On (non)cognition of man

Abstract

The subject of the paper is an attempt to apply the category of “negative certainty” to cognition of man according to Jean-Luc Marion and a discussion of his project. Marion developed this concept inspired mainly by Kant’s philosophy. It is about the certainty of something negative, something that cannot be captured as an object. Negative certainty is not the certainty of negativity, but the certainty of that, which positivity cannot be reduced to objectivity. Marion offers criticism the Cartesian ideal, which privileges the object and, following Heidegger, emphasizes the event-based nature of the phenomenon. Negative certainty is a re-elaboration of a saturated phenomenon, but from the point of view of its recipient.

The category of “negative certainty” is then applied to human, who is not an ordinary phenomenon, but a set of saturated phenomena. The analysis of the views of Descartes and Kant leads to the conclusion that it is impossible to approach man objectively and define his quidditas. There is no answer to the question “who is a man?”, because it itself is a question (St. Augustine), not an answer. Marion points to three aporias of the objective understanding of human: epistemological, alienation and otherness. As a result, the metaphysics of man is not possible, and his negative knowledge is grounded in the field of theology.

Although Marion’s thought is interesting, several objections can be leveled against it, which are formulated in the last part of the paper. Despite them, the project of negative certainty in relation to human defends itself and shows the convergence of egology and dialogics.