Van Gogh among the Philosophers

David P. Nichols is associate professor of philosophy at Saginaw Valley State University.

• After the Cypress: An IntroductionDavid P. NicholsJaspers’ Pathographic Analysis of Van Gogh: A Critique and AppreciationGregory J. WaltersPainting from the Outside: Foucault and Van GoghJoseph J. TankeThe Problem of Agency in Heidegger's Interpretation of Van GoghIngvild TorsenSensuality, Materiality, Painting: What is Wrong with Jaspers' and Heidegger's Van Gogh Interpretations?Christian LotzMal Pointure or If the Shoe Doesn't Fit…K. Malcolm RichardsVan Gogh, Heidegger, and the Attuned LifeStephen A. EricksonImmanent Transcendence in the Work of Art: Jaspers and Heidegger on Van GoghRebecca Longtin HansenMerleau-Ponty's Thinking of Perception and the Art of Van Gogh: On “Going Further” and “Going Beyond”Galen A. JohnsonVan Gogh in Tragic Portraiture: Jaspers, Bataille, HeideggerDavid P. NicholsPrometheus Dismembered: Bataille on Van Gogh or The Window in the Bataille RestaurantJames LuchteVan Gogh’s Dark Illuminations: The End of Art or The A

Once the veneer of global commodification has been scraped away, Van Gogh reemerges in his startling innovation and brilliance. His philosophical reception perspicaciously attests to this, from Jasper’s groundbreaking philosophical and psychiatric case study to Bataille’s short essays to the scattered but striking comments by Foucault and Merleau-Ponty to short studies by Artaud and Altizer. It most famously plays out in the epic battle between Heidegger and Derrida over the ownership of a pair of shoes. This underreported history animates this exceptional and welcome collection of essays.