A Further Point of View on

Points of View
M. Jorge de Carvalho*
F.C.S.H. / Universidade Nova de Lisboa,
L.I.F. / Universidade de Coimbra

Abstract: This paper focuses on what is usually called “point of

view” or “viewpoint” (“Standpunkt”,“Gesichtspunkt”,“point de vue”,
“punctum visus”, “intuentis situs”, etc.). It explores both questions
about the origin of the notion and some of the latter's main develop-
ments. But our purpose is not just to make a historical survey. The
historical topics addressed in this paper are of such a nature that
they can help us identify some of the main features of what “point
of view”, “viewpoint”, etc., are all about.

1. Introduction
In one of his so-called Nachlass-Xenien Goethe reminds us: “Was ist das
Schwerste von allem? Was dir das Leichteste dünket: / Mit den Augen zu
sehn, was vor den Augen dir liegt”1 (“What is hardest of all? That which
seems most simple: to see with your eyes what is before your eyes”). This
may seem paradoxical, but only at first glance. For there are many reasons
why we fail to see what is before our eyes, and to overcome all obstacles
preventing us from doing so is by no means the easiest task – even if it is
not the hardest of all, and we can assume that Goethe himself would ad-
mit to rhetorical exaggeration in this statement. But our concern here is
not to discuss this problem in depth, but rather to focus on a related issue.
The issue we propose to explore in this paper is perhaps not as hard and
difficult as managing to see (really to see) what is before our eyes, but it
is certainly not free of difficulty. It is one of those issues that seem much
*
Email: [email protected]
1
Xenien. Aus dem Nachlaß, 45, Goethe (1987a), p. 275.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

easier than in fact they are, the result being that the very impression that
we are dealing with something familiar, and that there is nothing puzzling
about it, makes us fail to see what it is all about. I am talking about what is
usually called “point of view” (“points of view”, “viewpoint”, “viewpoints”)
and the like. And what I am suggesting is that this notion belongs to one of
the most numerous species on earth – namely the species of “false friends”
(both in the literal and in the figurative sense). To be sure,“point of view”,
“viewpoint” and the like have nothing to do with “false friends” in the usual
figurative sense of words or phrases in two different languages that look or
sound similar, but differ in meaning. Nevertheless “point of view”, “view-
point” and the like are “false friends” in that they mislead us into thinking
that the meaning of these notions is plain, that the phenomena in ques-
tion are easy to understand, and that the common understanding of these
words hits the mark and covers pretty much all there is to it – whereas
in fact what Goethe says in the above mentioned epigram holds true for
what we call “point of view”, “viewpoint” and the like: even if what these
notions stand for is, as it were, “before our eyes”, it still remains to a great
extent “unseen”.
Now, the purpose of the following remarks is to shed some light on
what notions like “point of view” or “viewpoint”, etc., stand for, and to fo-
cus on some of the main features of the series of phenomena in question
– namely on features which tend to remain unnoticed. Having said that,
it should be added that the few remarks we are about to make highlight
questions about both the origin of the notion and some of its main devel-
opments. At first, this may give the impression that our main purpose is
to outline a historical survey. But in fact it is not so. The historical top-
ics we are about to explore are of such a nature that they can help us track
some main features of what “point of view”,“viewpoint”, etc., are all about.
In other words, the historical topics we are going to consider can help us
see what tends to remain unnoticed, even if it is, as Goethe says, before
our eyes. On the other hand it should also be noted that the remarks that
follow are only a very rough sketch. From the historical point of view they
cover a small part of a vast subject. And it should be kept in mind that
the historical point of view is itself merely a point of view among other
possible points of view (that is, among many other angles from which the
problem might be approached).

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

This is why it is appropriate to speak of a point of view on points of

view. The analysis of the problem we are dealing with is itself affected by
the very same complex of phenomena it tries to shed some light on. And
this does not only mean that there are some (and indeed many) aspects of
the series of phenomena in question that must be left out of consideration.
It also means something else, which is part and parcel of the very series
of phenomena we are talking about, namely the fact that even supposing
that we succeed in shedding some light on points of view, the results of
our analysis may make us forget what was left out of consideration – i.e.,
the results may make us forget that the whole analysis is one-sided, and
that what remains out of consideration may be as important as the topics
we are about to consider (and indeed so much so that it may reveal the
whole problem in a completely new light, etc.). Here again Goethe gets
to the heart of the matter: “Das Halbgewußte hindert das Wissen. Weil
alles unser Wissen nur halb ist, so hindert unser Wissen immer das Wis-
sen2.(The half-known gets in the way of knowledge. Since all our knowl-
edge is only half-knowledge, all our knowledge gets in the way of knowl-
edge”)

2. The Original Model of “Point of View”: “Points /of /View” in the

Literal Sense. — “Point of View” and Restriction – the Scattered and
Disseminated Nature of Vision.
To plunge in medias res at once, let us now consider the very notion of point
of view (viewpoint, etc). This notion lends itself to ambiguity and raises
difficulties, which it is indispensable to consider, by circumscribing as pre-
cisely as possible the sense in which it is used, its basis, etc.
A notion like that of “point of view” seems to us on the one hand char-
acterized by the fact that it is commonly used (so that it is not rare to hear,
read or produce statements like “from my point of view”, “it’s one point
of view”, “that’s your point of view”, etc). This common usage renders the
notion comprehensible without difficulty. It has nothing puzzling about
it – it is not, on its own, a reason for confusion (this only occurs if it is used
in a different way to that consecrated by its usage). The other side of the
2
Entstehung unorganischer Formen, Goethe (1987b), p. 76.

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coin is the following: the understanding that corresponds to this common

usage tends to be wide-ranging and not very precise – it does not establish in
a very definite way what is referred to by the notion. On the other hand, if
one considers the formula itself that expresses it and breaks up the unity,
the “block” in which its components are habitually merged – if one starts
to consider it on the basis of these different components (: point / of / view)
– this consideration can be somewhat puzzling and generate some confu-
sion as regards its meaning. So that it can, for example, seem strange that
one talks of point of view (and over and again of point of view), when one
can clearly see that what is meant is the following: things appearing to us
or presenting themselves to us in a certain manner.
In the first place, although in the notion of “point of view” one talks of
point, what is at stake in it is not something simple (or almost simple) but
in fact a multiplicity – and even a rather extensive and numerous multiplicity.
The key to the notion is in the determinative complement (point of view).
And that based on which it can be understood is precisely the “view” (the
view that is somehow connected with the point and makes a “point of
view” of it). Now, on closer inspection it turns out that the view we are
talking about means two different things. It means at the same time a) a
situation of access, of having a view (of seeing something, in the manner in
which we usually see) and b) what is presented (what appears to us, what
one sees, what is in sight) in this situation. But in both cases the view is
something characterized precisely by never being simple (through never
being just one point) – by always involving a multiplicity (so that, however
circumscribed it is, a view is always very far from corresponding to a point).
We know no such thing as a simple “view”, neither in the one sense nor in
the other. On the one hand, every “view” we have (even the most simple)
encompasses a multiplicity – and indeed a very complex multiplicity of
components. If we try to focus on a point, what we really see is a spot, i.
e., a surface (a very complex multiplicity), and even supposing we are able
to master this difficulty and to “see” a “real” point, the fact is that there is
no such thing as a simple, disconnected, “lonely” point: a point is always
something “in the middle” of a surface – and, what is more, there is no such
thing as an absolute (disconnected, “lonely”) surface: a surface is always
something in the middle of three-dimensional space. And on the other
hand, if what we see is always this complex multiplicity, seeing it (having a

