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Living Off Landscape

or the Unthought-of in Reason

Francois Jullien - Translated by Pedro Rodriguez

Is it only through vision that we can perceive a landscape? Is the space opened by the landscape truly an expanse cut off by the horizon? Do we observe a landscape in the way that we watch a 'show'? What, ultimately, does it mean to 'look'?

In this important new book, one of France's most influential living theorists argues that the first civilization to truly consider landscape was China. In giving landscape the name 'mountain(s)-water(s)', the Chinese language provides a powerful alternative to Western biases. The Chinese conception speaks of a correlation between high and low, between the still and the motile, between what has form and what is formless, between what we see and what we hear. No longer a matter of 'vision', landscape becomes a matter of living. Francois Jullien invites the reader to explore reason's unthought choices, and to take a fresh look at our more basic involvement in the world.
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  • Reviews
  • Reviews
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International
Pages: 148 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-78660-337-1 • Hardback • January 2018 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
978-1-78660-338-8 • Paperback • January 2018 • $37.00 • (£30.00)
Series: Global Aesthetic Research
Subjects: Philosophy / Aesthetics, Philosophy / Environmental Philosophy, Philosophy / Eastern
Francois Jullien, Professor, Universite de Paris-Diderot and Chair of Alterity, Fondation Maison
des Sciences de l'Homme
Francois Jullien is Professor and Chair of the Department of Oriental Studies at Universite de Paris-
Diderot and Chair of Alterity at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme. He is also
President of the College International de Philosophie in Paris. His previous books on aesthetics
have all been translated into English, including The Strange Idea of Beauty (2015), The Great Image
has No Form, or On the Nonobject Through Painting (2009) and The Impossible Nude (2007).

Pedro Rodriguez, translator
Prologue / 1. Land – Landscape: Expanse, View, Cut-Off / 2. "Mountain(s)-Water(s)" / 3. From a Landscape to Living / 4. When the Perceptual Turns Out to Be Affectual / 5. When "Spirit" Emanates from the Physical / 6. Tension-Setting / 7. Singularization, Variation, Remove / 8. Connivance / Epilogue / Index
Francois Jullien's rich exploration of what he calls "landscape thought" raises awareness of the cultural conditioning that obscures understanding and renders new thought impossible. Through his focus on environmental aesthetics in China and Europe he provides us with a philosophical method for productive possibilities of global engagement at all levels. This is a comparatist scholarship for a globally articulated time.​
— Pradeep Dhillon, Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Illinois


Although the appearance of any book by Jullien merits celebration, this work is especially precious. Retrieving the Chinese tradition of shan shui (山水) or mountain(s) and river(s) “landscape” painting, which deploys the polar vitality of emptiness and form, he challenges the European landscape tradition and exposes “connivance” as another way of living with the “ spirit” of the singular “milieu” of a place. What could be more important in our age of ecological crisis and “impending uniformity”?
— Jason Wirth, Seattle University


While the author is highly critical of traditional European approaches, the insights offered by this enchanting work will help readers rediscover the meaning and value of landscape and break away from customary perception by allowing them to wander through nature as depicted by classical Chinese poets and painters, while at the same time inspiring them to find new approaches to solving issues in contemporary urban design, and sustainable environmental development.
— Xiaoyan Hu


With immense intelligence and reflexivity, François Jullien does the seemingly impossible: peeling off layer by layer the opaque cultural sediments that pre-condition our landscape-thought even when we struggle to escape from them. Living Off Landscape is a thought thriller; it demonstrates yet again that no one comes close to Jullien in terms of insights and relevance of cross-cultural thinking. Jullien shows us the form of the twenty-first century mind.
— Shiqiao Li, Weedon Professor in Asian Architecture at the University of Virginia


Jullien’s main merit with this book ... lies not (only) in the explanation of the differences of the cultural tradition and their landscape-interpretation, and not even merely in the fact of presenting his method of investigating the concepts through the divide, but that through his observation of the tradition he manages to propose novel ways of being engaged with the landscape that have multiple further consequences not only in interpreting past art products and cultural phenomena but also in offering new answers to contemporary environmental and ecological issues.


