I had the privilege of chairing a session at the Foucault and Phenomenology Conference in Memphis, Tennessee in March 2025. It was put on by The Southern Journal of Philosophy at the University of Memphis. Here is a link to the program.
Not only was it incredible to discuss Foucault’s relation to phenomenology with scholars from around the world, but it was a privilege to introduce and monitor the session of Philippe Sabot, an internationally recognized scholar in Foucault. In fact, his work encouraged me while I was writing my dissertation that a connection between Merleau-Ponty and Foucault could be established.
In my introduction, I said, “I first heard Philippe Sabot speak with Frederic Gros and Daniele Lorenzini in the basement of the bibliothèque marguerite in Paris in 2017. I was living there at the time working on my dissertation on Merleau-Ponty and Foucault and his work inspired me that I was perhaps on the right track to argue that there is a possible and even fruitful dialogue between Merleau-Ponty and Foucault.”
His title was: “From phenomenology to archaeology: Foucault with Merleau-Ponty.”
I had the opportunity to offer a response to Maria Fedoryka’s “The Intimate Structure of Sex and Its Meaning” at the American Catholic Philosophical Association Conference on November 16, 2024.
My title was “Centrality of Sexuality: A Beginning to Metaphysics.” Here is an excerpt from my talk:
“In a rather provocative statement, Merleau-Ponty argues that our sexuality is a starting place for metaphysics: “Metaphysics — the emergence of a beyond nature — is not localized on the level of knowledge; it begins with the opening to an ‘other,’ it is everywhere and already contained within the distinctive development of sexuality.”[1] Sexual desires, as Merleau-Ponty points out, although rooted in our body, are for more than physical gratification, but for closeness and intimacy with an other (a “union” as Fedoryka calls it). This opening up to something beyond ourselves is the work of metaphysics; it is a drawing us and pulling us to the truth of being which is the source for all meaning of human life. All of metaphysics is always done as bodily creatures; we can never take a break from our bodies to contemplate the questions of existence and yet, as bodily creatures, in doing metaphysics, we are constantly drawn to higher things. Sexual desires illustrate this unlike anything else: they are firmly embedded in our bodily desires and yet include a longing to be caught up in something bigger than ourselves. Merleau-Ponty writes, “There is no explanation of sexuality that reduces it to something other than itself; it already is, so to speak, our entire being.”[2] The centrality of sexuality reveals how humans have an openness to transcendence which permeates all of our being.”
[1]Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, trans. Donald A Landes (Routledge, 2012), 171.
[2]Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, 174.
I presented at the International Network of Philosophy of Religion conference which took place in Perugia, Italy on June 11, 2024. It was a wonderful conference connecting with old friends and meeting new ones. The location was beautiful overlooking several small cities including Assisi (where St. Francis was from).
Here is a picture from the back of the hotel.
The conference is both in French and English so I wrote my abstract in both. And like last time, I read my paper in English but read the longer quotations in the original French.
Title: Art Speaks the Unspeakable: Suffering of the World in Aesthetic Expression
Abstract. Responding to the discussion on solitude and tragedy (the “extra-phenomenal”), at our last conference, and reflecting on the crisis of our created world, for this conference, this paper looks to the power of art to speak into the silent spaces of deep suffering. Because there are events where no human language — not even the language of phenomenology — can offer us a satisfying response, art has an ethical obligation to speak to us in the midst of personal and global suffering. Drawing on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s idea that art emerges out of silence, I will first offer further proof for why it is that art must speak of suffering. Next, I will describe how art fulfills this obligation due to its facility with the vocabulary surrounding suffering, for example, death and brokenness, as seen in illustrations from the art of the French existentialists, Simone de Beauvoir, Gabriel Marcel, Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus. Lastly, I will present what art says to us in suffering to demonstrate its indispensability; for the uncompromising message of aesthetic expression reveals to us the fullness of reality, the hard and the good, unlike anything else.
L’art dit l’indicible: souffrance du monde dans l’expression esthétique
Le résumé. Répondant à l’échange sur la solitude et la tragédie (le “Hors-phénomène”), lors de notre dernière conférence, et réfléchissant sur la crise de notre monde créé, pour cette conférence, cet article se penche sur le pouvoir de l’art de parler dans les espaces silencieux de la souffrance profonde. Parce qu’il y a des événements où le langage humaine — même le langage de la phénoménologie — ne peut pas nous offrir une réponse satisfaisante, l’art a une obligation éthique de nous dire quelque chose au milieu de la souffrance personnelle et globale. Faisant appel à l’idée de Maurice Merleau-Ponty selon laquelle l’art émerge du silence, j’offrirai tout d’abord une preuve en plus du fait que l’art doit parler de la souffrance. Ensuite, je décrirai comment l’art remplit cette obligation par sa richesse de vocabulaire du domaine de souffrance, par exemple, la mort et le monde cassé, comme le montrent les illustrations des arts des existentialistes français, Simone de Beauvoir, Gabriel Marcel, Jean-Paul Sartre et Albert Camus. Et enfin, je présenterai ce que l’art nous dit dans la souffrance pour démonter sa nécessité ; car le message intransigeant de l’expression esthétique nous révèle la plénitude de la réalité, du dur et du bien, contrairement à toute autre chose.
I have had the opportunity to live in Nîmes, France this summer to do further research, improve my French and participate in a couple of European conferences. It has been a wonderful summer with easy access to philosophy books at the local bookstores and at the library. I’ve also taken some French classes at a nearby language school.
In May, I participated as a respondent at one of the philosophy doctoral seminars at the Institut Catholique in Paris. I gave a “Response to Karl Hefty’s ‘Toward a Phenomenology of Mercy.'”
Here is a picture of the Institut Catholique de Paris.
Here is my abstract of my short response to Hefty’s paper:
Karl Hefty offers us rich and deep reflections on the beginnings to a phenomenology of mercy. In my response, I will first give a brief summary of the six parts of Hefty’s paper. Next, I would like to add one more Biblical reference to mercy that signifies the connection between mercy and life. This reference is to the “mercy seat” that serves as the lid to the ark of the convenant in Exodus and is discussed again in the book of Hebrews. To spur discussion, I will then challenge Hefty’s understanding of suffering and suggest that an expanded notion of suffering would reflect human life more authentically and give us an even fuller account of mercy. Specifically, I will argue that mercy does not always have the goal of “taking away suffering” because suffering lays out goods for us in and of itself and because suffering can be a gift that is given to us out of mercy.
While I’ve been in here in France, my research has been primarily on the relation between art and suffering. I will present a version of this paper at a conference in Italy (which I will post separately about). But I plan on publishing a completed version in an edited collection, Aesthetics Ethics, which should be available next year. It is also hopefully part of a future book on art and ordinary living that I am writing with my friend, Mark Allen.
For my research, I have focused on tracking down the French sources for many of the books that I use in my chapter. Many of these books are easily found at the local bookstores. Here are some that I’ve purchased.
The ones that I can’t find at the bookstores have been at the local library here in Nîmes (Bibliothèque Carré d’Art). Here is a picture of the library.
Here are some of the books that I’ve checked out.
I have also had the opportunity to improve my French by everyday dialogue on the streets and by taking some classes at a local language school called Une Autre Langue.
I recently did an interview about my book! Giorgi Vachnadze has a youtube channel called, The Silence of Savoir, and he asked if he could host me for an interview.
It was really fun talking about the book with him. He had great questions and I think the video gives a good summary of the book! Thank you, Giorgi!
Enjoy the interview!
Interview with Venable on book, Madness in Experience and History
Through Wonder 