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

view – a complex view) is itself always complex. In other words, there is

no such thing as a simple “glance”: all our “seeing” is a bundle of glances (a
“society” of glances, as it were, in connection with each other). Or, to put
it in Leibniz’ language, in all our “seeing” there is no “sheep” apart from
the “flock” – and on closer inspection each “sheep” turns out to be itself a
kind of “flock”3.
If this is the case, what sense does the introduction of the notion of
“point” in this context have – what is the link between this and the multi-
plicity ever present in every and whatever “view”? What is the connection
between the two elements of the complex notion“point / of /view” and what
is it that gets expressed in this group of words? The very common usage of
the notion affords some clear indications in this regard. When one talks
of “point of view”, the intention one has is, as a rule, to introduce a restric-
tion in the view, which is denoted in this way. When one talks of “point
of view” (and one says “that’s your point of view”, “from an x or y point of
view”, etc.), what one is stressing as regards the “view” (the perspective) at
stake in each case is that it is a question of a view that is not exhaustive, of
a view subject to some sort of conditioning or that in some way makes room for
alternatives – i. e., for other “views” (other perspectives) different from it,
that see that to which it refers in another way, but which nevertheless are
no less legitimate, no less adequate than the view in question. In other words,
independently of the nature and the extension of the restriction that one
aims to introduce,“point of view” means a view (a presentation, a perspec-
tive) different from an unrestricted view, from an absolute access (one that
does not leave room for any valid alternative). In short, “point of view”
denotes a view (a presentation, a perspective) that is not the only one pos-
sible about its object – so that the object in question does not necessarily
have to be seen thus.
But, if this is the case, why is the idea of restriction associated with the
notion of point, why is it this (namely the idea of point) that expresses it?
The answer to this question is not difficult. But it should be noted that
the common usage in the majority of cases refers at most to the vague idea
of restriction (without other determinations, without any specification of
3
For this comparison, see Leibniz (1971), vol. III, pp. 344, 457, 657, vol. V, p. 133, vol.
VI, pp. 516, 627, vol. VII, p. 552.

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the characteristics – of the type of restriction at stake, of what it is that

produces it, etc.). In other words, the common usage employs the notion
of “point of view” in a distracted way, without having any answer to the
question we have just asked. But after all what is the answer to this ques-
tion? First, the notion of “point of view “ – viz. a) the link between point
and view and b) the link between point-of-view and restriction – has to do
with basic features of what happens in the field of vision sensu strictiore. In
fact, in the proper sense (in the sense that gave rise to the notion of “point
of view”) the restriction of access in question is not just any restriction, but
a certain kind of restriction, or rather a certain kind of organisation of the
restrictions to which all views (namely all views in the literal sense: everything
we see) are subject. More precisely, what is at stake in the original notion
of “point of view” is the conditioning by an overall factor of determination
of the range of our sight and of the form and properties of what we see
– so that the characteristics and restrictions of all visual presentations of
things depend on the very same conditioning factor. And all the multiplicity
of what is presented is determined (in what it includes, in what it does not
include and in the form in which it includes whatever is presented) by one
overall conditioning principle which is reflected in all of it. Now the overall
factor of determination viz. the one overall conditioning principle we are
talking about is the punctum visus, the intuentis situs. An essential feature
of the visual presentation, as it occurs in us, is that the characteristics of
what is presented vary depending on the point at which an observer is
located (the “place from which” of the viewing, so to speak). So that each
different location is matched, even without any other modification, by
an overall modification of what is seen (all considered from another an-
gle, with a different distribution of parts seen and not seen, a different
position for each thing in the field of vision, etc.). So that each observer
location gives rise to a different view, particular to that location, that one
can only have from there. The result being that for each visual reality (for
each three dimensional multiplicity corresponding to each object) there
is a very large number of different views, depending on the point from
which it is observed (depending on the distance, direction and angle that
this point delineates in its relation with the reality in question). The study
of the so-called perspectiva artificialis (and this also means, of course, the
study of the perspectiva naturalis) in the Renaissance gave rise to a sharp

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awareness of this fundamental property of vision. Given a certain set of

objects, what appears in each view we can get of it (N.B.:everything ap-
pearing in each view) depends on the punctum visus or the intuentis situs: on
the location of the observer – so that, when the point of view is changed,
what changes is not only this or that, but rather the whole “picture” (i.e.,
everything undergoes some significant change).
Now, this introduces precisely a form of restriction peculiar to visual
presentation: all of it, without exception, is always in some way restricted
in the presentation of its object, which is always seen from a given point and in
such a way that it is determined by the multiplicity of conditioning and
restriction factors arising from that point. That is, no visual presentation
of any object represents the only way of having it presented. None totally
provides the reality that corresponds to it (without leaving the possibility
of being complemented by others). Inherent to visual presentation is the
fact that it is by its very nature scattered, disseminated, by a multiplicity of
complementary perspectives, all of them leaving out something that others
pick up, and each of them obtaining something that is not in others. So
that it is not possible to have them all simultaneously, but rather only as
alternatives.
It is this – this specific feature of vision and the crucial role played by
the location of the observer (the punctum visus, the intuentis situs) – that is
at the root of the expression “point of view” and constitutes the particular
meaning of the notion. And at the same time this historical origin en-
ables us to understand the link both between point and view and between
point-of-view and the idea of restriction. Given the conditioning link we
have been talking about (this involvement that an observer’s location, the
point from which one sees, has in the determination of the view that there
can be from this point – i. e., given the way the intuentis situs determines
the characteristics of what is seen and the limitations to which the view
corresponding to each location is subject), “point of view” does not only
mean the point proper (the place, the position, as such) but also, by ex-
tension, the conditioning of the view corresponding to it and the view thus
conditioned (the relative, finite, conditioned perspective one can have from it).
It is this type of metonymic link that is at the root of the notion of “point
of view” as a fixed notion, meaning not a point in space but a certain type
of presentation. It is this type of link that is at the root of what we find in

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its most common usage. And it is this type of finite presentation, related
to a conditioning, permitting alternatives and constituting one way of pre-
senting among various other possible ones (a way of presenting that at the
same time as it shows, also hides and leaves out other possible and equally
legitimate ways of viewing the same object) that the notion of “point of
view” stands for when it is used as a terminus technicus in philosophical ter-
minology, etc.
But this is still not all and does not enable us to fully understand the
scattered and disseminated nature of vision the notion of “point of view” is
all about. What is at stake here is the fact that the realm of vision and the
visible is split, as if it had been subject to nothing less than some kind of
extraordinary explosion, and what remains (i.e., what can be seen) were only
its disjecti membra4 . On the one hand, as pointed out above, each point
of view “uncovers” something that cannot be seen or uncovered from any
other. In other words, for each point of view there is a corresponding part
of the visible, which can only gain visibility for or from that point of view:
something which can be seen only from the point of view in question and
from no other. But on the other hand this also means that each point of
view leaves out of sight whatever is uncovered by (or becomes visible to)
all the others. I. e., each point of view has its own “gain” at the price of losing
sight of the “gain” of all the others. In other words, each point of view is blind
to nothing less than what can be discovered from all the others – and each
limited “territory” of points of view (i. e., what results from the fact that
we can change our point of view and synthesize the different views explored
in the course of that change, etc.) is blind to what corresponds to all the
other points of view beyond its boundaries. The result being that there is
always an overwhelming disproportion between the seen and the unseen – and that
contrary to what may seem, the realm of vision and the visible can only be
explored “step by step”, “dropwise”, “in instalments“. Or, put another way,
paradoxical as it may seem, the realm of vision and the visible corresponds
to something that can only be discovered by peeping through an extraordinary
multitude of “keyholes”.
Now this may seem exaggerated because one of the features of vision,
as we usually experience it, is the fact that it anticipates: in each point of
4
To quote the well known lines of Horace (Saturae 1.4.62).

