricism all his own and a closeness to phenomenology. Nevertheless, perception and language are not opposed to each other in Serres. Rather, his radical thinking of a world-relatedness of the bodily senses and an equally consistent understanding of a sensuality of language – and also of philosophical prose – are closely intertwined.

Rad nam predstavlja filozofiju francuskog filozofa Mišela Sera, sa akcentom na njegov radni metod, te krajnje neuobičajenu metodologiju. Polazeći od teze da empirijska crta Serove fi-lozofije ostaje nedovoljno eksponirana ukoliko se njegova dela naprosto recipiraju kao dela epistemologa strukturaliste, prelazi se na detaljniju analizu Serove monografije The Five Sen-se (1985). Tu vidimo i radikalni empirizam, sam za sebe, ali i bliskost sa fenomenologijom. Pa ipak, percepcija i jezik, kod Sera nisu suprotstavljeni. Umesto toga, njegovo radikalna misao o povezanosti telesnih čula sa svetom i podjednako dosledno razumevanje osećajnosti jezi-ka – a takođe i filozofske proze – duboko su isprepleteni.