Reoccupying Metaphor: On the Legitimacy of the Nonconceptual

Hans Blumenberg’s magisterial defense of modernity against the reproach of secularization, elaborated most extensively in The Legitimacy of the Modern Age (1966, 1974), develops both a distinctive method of philosophical history and the groundwork of a philosophical anthropology, predicated on the e...

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Main Author: C. D. Blanton
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2015-03-01
Series:Humanities
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/4/1/181
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author C. D. Blanton
author_facet C. D. Blanton
author_sort C. D. Blanton
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description Hans Blumenberg’s magisterial defense of modernity against the reproach of secularization, elaborated most extensively in The Legitimacy of the Modern Age (1966, 1974), develops both a distinctive method of philosophical history and the groundwork of a philosophical anthropology, predicated on the emergence of human self-assertion as theoretical curiosity. But as Blumenberg’s work attests more generally, this argument both devolves on and comprises an excursion into metaphorology, transposing the grounds of legitimation from dialectic to rhetoric. This paper explores the implications of such a metaphorical transfer, suggesting that Blumenberg not only presupposes a cryptic mode of poetics, but also (against its own anthropological intention) invests that poetics with the power to negate the category of the human as such.
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spelling doaj.art-a3dc552d884d40bda5896d96784837d02022-12-22T00:29:00ZengMDPI AGHumanities2076-07872015-03-014118119710.3390/h4010181h4010181Reoccupying Metaphor: On the Legitimacy of the NonconceptualC. D. Blanton0Department of English, University of California, Berkeley, 94720 CA, USAHans Blumenberg’s magisterial defense of modernity against the reproach of secularization, elaborated most extensively in The Legitimacy of the Modern Age (1966, 1974), develops both a distinctive method of philosophical history and the groundwork of a philosophical anthropology, predicated on the emergence of human self-assertion as theoretical curiosity. But as Blumenberg’s work attests more generally, this argument both devolves on and comprises an excursion into metaphorology, transposing the grounds of legitimation from dialectic to rhetoric. This paper explores the implications of such a metaphorical transfer, suggesting that Blumenberg not only presupposes a cryptic mode of poetics, but also (against its own anthropological intention) invests that poetics with the power to negate the category of the human as such.http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/4/1/181BlumenbergHansmetaphorrhetoricmodernitylegitimacyreoccupationphilosophical anthropologymetalepsis
spellingShingle C. D. Blanton
Reoccupying Metaphor: On the Legitimacy of the Nonconceptual
Humanities
Blumenberg
Hans
metaphor
rhetoric
modernity
legitimacy
reoccupation
philosophical anthropology
metalepsis
title Reoccupying Metaphor: On the Legitimacy of the Nonconceptual
title_full Reoccupying Metaphor: On the Legitimacy of the Nonconceptual
title_fullStr Reoccupying Metaphor: On the Legitimacy of the Nonconceptual
title_full_unstemmed Reoccupying Metaphor: On the Legitimacy of the Nonconceptual
title_short Reoccupying Metaphor: On the Legitimacy of the Nonconceptual
title_sort reoccupying metaphor on the legitimacy of the nonconceptual
topic Blumenberg
Hans
metaphor
rhetoric
modernity
legitimacy
reoccupation
philosophical anthropology
metalepsis
url http://www.mdpi.com/2076-0787/4/1/181
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