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.
