I present and defend a two-category ontology of art. The basic idea of it is that singular artworks are physical objects, whereas multiple artworks are types of which there can be tokens in the form of performances, copies, or other kinds of realisations. I argue that multiple artworks, despite being abstract objects, have a temporal extension, thus they are created at a certain point of time and can also drop out of existence again under certain conditions. They can, however, not be perceived by the senses and cannot enter into causal relations. The identity of an artwork is determined by its structural properties, but also by the context in which it was made. The essential contextual properties of an artwork are those that are relevant to the meaning of the work. A realisation of a multiple artwork has to comply with the structure of the work and has to stand in the correct intentional and/or causal-historical relation to the work. Realisations that diverge too much from the structure of the work, like translations of literary works, are what I call “derivative artworks”. I argue against the thesis that all artworks are multiple. I claim that there are singular artworks, and some of them are even necessarily singular. I show why certain standard arguments against the idea that all artworks can be realised multiple times are flawed, and present my own theory about what decides whether a work is singular or multiple, namely that successful intentions of the artist determine which category an artwork belongs to. Concerning singular artworks, I also investigate what the relation between the work and the matter it is made of is, and how a work can survive a change in its parts and still remain the same work.

O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar a questão da pintura na filosofia de Merleau-Ponty. Inicialmente inscrita nos quadros de uma filosofia da existência, e depois, com maior destaque, nos quadros de uma ontologia. A questão da arte, particularmente a pintura, surge como meio privilegiado de investigação das nossas relações mais surdas e secretas com o Ser, ou com isso que Merleau-Ponty chamava de camada pré-reflexiva de sentido de mundo, anterior às teses de nossa linguagem. Isso porque a atividade da pintura revela os meios da visibilidade, que nosso olhar cotidiano deixa para trás e esquece a favor do mundo constituído culturalmente. Ou seja, habitamos um mundo que esquece suas premissas, e a tarefa do pintor, especialmente a de Cézanne, é recuperar o contato do olhar com este mundo inabitual. Nesta relação originária do corpo com o mundo, destaca-se, na obra de Merleau-Ponty, uma nova concepção de profundidade, que não é apenas do espaço, mas do corpo, e também das coisas. Merleau-Ponty apontou para esta noção em seus ensaios sobre arte, na tentativa de recolocar em questão a atividade artística como atividade que revela a implicação entre o mundo percebido e a corporeidade. Percebeu na profundidade a implicação da reversibilidade do corpo: a visibilidade a que se abre o vidente é também a de seu corpo visível, que é ao mesmo tempo vidente e visível, senciente e sensível. O autor afirma que, uma vez que este entrecruzamento está dado, aí estão, igualmente, colocados todos os problemas da pintura. Sendo assim, a pintura revela o enigma do próprio corpo. Minha visão se faz nas coisas e me apreende ao mesmo tempo no meu olhar desdobrado diante de mim, entrelaçamento que possibilita uma visibilidade secreta, ou um duplo carnal. O filósofo desenvolve o termo ?carne? para denominar este ?entre? o vidente e o visível, abertura de um ao outro, e passagem de um no outro, que define nosso acesso ao Ser. Percorremos algumas questões: entre o mundo percebido e o ato expressivo, o que é a atividade do artista, senão uma coerência com a visibilidade que o provoca e, portanto, que mal se desprende do espetáculo do mundo? Como o pintor ou o poeta expressariam outra coisa senão seu encontro com o mundo? E o que buscam neste encontro, senão uma relação mais verdadeira, sem ser uma verdade que se assemelhe ao mundo, mas coerente em seu encontro, isto é, capaz de expressar o invisível que anima a relação do olhar com a visibilidade, ou do sentir com a realidade? Neste movimento de pensamento, que inicialmente enfatiza uma nova idéia de Razão ou de Verdade através da atividade do olhar, chega-se, por fim, à noção de desejo ou de corpo libidinal. Perceber é desejar, movimento inscrito na abertura do Ser sensível, que inaugura as trocas entre o corpo e as coisas, em que o olhar ou a visibilidade é um elemento privilegiado. / The aim of this study is the research of the problem of painting in the philosophy of Merleau Ponty. Originally enrolled in the frames of an existencialistic philosophy, aferwards it was put with more prominence, in the frame of an ontology.The problem of art, especially of painting, arises as a privileged way of research of our more deaf and secret relations with Being, or wich that what Merleau Ponnty nominated the pre-reflexive layer of the sense of the world, previous to the