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view we anticipate others (we are already aware of them, “expecting” them,
and so forth) – so that what characterizes all points of view is that they
refer or “allude” to other points of view beyond themselves. And at first
glance this seems to “solve the problem”. On closer inspection, however,
it turns out that this is not so. To be sure, we cannot discuss this topic in
depth. But a quick analysis of two examples may prove helpful in under-
standing the phenomena in question.
Let us first consider what Husserl calls Abschattungen, adumbrations –
the fact that, for instance, any three dimensional visual object appears “in
instalments”, as it were: now from this side, now from that side, now from
this angle, now from another, etc., so that each time it only shows some
parts of its exterior surface and leaves out of sight other parts of its ex-
terior surface, what lies inside the object, etc.5. Now, these Abschattungen
are characterized by the fact that they refer to something beyond themselves
– and indeed to the whole three dimensional object. To be sure, from a given
point of view what I see is, for instance, only a tiny part of the exterior
surface of a book cover. But I complete what I see – I see more than what
I really see. I see more than only a tiny surface; in fact, I see more than
the whole exterior surface of the book cover: I see the whole book (with
5
See notably Husserl (1973a), pp. 58f., 105-125, 144f., 209f., Husserl (1973b), pp. 74ff.
[84ff.], 81ff. [92ff.], 202ff. [226ff.], 205f. [229ff.], Husserl (1952), pp. 127ff., Husserl (1950),
pp. 77ff., Husserl (1985), pp. 60f., Husserl (1968), pp. 154ff., Husserl (1966), pp. 3ff. and 7.
Plato’s Respublica 598a-b provides a first glimpse into the phenomenon. Nicholas of Cusa’s
account of it in his De coniecturis I, 53 stresses the role played by otherness (alteritas) and
the link between the phenomenon in question and what he terms a conjectura (i. e., a pos-
itiva assertio in alteritate): “Uides nunc assertiones positiuas sapientium esse coniecturas.
Nam dum tu, pater, clarissimis tuis oculis faciem pontificis summi, sanctissimi domini
nostri Eugenii papae quarti, coram conspicis, de ipsa positivam assertionem concipis,
quam praecisam secundum oculum affirmas. Dum autem ad radicem illam, vnde discre-
tio sensus te emanat, te convertis – ad rationem dico – intelligis sensum visus participare
vim discretivam in alteritate organice contracta. Ob quam causam defectum casus a prae-
cisione intueris, quoniam faciem ipsam non, vti est, sed in alteritate secundum angulum
tui oculi ab omnibus viventium oculis differentem contemplaras. Coniectura igitur est
positiua assertio in alteritate veritatem vti est participans, quemadmodum vero sensus in
vnitate rationis suam alteritatem experitur, et assertiones sensibiles a vnitate precisionis
absoluendo coniecturas facit, ita ratio in radicali vnitate sua in ipso scilicet intelligentiae
lumine suam alteritatem et casum a precisione in coniecturam inuenit.”. Cf. Nicholas of
Cusa (1972), p. 58.

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its printed pages, etc., etc.). In short, even if the point of view at which I
happen to be is limited and does not show much of the book in question,
it is not blind to other points of view beyond itself. Quite the contrary,
it is aware of them, it refers to them – and, what is more, I already see
what corresponds to them. But here is where the problem lies. Is there
any real anticipation of all the other components of the object in ques-
tion – i. e., of all its other possible Abschattungen, of all the other points of
view in question? The answer is no. To be sure, I see the book as a whole,
and this means there is an anticipation of the whole (an anticipation of all
its exterior surfaces, of all its pages, of all their content, etc., etc). But in
the final analysis it turns out that I am not able to follow this reference
to the totality of what makes the book (viz. to the totality of points of
view which would be required in order for the totality of what makes the
book to appear). I may open the book, turn over its pages, start to read
it, etc., etc., but the results always fall short – and indeed far short –of what
would be required for the totality of what makes the book to appear. And even if
I insist, there is no real success: whatever I do, the results are still disjecti
membra, and I am unable to correct the scattered and disseminated nature of
vision and to undo the peculiar “explosion” we have spoken of. In other
words, there is a world of difference between the anticipation of the total-
ity of what makes the book (viz. the anticipation of the totality of points of
view which would be required in order for the totality of what makes the
book to appear) and the totality (the “real” totality) in question. As pointed
out above, from the very beginning all Abschattungen refer to the totality of
what makes the book (viz. to the corresponding totality of points of view).
But on closer inspection it turns out that having this anticipation does not
give me the slightest clue as to what the totality of what makes the book
(viz. the corresponding totality of points of view) really looks like. In the
final analysis, the anticipation turns out to be just another point of view
(a special kind of “adumbration” – by far not the totality in question) and,
what is more, it turns out that precisely the fact that I think I am able
to really anticipate the points of view in question and to know what the
book (the totality of what makes the book) really looks like, misleads me
and makes me turn my back, as it were, on the totality in question. To sum
up, our notion of what we may call the “sum” of all adumbrations – a total-
ity integrating and unifying all adumbrations of a given three dimensional

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object – is itself merely an adumbration. For, on the one hand, I am unable

to picture all different points of view, all different angles – not only from
without, but from within (from inside the object in question). The series of
adumbrations I am able to picture (or to experience) corresponds only to a
small part of the whole. And on the other hand, I have no idea whatsoever
of what corresponds to a real integration or unification of all these different
views. For on closer inspection it turns out that I am used to change from
point of view to point of view viz. from adumbration to adumbration, and
to picture the whole each time on the basis of a certain adumbration or
of a certain point of view – so that the whole is always “presided” over, as
it were, by a certain adumbration or a certain point of view, and I have
absolutely no experience of really trying to integrate or unify different ad-
umbrations6.
Having said that, let us now consider a second example. When one
sees, for instance, a printed page it seems one is able to see the whole page
– i. e., it seems that the presentation one has of it is, in the etymological
sense, “synoptic”. But on closer inspection it turns out that this “synoptic”
view of the printed page is obtained at the price of losing sight of what can be
seen only if one moves one’s eyes the way we have to do in order to read the
printed text. In other words, the impression of seeing the whole page (and
everything on it) at once – the impression of “synoptical” access to it – proves
to be misleading. The totality we have access to (the presentation of the
whole page) is in fact full of “puncta coeca”. And this is the reason why I
can not read all the printed text at once (i.e., this is the reason why I have to
change from point of view to point of view in order to read the text before
me) 7. In a way I see the whole printed page viz. the text that is printed on
6
Said in another way, in my “normal experience” different adumbrations (different
“points of view”) are successive, they are not simultaneous – and they never become simulta-
neous. To be sure, as pointed out above, each point of view viz. each adumbration refers
to others – and indeed to the whole. But the point is that all other adumbrations it refers
to are no longer or not yet there: they are not concrete, they are not concretely present, so
I am spared the trouble of having to integrate or unify two different (or several different)
“views” or “pictures” of the same.
7
Major features of the phenomenon are already outlined in Nicholas of Cusa’s De
visione dei, VIII, 29, Nicholas of Cusa (2000), p. 29: “Doce me, domine, quomodo unico
intuitu simul et singulariter discernas. Cum aperio librum ad legendum, video confuse
totam chartam; et si volo discernere singulas literas, syllabas e dictiones, necesse est,

