Sensuous Abstraction as Aesthetic Wonder: Reframing Lewis’s Analysis of Studied Perception

Abstract

In each instance I read — or more aptly put, studied — Tyson Lewis's essay on Studied Perception and a Phenomenon of Bodily Gesturality, I sought a comfort- able environment with an accommodating chair, as well as a table that provided room for me to move about among my books, notepad, and computer. These physical needs were important components in my efforts to maintain a mental state that allowed for clarity of thought and insight. No brown or imaginative abstraction was possible for me without those physical accommodations. While studying Lewis's words, I leaned forward and backward in my seat as my mental processes required. At times my hands supported my chin, while at others my hands were occupied with holding a pen or paper as I underlined key passages and my head nodded along with each of his central points. I would argue alongside Lewis that each of those actions was essential to my thought process as I engaged in abstract thinking. His account of the gesturality that accompanies contemplation reminds me that I operate under the assumption that my students have developed and frequently tap into their own carefully cultivated habits of mind and body as they study even though I do not explicitly discuss or model such processes when we are in class together. This interests me since it means that I have fallen short of creating the kinds of spaces that Lewis calls for, even though I would agree that they are valuable and essential to the learning process. As Lewis notes, the task of the teacher is to: open up a space and a time wherein students can stumble upon/into their gestures, get lost in these gestures, and thus take pleasure in the delay of perceptual completion. He argues that we, as educators, are lacking in our efforts to fulfill this aspect of our responsibilities, and I am inclined to agree. Underlying his claim concerning the important role of bodily gesturality is Lewis's phenomenological analysis of study based on Samuel Todes's work, Body and World. While I found Lewis's analysis of Todes to be sound and thought- provoking, I would like to address an aspect of the discussion of sensuous abstraction that I believe to be present in Lewis's thinking but is not sufficiently acknowledged by him. My argument is that in discussing the characteristics of sensuous abstraction both Todes and Lewis are talking about an aesthetic approach to experiencing and making-meaning of what is being studied and I shall explain why this is an important point to hold in dialogue with the rest of Lewis's claims. To better understand Lewis's analysis of Todes's work, I visited Body and World's Appendix II - Sensuous Abstraction and the Abstract Sense of Reality 1 from which Lewis draws many of his examples of Todes's thinking on this matter. I found it interesting that Todes sets forth as the goal of perception a kind of scientific facticity that is concerned with the 'thisness' of things, 2 which is why,