"What then is culture? Every culture is a culture of life, in the dual sense whereby life is both the subject and the object of this culture. It is an action that life exerts on itself and through which it transforms itself insofar as life is both transforming and transformed. "Culture" means nothing other than that. "Culture" refers to the self-transformation of life, the movement by which it continually changes itself in order to arrive at higher forms of realization and completeness, in order to grow. But if life is this incessant movement of self-transformation and self-fulfillment, it is culture itself. Or at least it carries it as something inscribed in it and sought by it. What life are we speaking about here? What is this force that is continually maintained and grows? It is not in any way the life that forms the theme of biology and the object of science. It is not the molecules and particles that the scientist tries to reach through microscopes and whose natures are developed through multiple procedures in order to construct laboriously a concept of them that is more adequate but still subject to revision."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Michel Henry, Barbarism, translated by Scott Davidson, Continuum, 2012, p. 6-7
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Michel_Henry
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Michel Henry
Michel Henry (10 January 1922 – 3 July 2002) was a French philosopher, phenomenologist and novelist. He wrote five novels and numerous philosophical works. He also lectured at universities in France, Belgium, the United States, and Japan.
113 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Michel Henry →
Related Quotes
"L'affectivité a déjà accompli son œuvre quand se lève le monde."
"La souffrance forme le tissu de l'existence, elle est le lieu où la vie devient vivante, la réalité et l'effectivité …"
"La puissance du sentiment est le rassemblement édificateur, l’être saisi par soi, son embrasement, sa fulguration, es…"
"Mais la joie n'a rien au sujet de quoi elle puisse être joyeuse. Loin de venir après la venue de l'être et de s'émerv…"
"The question of phenomenology, which alone confers a proper object to philosophy, is what makes it into an autonomous…"
"To radicalize the question of phenomenology is not only to aim for a pure phenomenality but to seek out the mode acco…"
"Material phenomenology is able to designate this invisible phenomenological substance. It is not a nothing but rather…"
"The task of material phenomenology is immense. It is not simply to be attached to another order of phenomena that rem…"
"The idea of community presupposes the idea of something in common as well as the idea of community members who have i…"
"Ce qui se sent sans que ce soit par l'intermédiaire d'un sens est dans son essence affectivité."