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it. But most of the letters I see when I have a presentation of the whole
page are not “a”s or “b”s or “c”s or “d”s, etc. They are just “letters”. – i. e.,
apart from a few words I am able to read without changing my point of
view, what I see when I have a view of the whole text printed on a page is
just that: letters (something that is neither an “a”, nor a “b”, nor a “c”, etc.:
something indifferent to what makes the difference between the various
components of the alphabet). Incidentally this shows that, contrary to
what may seem (and is often asserted as if it were absolutely self-evident),
not all our perceptions are perceptions of definite individuals8 , and that
there is such a thing as perception of so-called “general” contents. But this is
not the point here. The point is that the view I have of the whole page
viz. of the whole text printed on it leaves out everything corresponding
to the difference between the different letters (viz. the different words,
etc.). In other words, the view I have from each point of view is, as it
were, shortsighted. And on the other hand I cannot solve this problem and
obtain a real view of the whole page and of everything printed on it by
changing from point of view to point of view. To be sure, I can read the
text. But there is what can be called an either/or: either I focus on the
parts (on the strings of letters, on the words composed by them, etc.), the
result being that I “leave out” the other letters (what makes the difference
between them) and also what I see when I focus on the whole; or I focus on
the whole, in which case I “leave out” what makes the difference between
the various letters that compose the whole printed text. In short, I have
absolutely no experience of a real synoptic view of the printed page: a
synoptic view which is able to see at once all the components of the printed
page in the way I can see them only “by turns” or in succession. So that, even
when what is at stake is something as simple and as “open” as a printed page
before me, even then what I have access to are disjecti membra – the results
or “remains” of the above mentioned “fragmentation” or “explosion”.
Now, this enables us – I hope – to understand the scattered and dissemi-
nated nature of vision the notion of “point of view” is all about. Contrary to
what may seem, the realm of vision is composed of what can be described
ut me singulariter ad singula seriatim convertam; et non possum nisi successive unam
post aliam litteram legere et unam dictionem post aliam et passum post passum. Sed tu,
domine, simul totam chartam respicis et legis sine mora temporis (...)”.
8
And in fact most of our perceptions are not at all perceptions of definite individuals.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

as a web of scattered “tunnels” or “galleries” of vision (“tunnels” or “galleries” of

the seen in the middle of a compact mass of the unseen). Put another way,
it is like an “archipelago of the seen” in the middle of unseen and therefore
uncharted waters. To be sure, this “archipelago” gives the impression of
being much more than an “archipelago” – and indeed of being nothing less
than a vast and compact “continent”9. But the truth is that it has the struc-
ture of an “archipelago”. What is more, on closer inspection it turns out
that many of the “islands” (and indeed all the “islands”) composing this
“archipelago” are themselves an “archipelago”: the “sea” of the unseen, the
“uncharted waters” do not only surround the “islands”, but they also pene-
trate their interior and are to be found everywhere in them. In short vision is
throughout a realm of limits.
Of course it can be objected that all these limits we have been talking
about are something inherent to vision – they are part and parcel of it. We
cannot think of vision without this kind of limits (without some “explo-
sion” or “fragmentation” of this sort). In short, it seems to be in the nature
of vision that it has to do with such a thing as points of view (with the whole
framework of points of view” in the above mentioned sense). But does this
kind of consideration change anything? Let us take a closer look into this
question.
First, even supposing that it is so (that the “fragmentation” or “explo-
sion” we have been talking about is part and parcel of vision and must
constitute an essential feature of any form of vision), this does not belie
the fact that vision is indeed characterized by the omnipresence of limi-
tations (i.e., by the omnipresence of the unseen). The point is that there are
limits everywhere, that the territory of vision is made of narrow, and in-
deed very narrow “corridors” in the middle of the unseen, and that the
“itinerary” of all our views is like the “itinerary” of someone exploring a
gigantic labyrinth – but one of which each and every moment is itself a labyrinth
(a “fractal labyrinth”, as it were). Regardless of whether this has its origin in
the very nature of vision “überhaupt” or is rather something contingent,
the point is that this is the structure of the point of view phenomenon.
This – namely this extraordinary “fragmentation” or “explosion” – is what
9
For there is what can be termed a “shortsighted filling of the gaps” viz. of the puncta
coeca (N. B.: of the puncta coeca that are scattered throughout everything we see).

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

the notion of “point of view” stands for. And on the other hand, what this
means is the following: whether we are conscious of it or not, the realm of
vision is full of hiatuses – it is, as it were, full of “folds” and “trap-doors” where
the unseen looms. Like a labyrinth, it is full of of “peripeteiai” and possibili-
ties of revision. In other words, because it has the structure the notion of
point of view stands for, the realm of vision is through and through the
realm of the possibility of surprise – the realm of Poe’s “The Purloined Letter”.
To sum up, the gigantic labyrinth of vision is nothing short of a gigantic
“boîte-à-surprise” – or rather an extraordinary multitude of “boîtes-à-surprise”.
Secondly, the fact that this limitation seems to be inherent to vision
and that we cannot think of vision without these kind of limits (without
some sort of “explosion” or “fragmentation” of this kind) should not make
us forget that we are not in a position to exclude the possibility of other
forms of vision, different from the one we are familiar with, and which
are not necessarily characterized by the “fragmentation” or “explosion” the
notion of point of view stands for. Vision, as we know it, is no doubt an
extraordinary thing. Among other reasons, it is an extraordinary thing
because it involves that kind of “invention of itself ” Jonathan Swift refers
to when he writes in one of his Thoughts on Various Subjects: “Vision is the
Art of seeing Things invisible”10 But, on the one hand, that vision has to do
with this extraordinary “art” and that it is, in a sense, a “miracle”, does not
prevent the miracle in question from being the “finite miracle” the notion
of “point of view” stands for. And on the other hand, there is nothing
to guarantee that the extraordinary “Art of seeing Things invisible” must
“überhaupt” take the form we are acquainted with. How on earth do we
know that the fact that we cannot think of vision without this kind of
limits is more than just a feature of our own finitude11 ?
And this leads us to a final remark on this topic. This remark concerns
what we can call the amphiboly of the notion of point of view – I mean
of the notion of point of view in the literal sense, we have been talking
10
J. Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects, in: Swift (1957), p. 252.
11
None other than Husserl claims that “fragmentation” (Abschattung, etc.) is absolutely
inherent to vision as such, and that even for “God” – as the ideal representative of absolute
knowledge – vision would have to be characterized by this kind of fragmentation. See,
for instance, Husserl (1973b), pp. 77f. [88f.], 80f. [92]. But the question is: on what basis
can such a claim be made?

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

about. As pointed out above, this notion is something entirely common –

and this has to do with the fact that we are all more or less acquainted with
the kind of phenomena it stands for. In a way, to speak of point of view
in this sense is almost to speak of a truism or a platitude. But on the other
hand the common notion of point of view does not reflect any awareness of
the kind of “fragmentation” and “explosion” we have been talking about.
So that even though it is a fact that the notion of point of view, in the
literal sense, stands for the “fragmentation” and “explosion” in question,
the truth is that in the common understanding it has nothing or only little
to do with it. This is another instance of what Goethe speaks of when he
stresses how difficult it is to see with our eyes what is before them.

3. The “Emancipation” from the Literal Meaning. — Different Di-

rections in Which the Notion of “Point of View” Can Be Widened. —
Different Degrees of Acknowledgement of the Extent to Which What
Appears to Us Has the Nature of a Mere “Point of View”.
Having said that, let us now consider another important topic.
In its roots, the notion of “point of view” was thus associated with a se-
ries of properties of vision – and specifically with the identification of the
way in which the characteristics of vision are dependent on an observer’s
situation in space. The very expression (point of view) transmits this dou-
ble connection and the specific character of the phenomenon referred to
by it. But, on the other hand, the fact that this was its origin does not
prevent the notion from having been widened. As a matter of fact, in the
course of its history the notion of “point of view” untied itself from this
specific link, underwent amplifications and started to involve other presen-
tations besides vision with conditioning properties similar to those that, in
the case of vision, are determined by the tie to space12. In other words, in
12
This change is vividly illustrated in the transition from chapter 1 to chapter 2 in
Nicholas of Cusa’s De visione Dei. Chapter 1 focuses on the phenomenon of visus contrac-
tus – and its opposite: what he terms the incontractus visus – in the field of vision stricto
sensu. Chapter 2 adresses what Nicholas of Cusa terms the varietas contractionis (namely
the varietas contractionis visus) and stresses the fact that there are different modalities of
contractio visus (N.B: visus in a broader sense). Said in another way, chapter 2 leaves the
field of vision proper and considers a) other forms of contractio or its opposite – and in fact