thesis of our language. This is so because the activity of painting reveals the means of visibility that our daily look leaves behind and forgets privileging the cultural constructed world. In other words, we live in a world that forgets its premisses, and the task of the painter, especially of Cézanne, is to recover the contact of the look on this unhabitual world. In this original relation of the body with the world we may emphasize, in the work of Merleau Ponty, a new concept of depth, that is not only of space, but of the body, and also of the things. Merleau Ponty pointed to this notion in his essays about arts, trying to question again the artist?s activity as an activity that reveals the implication between the perceived world and the bodyness. He perceived in the depth the implication of the revertibility of the body: the visibility which opens itself to the beholder is also that of his visual body, which is at the same time beholder and visible object, sensing and sensible. The author states that once this intercrossing is given, all the problems of painting are here placed in the same way. In being so, the painting reveals the enigma of the body itself. My look realizes itself in the things and grasps me at the same moment in my look unfolded in front of myself, this interlinking makes possible a secret visibility or a carnal double. The philosophe develops the term \"flesh\" to denominate this \"between\" the beholder and the visible, opening one to the other, giving passage from one to the other, which defines our access to Being. We will deal with some questions: What is the activity of the artist between the perceived world and the expressive act, other then a coherence with the visibility that it causes and, therefore, what harm does come from the spectacle of the world? How the painter and the poet would express other things than their meeting with the world? And in this meeting what they are looking for other than a more true relation, without being a truth which is similar to the world, but coherent in their meeting, this is, capable to express the invisible that cheers up the relation of the gaze with the visibility or of the feeling with the realityIn this movement of thoughts, which emphasizes initially a new idea of Reason and of Truth by means of the activity of looking, one arrives, finally to the notion of desire or of the libidinal body. To perceive is to desire, a movement graved in the opening of sensitive Being, that inaugurates the exchanges between the body and the things, in whicht he looking or the visibility is a privileged element.

Thesis (M.V.A.)--Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, 2005. / Title from title screen (viewed 26 May 2008). "Glass"--At the foot of t.p. Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Visual Arts to the Sydney College of the Arts. Degree awarded 2005; thesis submitted 2004. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar a questão da pintura na filosofia de Merleau-Ponty. Inicialmente inscrita nos quadros de uma filosofia da existência, e depois, com maior destaque, nos quadros de uma ontologia. A questão da arte, particularmente a pintura, surge como meio privilegiado de investigação das nossas relações mais surdas e secretas com o Ser, ou com isso que Merleau-Ponty chamava de camada pré-reflexiva de sentido de mundo, anterior às teses de nossa linguagem. Isso porque a atividade da pintura revela os meios da visibilidade, que nosso olhar cotidiano deixa para trás e esquece a favor do mundo constituído culturalmente. Ou seja, habitamos um mundo que esquece suas premissas, e a tarefa do pintor, especialmente a de Cézanne, é recuperar o contato do olhar com este mundo inabitual. Nesta relação originária do corpo com o mundo, destaca-se, na obra de Merleau-Ponty, uma nova concepção de profundidade, que não é apenas do espaço, mas do corpo, e também das coisas. Merleau-Ponty apontou para esta noção em seus ensaios sobre arte, na tentativa de recolocar em questão a atividade artística como atividade que revela a implicação entre o mundo percebido e a corporeidade. Percebeu na profundidade a implicação da reversibilidade do corpo: a visibilidade a que se abre o vidente é também a de seu corpo visível, que é ao mesmo tempo vidente e visível, senciente e sensível. O autor afirma que, uma vez que este entrecruzamento está dado, aí estão, igualmente, colocados todos os problemas da pintura. Sendo assim, a pintura revela o enigma do próprio corpo. Minha visão se faz nas coisas e me apreende ao mesmo tempo no meu olhar desdobrado diante de mim, entrelaçamento que possibilita uma visibilidade secreta, ou um duplo carnal. O filósofo desenvolve o termo ?carne? para denominar este ?entre? o vidente e o visível, abertura de um ao outro, e passagem de um no outro, que define nosso acesso ao Ser. Percorremos algumas questões: entre o mundo percebido e o ato expressivo, o que é a atividade do artista, senão uma coerência com a visibilidade que o provoca e, portanto, que mal se desprende do espetáculo do mundo? Como o pintor ou o