Immaculate perception

The expression immaculate perception was used by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in his text Thus Spoke Zarathustra. It pertains to the so-called "pure knowledge" that purportedly circumvents the need for ground body.[1] It can also refer to the idea that some perspectives are more immaculate than others or a point of view that is not subject to error.[2]

Concept

The term was title of one of Zarathustra's speeches, Von der unbefleckten Erkenntnis, which literally means "On Immaculate Knowledge" or "On Immaculate Cognition.[3] It was Walter Kaufmann who translated it as "On Immaculate Perception". Other scholars also prefer this translation because the main metaphor in the passage is visual perception.[3]

Nietzsche used immaculate perception in his interrogation of the myths of purity.[1] Nietzsche, for instance, argued that immaculate perception is mere fiction because it ignores the intimate connection between the perceiver and the external world. According to the philosopher, perception is value-laden and ruled by interest.[4] In particular, it denies the important role that the will and desires of the perceiver have on every perception.[5]

Nietzsche also used immaculate perception in his discussions of the Christian view on sexuality. He attacked the so-called detachment of the "pure perceivers" or Rein-Erkennenden (e.g. Kantian view that pure judgments of what is beautiful must be detached), calling it voyeurism.[6] According to him, loving the Earth from afar for these pure-knowers is hypocritical because they too are earthly but there is shame and bad conscience in this love.[1]

Applications

An example of immaculate perception principle is Sigmund Freud's theory of mental representation or what some also refer to "copy theory of perception".[7] He proposed that perception, which he often used interchangeably with "external reality",[8] is sensory given and immediately known to the subject.[7] Therefore, it essentially involves the passive and temporary registration of an object.[7] Nietzsche's criticism of this "pure perception" argues that human perceptions are not mere copies of the images on the retinas.[9] He maintained that perception is not clean or untainted by the object of perception.[10] People "actively" construct perceived information[9] as sensory modalities select and tend to simplify phenomena so that they merely serve one's interest and need.[4]

Rapper 8Ball released a song in March 2012 titled "immaculate perception" featuring Waka Flocka Flame and Yelawolf.

References
  1. Del Caro, Adrian (2004). Grounding the Nietzsche Rhetoric of Earth. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 94. ISBN 3-11-018038-3.
  2. Magnus, Bernd; Stewart, Stanley; Mileur, Jean-Pierre (2014). Nietzsche's Case: Philosophy as/and Literature. Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-96098-0.
  3. Burnham, Douglas (2010). Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra: An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide: An Edinburgh Philosophical Guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. p. 104. ISBN 978-0-7486-4243-4.
  4. Stack, George J. (2005). Nietzsche's Anthropic Circle: Man, Science, and Myth. Rochester, NY: University Rochester Press. p. 103. ISBN 1-58046-191-3.
  5. Metcalfe, Michael. A Dancer’s Virtue: Human Life in Light of Nietzsche’s Eternal Recurrence. Concept XXVIII, 2005.
  6. Higgins, Kathleen Marie (2010). Nietzsche's Zarathustra. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. pp. 80–81. ISBN 9780739120866.
  7. Dorpat, Theo L.; Miller, Michael L. (2013). Clinical Interaction and the Analysis of Meaning: A New Psychoanalytic Theory. Oxon: Routledge. p. 6. ISBN 0881631469.
  8. Schimek, Jean-Georges (2011). Memory, Myth, and Seduction: Unconscious Fantasy and the Interpretive Process. Taylor & Francis. p. 142. ISBN 978-1-135-19189-4.
  9. Nesselroade, Jr., K. Paul; Grimm, Laurence G. (2018). Statistical Applications for the Behavioral and Social Sciences. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. p. 247. ISBN 978-1-119-35539-7.
  10. Germain, Gil (2017). Thinking about Technology: How the Technological Mind Misreads Reality. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-4985-4953-0.
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