Gaston Bachelard and the Hands of Albert Flocon

Authors

  • Hans-Jörg Rheinberger Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22370/rhv2016iss8pp205-221

Keywords:

Gaston Bachelard, Albert Flocon, Images of the hand, Concretion, Abstraction, Perspective, Phenomenotechnique, Surrationalism

Abstract

The paper deals with the engraving hand of Albert Flocon and its poietic description by the pen of Gaston Bachelard. It proceeds by discussing examples of the group of collaborative works that emerged from the cooperation between Flocon, the copperplate engraver and theoretician of perspective and Bachelard, the philosopher of science and scholar of literary images in mid-twentieth century Paris.

Author Biography

Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin

Emeritus Scientific Member
Emeritus Scientific Members are former retired Research Scholars of the MPIWG who keep pursuing active research as guests of one of the Institute’s Departments.
Department Rheinberger
Dr., Honorarprofessor für Wissenschaftsgeschichte an der TU Berlin, Dr. h.c. ETH Zürich, MPIWG Director 1997-2014.

The main focus of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger’s research lies in the history and epistemology of experimentation in the life sciences. By bridging the gap between the study of history and contemporary cutting-edge sciences, such as molecular biology, his work represents an example of transdisciplinarity as emerging in the present knowledge-based society. The Swiss-born scientist studied philosophy and biology in Tübingen and Berlin, Germany. He received his M.A. in philosophy in 1973, his Ph.D. in biology in 1982, and his habilitation in molecular biology in 1987. He was Assistant Professor at the University of Lübeck, Germany, and Associate Professor at the University of Salzburg, Austria. Since 1997, he has been a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.

Hans Jörg Rheinberger has been a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin and of the Collegium Helveticum in Zürich. He is honorary professor at the Institute for Philosophy and History of Science of the Technical University Berlin, a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of the Sciences, a member of the Leopoldina, the German Academy of Natural Scientists, and a doctor honoris causa at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

Selected publications:

Rheinberger, H.-J., & St. Werner, J. (2016). 'Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse kann man eben nicht wie eine Pizza herstellen': im Gespräch mit Hans-Jörg Rheinberger und Jan St. Werner. In S. Witzgall, & K. Stakemeier (Eds.), Die Gegenwart der Zukunft (pp. 117-125). Zürich: Diaphanes.

Rheinberger, H.-J. (2016). A brief history of protein biosynthesis and ribosome research. Lindau: Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.

Rheinberger, H.-J. (2016). Claude Bernard. In Kindler Kompakt: Klassiker der Naturwissenschaften (pp. 131-133). Stuttgart: Metzler.

Rheinberger, H.-J. (2016). Culture and nature in the prism of knowledge. History of Humanities, 1(1), 155-181. doi:10.1086/685064.

Rheinberger, H.-J. (2016). Der Kupferstecher und der Philosoph. Zürich [u.a.]: Diaphanes.

Blum, A., Zschocke, N., Rheinberger, H.-J., & Barras, V. (Eds.). (2016). Diversität: Geschichte und Aktualität eines Konzepts. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann.

Rheinberger, H.-J. (2016). Episteme zwischen Wissenschaft und Kunst. In M. Cairo, M. Hannemann, U. Haß, & J. Schäfer (Eds.), Episteme des Theaters: aktuelle Kontexte von Wissenschaft, Kunst und Öffentlichkeit (pp. 17-27). Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.

Rammert, W., & Rheinberger, H.-J. (2016). Geleitwort. In E. Lettkemann (Ed.), Stabile Interdisziplinarität: eine Biografie der Elektronenmikroskopie aus historisch-soziologischer Perspektive (pp. 7-13). Baden-Baden: Nomos.

See more publications: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/de/users/rheinbg

References

Bachelard, Gaston (1936). “Surrationalism,” trans. Julien Levy, in Surrealism, ed. Julien Levy. New York: Black Sun Press, pp. 186–89.

Bachelard, Gaston (1948). La terre et les reveries de la volonté. Paris: José Corti. English translation: Earth and Reveries of Will; Bachelard, Earth and Reveries of Repose.

Bachelard, Gaston (1949). Le rationalisme appliqué. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Bachelard, Gaston (1969). The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language, and the Cosmos, trans. Daniel Russell. Boston: Beacon Press. (La poétique de la rêverie, 1960).

Bachelard, Gaston (1971). The Right to Dream, trans. J. A. Underwood. New York: Orion.

Bachelard, Gaston (1984). The New Scientific Spirit (1934), trans. Arthur Goldhammer. Boston: Beacon Press.

Bachelard, Gaston (2002). The Formation of the Scientific Mind: A Contribution to a Psychoanalysis of Objective Knowledge (1938). Trans Mary McAllester Jones. Manchester: Clinamen.

Bachelard, Gaston (2006). “Noumenon and Microphysics” (1931–1932), trans. Bernard Roy, Philosophical Forum 37, no. 1: 75–84.

Bachelard, Gaston & Flocon, Albert (1950). Paysages. Rolle, Vaud: Eynard.

Bachelard, Gaston & Flocon, Albert (1957). Châteaux en Espagne. Paris: Cercle Grolier, Les amis du livre moderne.

Bachelard, Gaston et al. (1949). A la gloire de la main. Paris: Aux dépens d’un amateur.

Éluard, Paul & Flocon, Albert (1948). Perspectives: Poèmes sur des gravures de Albert Flocon. Paris: Maeght.

Flocon, Albert (1952). Le traité du burin. Avec une préface de Gaston Bachelard. Paris: Librairie Auguste Blaizot.

Flocon, Albert (1983), “Main ouvrière et main rêveuse. Entretien avec Gil Jouanard,” in Bachelard ou le droit de rêver. Solaire, numéro spécial 10e anniversaire, Saint-Julien-de-Peyrolas, Spring 1983, 57-65.

Flocon, Albert (1994). Points de fuite 1909-1922, Vol. 1. Neuchâtel: Editions Ides & Calendes.

Flocon, Albert (1995). Points de fuite 1909-1922, Vol. 2. Neuchâtel: Editions Ides & Calendes.

Parinaud, André (1996). Gaston Bachelard. Paris: Flammarion.

Rheinberger, Hans-Jörg (2016). Der Kupferstecher und der Philosoph. Albert Flocon trifft Gaston Bachelard. Zurich and Berlin: Diaphanes.

Starobinski, Jean (1951). "Paysages gravés", in Journal de Genève, January 27, pp. 3-4.

Starobinski, Jean (1997). Largesse. Trans. by Jane Marie Todd. Chicago: Chicago University Press.

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Published

2016-12-13

How to Cite

Rheinberger, H.-J. (2016). Gaston Bachelard and the Hands of Albert Flocon. Revista De Humanidades De Valparaíso, (8), 205–221. https://doi.org/10.22370/rhv2016iss8pp205-221

Issue

No. 8 (2016): No 8 (2016)

Section

Articles

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