poeta expressariam outra coisa senão seu encontro com o mundo? E o que buscam neste encontro, senão uma relação mais verdadeira, sem ser uma verdade que se assemelhe ao mundo, mas coerente em seu encontro, isto é, capaz de expressar o invisível que anima a relação do olhar com a visibilidade, ou do sentir com a realidade? Neste movimento de pensamento, que inicialmente enfatiza uma nova idéia de Razão ou de Verdade através da atividade do olhar, chega-se, por fim, à noção de desejo ou de corpo libidinal. Perceber é desejar, movimento inscrito na abertura do Ser sensível, que inaugura as trocas entre o corpo e as coisas, em que o olhar ou a visibilidade é um elemento privilegiado. / The aim of this study is the research of the problem of painting in the philosophy of Merleau Ponty. Originally enrolled in the frames of an existencialistic philosophy, aferwards it was put with more prominence, in the frame of an ontology.The problem of art, especially of painting, arises as a privileged way of research of our more deaf and secret relations with Being, or wich that what Merleau Ponnty nominated the pre-reflexive layer of the sense of the world, previous to the thesis of our language. This is so because the activity of painting reveals the means of visibility that our daily look leaves behind and forgets privileging the cultural constructed world. In other words, we live in a world that forgets its premisses, and the task of the painter, especially of Cézanne, is to recover the contact of the look on this unhabitual world. In this original relation of the body with the world we may emphasize, in the work of Merleau Ponty, a new concept of depth, that is not only of space, but of the body, and also of the things. Merleau Ponty pointed to this notion in his essays about arts, trying to question again the artist?s activity as an activity that reveals the implication between the perceived world and the bodyness. He perceived in the depth the implication of the revertibility of the body: the visibility which opens itself to the beholder is also that of his visual body, which is at the same time beholder and visible object, sensing and sensible. The author states that once this intercrossing is given, all the problems of painting are here placed in the same way. In being so, the painting reveals the enigma of the body itself. My look realizes itself in the things and grasps me at the same moment in my look unfolded in front of myself, this interlinking makes possible a secret visibility or a carnal double. The philosophe develops the term \"flesh\" to denominate this \"between\" the beholder and the visible, opening one to the other, giving passage from one to the other, which defines our access to Being. We will deal with some questions: What is the activity of the artist between the perceived world and the expressive act, other then a coherence with the visibility that it causes and, therefore, what harm does come from the spectacle of the world? How the painter and the poet would express other things than their meeting with the world? And in this meeting what they are looking for other than a more true relation, without being a truth which is similar to the world, but coherent in their meeting, this is, capable to express the invisible that cheers up the relation of the gaze with the visibility or of the feeling with the realityIn this movement of thoughts, which emphasizes initially a new idea of Reason and of Truth by means of the activity of looking, one arrives, finally to the notion of desire or of the libidinal body. To perceive is to desire, a movement graved in the opening of sensitive Being, that inaugurates the exchanges between the body and the things, in whicht he looking or the visibility is a privileged element.

This presented paper is a parallel reading of two works which both connect a philosophical perception of time and memory with an actual narration. The first is one of the earliest spiritual autobiographies of late antiquity - Confessions - and the second is a modern novel - In Search of Lost Time. A distinctive (originally Neoplatonic) understanding of eternity as simultaneity opens a line of questioning which both Confessions and In Search of Lost Time have in common: What is the relation between time and eternity (extra-temporality in Proust's case) and is it possible at all for a time being to have a relation to something what is eternal? In both works, the mediating role between time succession and timeless simultaneity is played by narration and memory. Part I of the paper (Chapter 1) deals with Augustine's understanding of time which can be found not only in Book XI of Confessions but also throughout the whole work including its narrative passages; it also partly takes into consideration Book VI of De musica. It tries to answer a more general question, i.e. whether Augustine in his autobiography concentrates only on subjective time or whether he is interested in time as such (in contrast to eternity). The answer is intended to be found through the analysis of questions the author of...