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

the course of its history the notion of “point of view” underwent a process
of emancipation from its original meaning. On the one hand, this does
not mean that it severed all ties to its historical origins. The notion kept
the connection with the idea of finite access viz. of a finite presentation,
relating to a conditioning factor. It kept the connection with the idea of re-
stricted “views” or “perspectives” that in some way make room for alternatives
– i. e., for other “views” (other perspectives) different from them, that see
that to which they refer in another way, but which nevertheless are no less
legitimate, no less adequate than the views in question. In short, the notion
kept the idea of fragmentation – of a multiplicity of complementary per-
spectives, all of them leaving out something that others pick up. But, on
the other hand, “point of view” ceased to designate only the specific phe-
nomenon of vision that was in the origin of the very term, and acquired a
wider meaning, freed from this circumscription, without ties to it.
This is the second aspect that it is important to emphasise both be-
cause it played a key role in the history of the notion of “point of view” and
because this widening of its meaning can help us understand some main
features of what appears to us viz. of the kind of “views” that make our
being.
Now, it must be borne in mind that there are various possible directions in
which the notion of “point of view” can be widened (and there have been
various ones developed during its history too). This widening can go more
or less far and lead to more or less precise notions. Furthermore, it can change
our understanding of our “views” in different ways, for it can correspond
to different degrees of acknowledgement of the extent to which what appears to us
has the nature of a mere “point of view”. It is, therefore, important to specify in
which directions the notion of “point of view” can be widened, how far this
widening can go (how far can it go in the untying from the original narrow
meaning of the notion) and what kind of determinations (viz. of components
of what appears to us) it can involve and affect. There are widenings and
widenings – and if, for example, the common usage of the notion of “point
of view” also corresponds to a widening of its original meaning, it is far
from reflecting the whole extent to which what appears to us can have the
other forms of contractio or its opposite affecting b) other forms of visus (in the broader
sense of the word).

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

nature of a mere point of view.

The widening of the notion and its untying from the field of phenom-
ena that served it at its origin can, in the first place, derive from an eman-
cipation from the literal meaning of both the notion of “point” and the
notion of “view”. Let us look into this matter a little further.
On the one hand, in fact, not only in the field of vision do the type of
conditioning and finite, conditioning-related presentation, to which the
notion of point of view refers, occur. For example, a similar state-of-things
occurs in the field of hearing too – even if this can be less distinct, in it too
the location in space (the Audientis situs) conditions the presentation one
has, in such a way that this varies in accordance with the location. On the
other hand, it is also not only space and an observer’s position in space
that condition the presentation one has in such a way that what appears
to us is relative to the position in which it gets constituted. For example,
an observer’s position in time, the position – the “point” – occupied in the
multiplicity corresponding to it (and the relation that the point of obser-
vation has with other moments of temporal multiplicity and, in particular,
with those in which what is observed is situated) also intervenes in the way
in which one sees, conditions the presentation one has and in such a way
that here too the same reality assumes very different appearances depend-
ing on the temporal “angle” from which it is observed, the distance (the
time already passed since it or that which still has to pass in order to reach
it), the time already passed through before entering into contact with it,
etc.
But this is just one aspect. The notion of “point of view” can still be
freed from its tie to space (and to the conditioning arising from it) in many
other ways – which involve a decrease of similarity with its origin (with the
conditioning of vision by way of the intuentis situs – of the position in space
from which one sees), but correspond to the identification of other forms
of conditioning, constituted in a different way, but in spite of everything
similar to this one. So that the notion of “point of view” can go quite far
in its widening compared to the understanding with which it was associ-
ated at its origin. And, as a matter of fact, in the course of its history, it
eventually started to have a much more extensive and much less localised
sphere of application.
Thus, independently of the conditioning restrictions imposed by the

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

spatial-temporal localising, we can identify relativity conditionings arising

from other factors.
For instance, it is possible to identify relativity conditionings arising
from the fact that there is such a thing as thresholds in our ability to per-
ceive. It is possible to identify relativity conditionings arising from the
fact that the type of determinations to which we are sensitive is limited,
so that there are determinations “right before our eyes” that remain simply
undreamt of – in both cases with the result that all our perceptions leave
out significant parts of what they are supposed to cover more or less ex-
haustively (and the wholes we perceive are incomplete: i. e., are but the result
of this very incompleteness). It is possible to identify relativity conditionings
arising from there not being a total correspondence between the deter-
minations resorted to by our percipere (by the presentations we have) and
what is supposed to exist independently of our percipere (and indeed inde-
pendently of all percipere). So that at least some of the determinations of
what appears to us are a mere correlate of our own percipere: something
“invented”, as it were, by it – and, in this sense, “void of all reality”. It is
possible to identify relativity conditionings arising from there being in-
terventions of interest in the way we see (in such a way that, depending
on the orientation of the interest, there is also a change in the appearance
with which things present themselves). It is possible to identify relativ-
ity conditionings arising from the fact that our conceptual apparatuses permit
alternatives – or from the fact that most of our views depend on assump-
tions, beliefs, etc., that are commonly upheld within particular social groups
viz. in particular cultures (and prevail with total “evidence” in their frame-
work, but do not have acceptance and appear everything other than self-evident for
other groups and other cultures, etc. It is possible to identify relativity condi-
tionings arising from the fact that each one of us is an “I” for himself and
a “You” or a “He” or “She” (viz. “one of Us”, “one of You” – in the plural –
or “one of Them”) for the others – the result being something along the
lines of the playful form of “irregular conjugation” attributed to Bertrand
Russel: “I am firm, You are obstinate, He is a pig-headed fool”13 – or of
13
Russell is thought to have expounded the concept in 1948, on the BBC radio pro-
gramme “The Brains Trust”. Cf. Audi (1999), p. 223 and Walton (2005), p. 220. The weekly
newspaper The New Statesman and Nation ran a competition for further examples of this
kind of “irregular conjugation” (or, as it is also called, “emotive conjugation”). Among the

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

the more complex form of “irregular conjugation” depicted by Kurt Tu-

cholsky in his “Konjugation in deutscher Sprache”:„Ich persönlich liebe /
du liebst irgendwie/ er betätigt sich sexuell/ wir sind erotisch eingestellt/
ihr liebt mit am besten/ sie leiten die Abteilung Liebe“14. It is possible to
identify relativity conditionings arising from the fact that, as Pascal puts
it, what appears to us almost as a “point” can, with equal legitimacy, be seen
as constituting nothing less than a whole world, while what appears to us
as a whole world can, with equal legitimacy, be seen as constituting only a
point in the middle of a vaster world – and so on and so forth in both di-
rections (the “and so on and so forth” being here the crucial point, so that
everything appearing to us becomes what Pascal calls “quelque apparence
du milieu des choses”)15.
There are several aspects that should be noted. First, there is some-
thing intentionally “chaotic” about these examples. They are intended to
illustrate the random nature of the developments that marked the history
of the notion of “point of view” – and at the same time they are also in-
tended to call attention to the fact that our usual view of the phenomenon
of point of view is no less chaotic.
Secondly, it should be noted that the relation of similarity that these
different conditionings have with the relativity conditioning structure pro-
winners picked by the newspaper (The New Statesman and Nation, June 5, 1948) were the
following: “I am righteously indignant, you are annoyed, he is making a fuss over noth-
ing”, “I have reconsidered the matter, you have changed your mind, he has gone back on
his word.”
14
Tucholsky (2006), p. 768. Incidentally it is worth noting that Tucholsky’s “Konjuga-
tion in deutscher Sprache” dates from 1928.
15
I.e., not something in the “middle” (as if we had any knowledge of the corresponding
“extremes” and were able to know where the middle lies), but rather a “middle” charac-
terized by the fact that we simply have no idea of the “extremes” (and, what is more, that we
do not even know whether there are any such “extremes” ) – so that the “middle” in question
(the “quelque apparence du milieu des choses” we are made of, according to Pascal) has
absolutely no clue where it is,what it corresponds to,etc. Cf. Pascal (1963), Pensées, §199 (La-
fuma), 72 (Brunschvig), p. 525f.. See also, for example, Nietzsche (1988), Nachgelassene
Fragmente Frühjahr-Herbst 1881, 11[36], p. 454: “Wir sind irgendwie in der Mitte – nach
der Welt zu und nach der Kleinheit der unendlichen Welt zu. Oder ist das Atom uns
näher als das Äußerse Ende der Welt? – Ist für uns die Welt nicht nur ein Zusammen-
fassen von Relationen unter einem Maaße? Sobald dies willkürliche Maaß fehlt, zerfließt
unsere Welt!”.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

