“At a Spit’s Distance”: Disgust and Fear in Aurel Kolnai and Jean-Paul Sartre
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13130/2039-9251/8119Abstract
Disgust and fear are very similar. Both seem to be a reaction of defense. The very sense of fear is nonetheless clear enough, that of disgust is not. Fear defends a person from something dangerous; disgust defends a person too, but the danger (if there is) that elicits it is absolutely obscure. In this paper, I will try to clarify in what consists the function of disgust and provide a criterion to identify its object. Basing my analysis on those carried out by Aurel Kolnai and Jean-Paul Sartre, I will claim that fear concerns the very existence of a person, while disgust its very value.Â
References
DIDI-HUBERMAN, Georges, âLa matière inquiète (Plasticité, viscosité, étrangeté)â, Lignes, 1/1, 2000, Disponibile allâindirizzo: https://www.cairn.info/revue-lignes1-2000-1-page-206.htm.
DOUGLAS, Mary, Purezza e pericolo. Unâanalisi dei concetti di contaminazione e tabù (1966), tr. it. di G. Ferraro, Il Mulino, Bologna 1975.
KOLNAI, Aurel, âDer Ekelâ, Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, X, 1929, pp. 515-569.
KORSMEYER, Carolyn, âVisceral Values: Aurel Kolnai on Disgustâ, in A. Kolnai, On Disgust, B. Smith and C. Korsmeyer (ed. by), Open Court, Chicago-La Salle 2004, pp. 1-25.
MARI, Michele, âLâorrore dei giardinettiâ, in Id., Tu, sanguinosa infanzia, Einaudi, Torino 2009, pp. 39-45.
SARTRE, Jean-Paul, Lâêtre et le néant, Gallimard, Paris 1943; Lâessere e il nulla, tr. it. di G. del Bo, Net, Milano 2002.
STRACCIARI, Andrea, Gusto e disgusto, Il Mulino, Bologna 2014.
VENDRELL, Ingrid, âAurel Kolnai: FenomenologÃa de los sentimientos hostilesâ, in A. Kolnai, Asco, soberbia, odio. FenomenologÃa de los sentimientos hostiles, Encuentro, Madrid 2013, pp. 7-32.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
The authors who publish in Itinera are required to accept the following conditions:
1. The authors retain the rights on their paper and lincese the journal the right of first publication. The paper is also licensed under a Creative Commons License, which allows others to share it, by indicating intellectual authorship and its first publication in Itinera.
2. Authors may adhere to other non-exclusive license agreements for the distribution of the published version of the paper (ex. deposit it in an institutional archive or publish it in a monograph), provided that its first publication in Itinera is indicated.
3. Authors can disseminate their paper online (ex. in institutional repositories or on their website) before and during the submission process, since this can lead to productive exchanges and increase quotations of the published work (See “The Effect of Open Access”).