Wonder, the Rainbow, and the Aesthetics of Rare Experiences

Philip Fisher

    The Aesthetics of Rare Experiences

    Wonder and the Sublime

    Philosophy Begins in Wonder

    Visual Experience: Wonder and the Ordinary

    The Instant of Wonder and the Instant of Thought

    The Rainbow and Cartesian Wonder

    The Aesthetics of the Rainbow

    Noah's Rainbow and Religious Intelligibility

    From Wonder to Thought

    Descartes and the Scientific Passion of Wonder

    Descartes's Definition of Wonder

    Pascal's Alternative: Imagination, Terror, Abyss

    Wonder Fades with Age

    Wonder and the Steps of Thought

    The Template of Wonder: To Be Human Is to Learn

    One and Only One Step

    Plato's Meno and Learning by Wonder

    Socratic Silence

    Explanation and Demystification

    Explanation and the Aesthetics of the Rainbow

    Fear of Explanation and Explanation by Fear

    The Dull Catalogue of Common Things: Genus, or Explanation by Kind

    Singularity and the Everyday

    Rainbow and Raindrop: Explanation by Substitution

    Aristotle's Geometry of the Experience of Rainbows: Explanation by Structure

    From Wonder to Explanation

    Transition to Aesthetic Wonder

    Seeing What Cannot Be Seen

    The Visual, the Visible, and the Intelligible

    Ruling Out Memory

    Intelligibility, Wonder, and Recognition

    Rainbow, Explanation, Error

    Recognition: Can Only Memory Guide Intelligibility?

    The Newness Effect in Modern Art

    Thinking through the Work of Art

    Cy Twombly's "Blackboard Painting"

    Blackboards and Temporary Writing

    Master Metaphors and Bright Ideas

    The Work of Art as a Field of Details

    The Return of Recognition and Memory

    Notes

    Acknowledgments

    Index

  • Cover: Wonder, the Rainbow, and the Aesthetics of Rare Experiences

Philip Fisher is the Felice Crowl Reid Professor of English and American Literature at Harvard University.