duced by localisation in space (and time) is variable. But there is a funda-

mental core of similarity – which has to do with the fact that, in all these
cases, the access conditions (the conditions that affect the very constitu-
tion of our access to things viz. the conditions that affect the very constitu-
tion of whatever “view” we have) intervene in the very content of what appears
to us. The result being that the perspective thus constituted is relative to
these conditions, has something particular to it that derives from them.
At the same time that it shows (at the same time that it opens, exposes, puts
“in contact” with what it shows, that is, with that which is in conformity with
these conditions), this kind of perspective also hides (closes, covers up, fences off
– namely, everything that is not in conformity with them). So that it permits
alternatives: it is not the “absolute” way of “viewing” things – but only
one way among others, contingent, dependent on circumstances. In other
words, in all these cases there is some kind of “fragmentation” of perspec-
tive: there are multiple views about the same thing, there is room for what
the Greeks called “ἐνδέχεσθαι ἄλλως ἔχειν” (the possibility that things are
otherwise). In short, in all these cases the fact that we have certain views
does not settle the matter. For these views have the nature of a point of
view – so that they permit “otherness” and are, as it were, subject to the
vertigo of otherness.
Thirdly, the identification of a plurality of conditioning factors like these
and the corresponding widening of the meaning of the notion of point of view
does not introduce merely a semantic modification. It corresponds to a
modification (of which one can have a more or less keen awareness) of
the characteristics with which our access to things (what appears to us)
presents itself. For the identification of a plurality of aspects like those re-
ferred to results in the conditioned, relative trait ceasing to appear as a
phenomenon occurring locally, affecting only these or those circumscribed
aspects (a phenomenon, the detection of which leaves all the other mo-
ments of our view of things with a value of non-relativity – free of any re-
striction, not affected by any conditioned trait). This is a decisive point.
If we take the examples given above – and if, instead of considering them
one by one, we join them together in a joint identification, this produces
a considerable revision of our view of things viz. of what appears to us. It
changes the extent to which our view of things viz. what appears to us is
exposed to the possibility of being a mere point of view. With the result

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

that what we said above about the possibility of surprise and the realm of
surprise in the field of vision and the visible (about the fact that we move
within something like a labyrinth, etc.) holds a fortiori for these other as-
pects and becomes more serious, more sharp-edged if they are taken into
account.
But what at this moment interests us most is the semantic modification
of the notion of “point of view” – the semantic modification that derives
from the identification of these other factors concerning the conditioning
and relativity of what appears to us, and also from the fact that they are
designated on the basis of an analogy with the kind of conditioning that
the location in space produces with regard to vision. On account of this
modification, “point of view” eventually started to mean a type of restric-
tion (a type of relativity, a type of conditioning) of what appears to us (of
the presentation to which one has access), independently of the manner
in which this relativity and restriction specifically get produced – that is,
already without any tie to the particular conditioning structure at stake
in the origin of the expression. What is more, “point of view” eventually
started to mean this type of restriction without any circumscription of the
various ways of conditioning that each time get to be identified, rather, in
fact, encompassing these and all the others that are still to be detected but
correspond to this type of conditioning. In other words, “point of view”
became a formal, open notion, comprising all the forms of conditioning and
relativity of this type (whatever they may be). So that, to get converted into
something concrete, this notion has to be “deformalised”, as it were, into
concrete identifications of the conditionings involved on each occasion –
i. e., into concrete identifications of the sense in which these and those
components of what appears to us (these and those presentations that we
have) are mere “points of view” viz. into concrete identifications of what
makes them limited (of what they hide, of the alternatives that they permit,
etc).
Thus, independently of the terms in which it is expressed (and while
stressing the fact that what he writes amounts to a purely formal and open
concept), one can adopt Johann Martin Chladenius’ statement regarding
the notion of point of view – a statement that can be found in his Einleitung
zur richtigen Auslegung vernünfftiger Reden und Schriften, from 1742: „Diejeni-
gen Umstände unserer Seele, unseres Leibes und unserer gantzen Person,

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

welche machen, oder Ursache sind, daß wir uns eine Sache so, und nicht
anders vorstellen, wollen wir den Sehe-Punkt nennen. Wie nemlich der
Ort unseres Augens, und insbesondere die Entfernung von einem Vor-
wurffe, die Ursache ist, daß wir ein solches Bild, und kein anderes von
der Sache bekommen, also giebt es bey allen unsern Vorstellungen einen
Grund, warum wir die Sache so und nicht anders erkennen, und dieses
ist der Sehe-Punckt von derselben Sache“ (“We wish to call point of view
those circumstances of our soul, our body, and our whole person, which
make us represent a thing in this way and not otherwise, or are the cause
of us doing so. As namely the location of our eye, and in particular the
distance from an object, is the cause that we receive such an image and no
other, of the thing, so in all our representations there is a reason for know-
ing the thing so, and not otherwise, and that is the point of view regarding
the thing in question.”)16 .
It is in this sense (which is untied from the original context) – it is in this
widened, analogical, formal, and open sense – that from now on the notion of
“point of view” will be used in this paper.
Given its importance, let us dwell a little longer on the formal nature of
this notion. The point is that the notion designates all possible instances of
the type of conditioning and restriction in question, without anticipating
them (i. e., without determining how many instances of this type of con-
ditioning and restriction there are, what characterizes each one of them,
etc.). To be sure, when one uses this formal concept, one is already aware
of a certain range of phenomena that correspond to it. But on the other
hand one is also aware of the possibility that the phenomena in question
16
Chladenius (1969), p. 187. See also Chladenius (1752), p. 100: “Da nun der Sehe-
punckt nach den verschiedenen Beschaffenheiten der Objekten [sic] und der Zuschauer,
in so verschiedener Weitläufikeit muß genommen werden, so ist dienlich, daß man diese
Begriffe sämtlich unter einen allgemeinen Begriff bringe: welcher folgender ist. Der Se-
hepunckt ist der innerliche und äusserliche Zustand eines Zuschauers, in so ferne daraus
eine gewisse und besondere Art, die vorkommenden Dinge anzuschauen und zu betrach-
ten, flüsset”. Chladenius devotes a whole chapter of the book (namely chapter V: “Vom
Zuschauer und Sehepunckte”, pp. 91-115) to a nuanced analysis of the point of view phe-
nomenon, both in the literal and in the widened, analogical sense. In this analysis, he gives
a detailed account of the widening (Erweiterung, Ausdehnung) of the notion of point of view
(its various steps, its different lines of development, etc.). See in particular §§ 3, 4, and 11, pp.
93-95, 99f.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