— Zoltán Somhegyi, Assistant Professor of Art History and Cultural Studies, University of Sharjah; The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics


Living Off Landscape

or the Unthought-of in Reason

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
Summary
Summary
  • Is it only through vision that we can perceive a landscape? Is the space opened by the landscape truly an expanse cut off by the horizon? Do we observe a landscape in the way that we watch a 'show'? What, ultimately, does it mean to 'look'?

    In this important new book, one of France's most influential living theorists argues that the first civilization to truly consider landscape was China. In giving landscape the name 'mountain(s)-water(s)', the Chinese language provides a powerful alternative to Western biases. The Chinese conception speaks of a correlation between high and low, between the still and the motile, between what has form and what is formless, between what we see and what we hear. No longer a matter of 'vision', landscape becomes a matter of living. Francois Jullien invites the reader to explore reason's unthought choices, and to take a fresh look at our more basic involvement in the world.
Details
Details
  • Rowman & Littlefield Publishers / Rowman & Littlefield International
    Pages: 148 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½
    978-1-78660-337-1 • Hardback • January 2018 • $117.00 • (£90.00)
    978-1-78660-338-8 • Paperback • January 2018 • $37.00 • (£30.00)
    Series: Global Aesthetic Research
    Subjects: Philosophy / Aesthetics, Philosophy / Environmental Philosophy, Philosophy / Eastern
Author
Author
  • Francois Jullien, Professor, Universite de Paris-Diderot and Chair of Alterity, Fondation Maison
    des Sciences de l'Homme
    Francois Jullien is Professor and Chair of the Department of Oriental Studies at Universite de Paris-
    Diderot and Chair of Alterity at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme. He is also
    President of the College International de Philosophie in Paris. His previous books on aesthetics
    have all been translated into English, including The Strange Idea of Beauty (2015), The Great Image
    has No Form, or On the Nonobject Through Painting (2009) and The Impossible Nude (2007).

    Pedro Rodriguez, translator
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Prologue / 1. Land – Landscape: Expanse, View, Cut-Off / 2. "Mountain(s)-Water(s)" / 3. From a Landscape to Living / 4. When the Perceptual Turns Out to Be Affectual / 5. When "Spirit" Emanates from the Physical / 6. Tension-Setting / 7. Singularization, Variation, Remove / 8. Connivance / Epilogue / Index
Reviews
Reviews
  • Francois Jullien's rich exploration of what he calls "landscape thought" raises awareness of the cultural conditioning that obscures understanding and renders new thought impossible. Through his focus on environmental aesthetics in China and Europe he provides us with a philosophical method for productive possibilities of global engagement at all levels. This is a comparatist scholarship for a globally articulated time.​
    — Pradeep Dhillon, Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Illinois


    Although the appearance of any book by Jullien merits celebration, this work is especially precious. Retrieving the Chinese tradition of shan shui (山水) or mountain(s) and river(s) “landscape” painting, which deploys the polar vitality of emptiness and form, he challenges the European landscape tradition and exposes “connivance” as another way of living with the “ spirit” of the singular “milieu” of a place. What could be more important in our age of ecological crisis and “impending uniformity”?
    — Jason Wirth, Seattle University


    While the author is highly critical of traditional European approaches, the insights offered by this enchanting work will help readers rediscover the meaning and value of landscape and break away from customary perception by allowing them to wander through nature as depicted by classical Chinese poets and painters, while at the same time inspiring them to find new approaches to solving issues in contemporary urban design, and sustainable environmental development.
    — Xiaoyan Hu


    With immense intelligence and reflexivity, François Jullien does the seemingly impossible: peeling off layer by layer the opaque cultural sediments that pre-condition our landscape-thought even when we struggle to escape from them. Living Off Landscape is a thought thriller; it demonstrates yet again that no one comes close to Jullien in terms of insights and relevance of cross-cultural thinking. Jullien shows us the form of the twenty-first century mind.
    — Shiqiao Li, Weedon Professor in Asian Architecture at the University of Virginia


    Jullien’s main merit with this book ... lies not (only) in the explanation of the differences of the cultural tradition and their landscape-interpretation, and not even merely in the fact of presenting his method of investigating the concepts through the divide, but that through his observation of the tradition he manages to propose novel ways of being engaged with the landscape that have multiple further consequences not only in interpreting past art products and cultural phenomena but also in offering new answers to contemporary environmental and ecological issues.


    — Zoltán Somhegyi, Assistant Professor of Art History and Cultural Studies, University of Sharjah; The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics


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