The Aesthetic Path to Hermeneutics in J.-L. Marion’s Phenomenology

Abstract

Recently, Jean-Luc Marion has developed the role of hermeneutics within his phenomenology of givenness. This paper aims to demonstrate that there is an aesthetic path to accessing hermeneutic engagement of a basic kind in his previous work. The Marionian hermeneutic management of the gap between what gives itself and what shows itself finds its heuristic model in the artist’s task of making the unseen visible, as becomes clear in his studies of painting.