may be only a part (and indeed a small part) of all those components of
what appears to us (viz. of our view of things) that have the nature of a
mere point of view. In short, the formal notion of point of view refers to
something it is unable to anticipate. Let us illustrate this with an example.
There is a radical difference between the way things present themselves
when their presence is marked by a sharp awareness of the fact that they
are being seen for the first or for the last time (as Friedrich Hebbel puts it,
“Was man zum letztenmal sieht, das sieht man wieder, als sähe man’s zum
erstenmal”17 ) and the way they present themselves as usual, trivial things,
“nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita”. This difference can concern some
things, but also the totality of what appears to us, in which case it is most
profound. On the other hand, it is not something absolutely dependent on
circumstances (as if things could present themselves as seen for the first
viz. for the last time only when it is really the first viz. the last time they
are seen). It is rather a matter of two different ways in which things can
present themselves, regardless of the circumstances. Usually one is not
aware of this difference (so that the usual way does not appear as a point
of view at all). But when one becomes aware of the difference, it is plain
that though it has nothing to do with things changing their colours, their
size or any such feature, it nevertheless corresponds to a radical change –
so that the “same” thing as seen in the usual way and as seen for the first
viz. for the last time is not the same thing at all, but rather something “toto
coelo” different from itself (and the “world” as seen in the usual way and
as seen for the first viz. for the last time is not the same “world” at all, but
rather something “toto coelo” different from itself). In other words, what
we are dealing with here is a kind of “either/or” concerning nothing less
than a fundamental trait of what appears – a trait that, strangely enough,
has the power to change all the others. Now, it goes without saying that
the formal notion of point of view we are talking about does not antici-
pate this specific modality of point of view. But on the other hand, once
we become aware of the specific modality in question, it is pretty obvious
that this specific kind of either/or concerning the way things present them-
selves corresponds to the formal notion of point of view and constitutes
one more example of what this notion is all about. Finally, it should be kept
17
Hebbel (1908), 2949, p. 495.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

in mind that, even if, as pointed out above, the formal notion of point of
view does not anticipate how many instances of this type of conditioning
and restriction there are (what characterizes each one of them, etc.), it
still prompts a question about these matters. In other words, it prompts
the following question: in exactly what ways and to what extent has our view
of things (what we see – using the word in the broadest possible sense) the
nature of a point of view? This is a question to which we do not know the
answer. It also happens to be a question we tend not to ask. What is more,
curiously enough it is a question that even those who theorize about “point
of view”,“perspective”, “perspectivism” and the like hardly ever ask and do
not bother to answer (or at least to try to answer). It goes without saying
that this is not the place to tackle this question. It is perhaps not the hard-
est of all (“das Schwerste von allem” Goethe speaks of), but it is no doubt
hard enough, and any attempt to tackle this issue would go far beyond the
scope of this paper. But it is important to note that this is the decisive
question in this context, and that any serious analysis of the problem of
point of view must ask and try to answer this pivotal question.
Having said that, let us return to the history of the notion. As pointed
out above, the untying from the original context, the rendering of itself au-
tonomous from the latter, the opening up to other forms of conditioning
and the substitution of the “literal” meaning with the “analogical” meaning
constitute dominant traits in the history of the notion of point of view. So
that, when using it thus in a sense already completely untied from the orig-
inal context, one does not violate the tradition into which it fits nor is any-
thing new introduced. In fact, a similar untying and rendering autonomous
is so associated with the notion of “point of view” and is traditionally so
unlimited that already in the particular use that Leibniz makes of the term
(a “classical” use, which probably constitutes one of the most decisive fac-
tors in its dissemination) the notion involves a radical suspension of the
spatial model coming from its origin. It is certain that Leibniz resorts fre-
quently to this spatial model (to the location in space, to the punctum visus,
intuentis situs, etc.) as a model providing support for the introduction of the
notion of “point of view”18. It is equally certain that Leibniz expressly de-
18
Cf. in particular Leibniz (1971) vol. I, pp. 10, 19, 20, 69, 150f., 383, vol. II, pp. 19, 57,
98, 438, vol. III, pp. 357, 623, 636, vol. IV, pp. 434, 438, 477, 484, 530, 553f., vol. V, pp. 50,

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

velops this model in a series of examples such as that of the various views
of one and the same city, etc. It is no less certain that, in this way, the
properties of space and its intervention in vision appear as a reference “ex-
plaining” the finitude of our access to things (of our repraesentationes, of the
presentations we have). In other words, it is certain that in many passages
of the corpus lebnitianum the properties of space and its intervention in vi-
sion appear as a reference “explaining” the particular “mixture” of “petites
perceptions” viz. obscure representations, clear representations, distinct but
inadequate representations (and this means, at the same time, the lack of
clear representations, the lack of distinct representations, the lack of ade-
quate representations, and the lack of intuitive representations) which, ac-
cording to Leibniz, composes what appears to us and makes a mere point of
view of all our status repraesentativi. But, in fact, it is Leibniz himself who
insistently deprives space of the character of absolute reference with which it
appears in this model (and without which the model simply falls to pieces);
it is Leibniz himself that reduces space (and all relations of spatial order)
to a mere correlate of a confused representation19. This is not the place
to discuss this topic in depth, but let me give a very rough outline of the
change of perspective he proposes. In his view, it is not a certain position
in space (a certain punctum visus viz. intuentis situs) that gives rise to or de-
termines a certain multiplicity of repraesentationes (constituted in such
a way that, because of the punctum visus or the intuentis situs, it is charac-
terized by a certain mixture of repraesentationes obscurae, of repraesentationes
clarae, of repraesentationes distinctae sed non adaequatae, etc.)20. No, accord-
ing to Leibniz, it is the other way around. Space itself is nothing other
than a complex repraesentatio, made of a certain multiplicity – and a certain
mixture – of repraesentationes obscurae, repraesentationes clarae sed non distinc-
tae, repraesentationes distinctae sed non adaequatae. And the location in space
65, 378, vol. VI, pp. 197f., 327, 599, 603, 616, vol. VII, 120, 452, 542f., 556, 566s., Leibniz
(1948), vol. I, pp. 137f., 266, Leibniz (1961), pp. 10f., 15, 521, Leibniz (1966), p. 304.
19
Cf., for example, Leibniz (1971), vol. I, p. 392, vol. II, pp. 99, 101, 118f., 169f., 195,
336, 379, 435, 438, 510, vol. III, pp. 595, 612, 622f., 674, vol. IV, pp. 483, 491, 568, vol. V,
pp. 205f., vol. VII, pp. 314, 322, all the correspondence with Clarke (and, in particular
375ff., 395s., 400-415), 461, 467f., and Leibniz (1961), pp. 522-523.
20
For Leibniz’s scale of repraesentationes or ideae, from ideae obscurae to ideae adaequatae et
intuitivae, see notably Leibniz (1971), vol. IV, 422-426, 440f., and Leibniz (1961), pp. 219f.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

(the punctum visus, the intuentis situs) is itself nothing other than a complex
repraesentatio (a certain mixture of repraesentationes obscurae, repraesentationes
clarae, etc.) in the framework of the still more complex repraesentatio of
space. I.e., in the final analysis, what constitutes a point of view (N.B.: a
point of view in the literal sense) is not a certain location of the observer in
space (which is itself nothing other than a repraesentatio), but rather a cer-
tain mixture of repraesentationes obscurae, repraesentationes clarae sed non dis-
tinctae, and repraesentationes distinctae sed non adaequatae – the finitude of a
point of view resulting from the fact that the vast majority of its repraesen-
tationes are obscurae, not clarae, that the vast majority of those that are clarae
are not distinctae, and that even those that are distinctae are not adaequatae,
etc. In short, when all is said and done, the point of view in the literal sense
turns out to result from a point of view in the widened, figurative sense. So
that, in fact, even as regards vision proper, the understanding of the point
of view based on the reference to space is itself a conditioned, relative way
of looking at and understanding the point of view phenomenon – i.e., a
mere point of view about the point of view phenomenon and about the form
of conditioning, of relativity corresponding to it. The result being that the
notion of point of view frees itself from the “spatial” model from which it
derives and renders itself entirely autonomous. Thus, according to Leib-
niz, the persistence of a “spatial” model in his explanations – and, in par-
ticular, in his notion of point of view – does not correspond to other than
one more case of what he calls “adaptation to traditional expressions”21 , of
“practicologie”22. In other words, it corresponds to a concession to what
Leibniz calls the “common system”23 – i.e. to something parallel to the
subsistence of “Ptolemaic” forms of expression (“movement of the sun”,
etc.) in the framework of an already Copernican perspective24. To sum up,
for Leibniz any description of the point of view phenomenon as having
its origin in a literal punctum visus or intuentis situs is something acceptable,
21
Cf. Nouveaux Essais I 1 1, Leibniz (1971), vol. V, p. 67.
22
Cf. Discours de métaphysique, XXVII, Leibniz (1971), vol. IV, p. 452.
23
Cf. Nouveaux Essais, I 1 1, Leibniz (1971), vol. V, pp. 66-f.
24
Cf. Discours de métaphysique, XXVII, Leibniz (1971), vol. IV, p. 452, Nouveaux Essais,
I 1 1, Leibniz (1971), vol. V, p. 67, Letter to des Bosses, Leibniz (1971), vol. II, p. 300,
Eclaircicement du nouveaux système de la communication des substances, Leibniz (1971), vol. IV,
p. 493, Essais de Théodicée, I 65, Leibniz (1971), vol.VI, p. 138.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

