Saturday, August 06, 2016

Lit from Behind

Thanks to our upright posture, our liberated forearms, and our all-seizing hands we are able to face things not merely with our eyes but with our whole being. This posture penetrates our intentional understanding in subtle ways that have been in part clarified by Merleau-Ponty. The human face announces the human body and precedes it like an ensign. And our reading of the face reflects this. The face occurs in the world of objects as though lit from behind.

Roger Scruton, The Face of God, Bloomsbury (New York: 2015), pp. 80-81.