Overview

JJean-Luc Marion's theory of saturated phenomena is one of the most exciting developments in phenomenology in recent decades. It opens up new possibilities for understanding phenomena by beginning from rich and complex examples such as revelation and works of art. Rather than being curiosities or exceptions, these excessiveor saturatedphenomena are, in Marion's view, paradigms. He understands more straightforward phenomena, such as the objects of the natural sciences, as reduced and impoverished versions of the excess given in saturated phenomena.Interpreting Excess is a systematic and comprehensive study of Marion's texts on saturated phenomena and their place in his wider phenomenology of givenness, tracing both his theory and his examples across a wide range of texts spanning three decades.The author argues that a rich hermeneutics is implicit in Marion's examples of saturated phenomena but is not set out in his theory. This hermeneutics makes clear that attempts to overthrow the much-criticized sovereignty of the Cartesian ego will remain unsuccessful if they simply reverse the subject-object relation by speaking of phenomena imposing themselves with an overwhelming givenness on a recipient. Instead, phenomena should be understood as appearing in a hermeneutic space already opened by a subject's active reception. Thus, a phenomenon's appearing depends not only on its givenness but also on the way it is interpreted by the receiving subject. All phenomenology is, therefore, necessarily hermeneutic.Interpreting Excess provides an indispensable guide for any study of Marion's saturated phenomena. It is also a significant contribution to ongoing debates about philosophical ways of thinking about God, the relation between hermeneutics and phenomenology, and philosophy after the subject.

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Mackinlay's prose is lucid and accessible. . . Recommended.-J. K. A. Smith Discusses art, revelation, and other realms in a study of the French philosopher and theologian's theory of saturated phenomena. To snap out of the fascination with things as they appear to us and to uncover, through patient discipline, the hidden structure of appearance as such. And then to find that this appearance is often excessive - overflowing our horizons or disappointing our hopes - and that phenomenality, those structures when they come to light, is not restricted to objects, and gives itself to us from more sites and in more ways than we ever supposed. Such is what Jean-Luc Marion asks of us. It is a lot to take in, and we need Shane Mackinlay's patient, clear guidance to help us.-Kevin Hart

Author Information

SHANE MACKINLAY is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Catholic Theological College (Melbourne College of Divinity).

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