If we look at the tradition of Continental Philosophy, we can clearly see how the Poetic is fundamental to understand philosophical thinking. Martin Heidegger, specifically in “The Origin of the Work of Art”, makes it very clear that the ways of doing philosophy are very similar to those of the artistic process: they inquire into the World primarily through sensuous thinking. As Fernando Pessoa wrote in “Ela canta, pobre ceifeira,”: ‘what in me feels is thinking’.
The only significant difference between Art and Philosophy, may I advance it, lies in their ways of working with the abstract. While Philosophy works through the schema of propositional language — the framework of the Word — Art, in contrast, operates directly on the symbolic, particularly through the creation of objects. Beyond that, their ways of inquiring into the World are essentially the same: not just by interpreting it, but mainly by constituting it through meaning [hermeneutics].
We could look at Hans Haacke’s “Condensation Cube” [1963] or even at Alberto Caeiro’s poems to be exposed to works that are neither just philosophical or artistic, but operating through both, simultaneously. They make the World manifest though phenomena, understanding that the best way to apprehend existence as a whole is by ‘being open’. The ability to philosophize should be regarded as an artistic practice, in the same way that Art is an act of Philosophy. I will center my main argument around the greek idea of "alētheia", in order to make it more clear.

Authors:
Daniel Castro Lobo, University of Salamanca, Spain

About the Presenter(s)
Daniel Filipe Castro Lobo is currently a doctoral candidate in Philosophy at the University of Salamanca, Spain. His primary research interests are Nothingness, Consciousness, and Presence. His project aims to dissolve the idea of "the subject".

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