• Journal of Korean Philosophical Society
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• v.145
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• pp.381-407
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• 2018

Gilles Deleuze presents his distinctive logic of sensation in "Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation" with his own approach to Bacon's paintings. What matters here is the sensation of 'haptic' that is 'one possibility of the eyes' but different from optical perception. The concept of 'haptic' has been translated into Korean variously, and Gilles Deleuze adopted this concept from Austrian art historian, Alois Riegl. Alois Riegl had used the concept of 'haptic' to mean proximate view (Nahsicht in German) as in seeing Egyptian bas-relief. Gilles Deleuze was in succession to Alois Riegl's way of thinking and used the concept of 'haptic' to discuss Bacon's paintings. By the way, Alois Riegl had adopted this concept anyway to read Egyptian bas-reliefs, but Gilles Deleuze applies this concept to paintings. Actually, this concept in Gilles Deleuze's theory of painting has more meanings than Alois Riegl'. That is to say, when we intend to understand "The Logic of Sensation" as a new logic of sensation to be represented more than just a discussion about Bacon's paintings, we would say that key word is the concept of 'haptic' being symbolic of Bacon's paintings. Yet, what kind of sensation is the 'haptic'? And, what is Deleuze's theory of sensation? I want to interpret "Francis Bacon: The Logic of Sensation" as a work being developed through his own theory of sensation, and further more I should like to draw special attention to the sensation of 'haptic' in order to make his theory of sensation with admirable clarity.