yes, but not “prenant les choses à la rigueur”.25

But there is yet one more aspect of untying from the origin and widen-
ing in comparison to it that, although in some way involved in what we
have already focused on, is not sufficiently emphasised based on what has
been said (and which, given that it is not expressly stressed, could pass by
unnoticed and not be taken account of – whereas in fact it is of decisive im-
portance). The reference to the way Leibniz changed the notion of point
of view – and in particular the reference to the way he changed the notion
of space and the connection between space and point of view (N.B.: point
of view in the literal sense, the one which has to do with vision stricto sensu)
– can help us understand this further point.
As pointed out above, in the original model of point of view (the model
of the intuentis situs) space itself (the properties of space and its interven-
tion in vision) is the reference “explaining” the finitude of our access to
things. And insofar it is not a point of view: it does not depend on a con-
ditioning factor, it is not relative, it is free from all restriction. It is, as it
were, the irrelative framework providing the basis for the understanding
of relativity. But in Leibniz’s view space itself has the nature of a point of
view: it is nothing other than a repraesentatio, it depends on conditioning
factors, it permits alternatives (i.e., it leaves room for other views, no less
legitimate, etc.). In other words, according to Leibniz, the whole original
understanding of points of view is itself a point of view – it is nothing other
than a repraesentatio, it depends on conditioning factors, it permits alter-
natives (i.e., it leaves room for other views, no less legitimate, etc.). This is,
of course, not the place to discuss this issue. What is important for our
discussion is the kind of change we are dealing with here.
In the original model space provides the framework for the under-
standing of the point of view phenomenon, but it is not itself a point of view
(it is not perceived as a point of view). In fact, it is the very opposite, it is
marked by absolute validity, etc. But this means that the perspective we
have when we acknowledge the scattered and disseminated character of
25
Regarding the particular doubleness at stake here and its meaning, cf. Kaulbach
(1973), in particular 339ff., Kaulbach (1979), pp. 69, 78ff., 83ff., Schüßler (1992), pp. 7-
17, 191ff., in particular 201-212.; regarding the notions “common system”, “new system”
and parallel notions, as well as the opposition between “rigour” and “adaptation”, see the
passages listed by Schüßler (1992), note 66, pp. 17-18.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

vision proper (and all the problems arising from it: all the “fragmentation”
and “explosion” we have spoken of, etc.) is in fact very far from having it-
self the character of a point of view (of being itself acknowledged as a mere
point of view). That is, on closer inspection it turns out that, whether we
are conscious of it or not, this very perspective has a composite structure:
some of its components (namely the whole field of vision) are perceived
as having the nature of a point of view (with all the problems arising from
it), while others (for instance space) are perceived as absolutely valid (i.e., as
being the very opposite of a point of view). What is more, whether we are
conscious of it or not, those aspects that are perceived as having the na-
ture of a mere point of view are anchored, as it were, in the solid ground of
what seems to be free of any relativity. In other words the latter provides what
seems to be a firm basis for the understanding of the former. Now what
Leibniz says about space calls our attention to the possibility that this solid
ground (i.e, at least some of the views that are perceived as being free from
all relativity) turns out to have itself the nature of a point of view. In other
words, Leibniz calls our attention to the possibility that the perspective
we have when we acknowledge the scattered and disseminated character of
vision proper (and all the problems arising from it: all the “fragmentation”
and “explosion” we have spoken of, etc.) does not have the composition
mentioned above: it does not only comprise elements that have the nature
of a point of view and elements that are free of all relativity. For there is
a third possibility: it can also include components that seem to be free of all
relativity and yet, on closer inspection, turn out to have the nature of a mere
point of view, to permit alternatives, etc.
But this is still not all. There are several other aspects that need to be
taken into consideration.
First, it must be borne in mind that what appears to us has the nature of
what Aristotle calls a συγκεχυμένον (a whole composed of undifferentiated
elements)26. In other words, each “view”, each “object” (and indeed each
“moment”, each “component” of each object) is complex in the sense that
it results from a multiplicity of views – it is, as it were, the resultant force of a
system of forces (a whole cluster of determinations, assumptions, beliefs, self-
evidences, etc.), constituted in such a way that a) we are not immediately
26
See Physica, I, 1, Aristotle (1936), 184a-b.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

aware of them (of each different “force”, i.e, of each determination, each
assumption, etc.) and b) even if we try to become aware of them, they tend
to escape detection27.
Secondly, it must be borne in mind that this means the possibility of
what can be called a multiple point of view (N.B.: a multiple point of view
in the widened, figurative, analogical sense we have been talking about). But
what does this mean? It means that what appears to us can be constituted
in such a way that not only one but several of the “forces” (i.e., of the de-
terminations, assumptions, self-evidences, etc.) that form the “system of
forces” of which it is the resultant force turn out to have the nature of a mere
point of view. In other words, it means the possibility that what appears
to us is the correlate not only of a conditioning factor, but of a multiplicity
of conditioning factors, all of which are relative, permit alternatives and
play, as it were, the role of trap-doors through which otherness (the pos-
sibility of “ἄλλως ἔχειν”) can make its entrance. We can perhaps express
this by saying it is possible that what appears to us has the character of
a multiple anamorphosis – in the sense that an anamorphosis is something
which can only be seen from a specific vantage point of view (in the literal
sense)28 – and what we are referring to is the possibility that what appears
to us is relative not to a certain point of view, but to a certain conjunction or
combination of analogical points of view (both in the sense that it can only
27
That is, on the one hand, what appears to us would look otherwise if the “system of
forces” viz. of beliefs, determinations, assumptions, etc., did not include each and every
one of the “forces” it is made of; on the other hand, this does not prevent the “forces” in
question (Kant called them “die geheimen Urteile der gemeinen Vernunft”) from playing their
role a tergo, as “grey eminences”, in the “dark” – or, as Kant puts it, in what he calls the
“Bathos der Erfahrung”: in the depths, namely in the depth of experience. In the Anthropologie
Friedländer, Kant (1902-), vol. XXV, p. 479, we can read the following: “Die duncklen
Vorstellungen enthalten die geheime Feder von dem was im Lichten ist“ (emphasis added).
On “geheime Urteile der gemeinen Vernunft” see Reflexion 436, Kant (1902-), vol. XV, p.
180. The notion of “Bathos der Erfahrung” appears in the Prolegomena, Kant (1902-), vol.
IV, p. 380. For a more detailed account of these notions, their historical development
and meaning, and the phenomena they are intended to designate, see notably Carvalho
(2010).
28
On anamorphosis, see notably Baltrusaitis (1955), Leemann, Elffers & Schyu (1976),
Baltrusaitis (1984), Damisch (1987), Collins (1992a), Collins (1992b), Pérez-Gómez & Pel-
letier (1995), Massey (1997), Füsslin & Henze (1999), Topper (2000), Massey (2007), Cha
& Rautzenberg (2008), Boyle (2010).

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

be seen from this particular conjunction of points of view and in the sense
that29 it is nothing other than the correlate of this particular conjunction
of conditioning factors viz. of points of view in the analogical sense of the
word)30.
Thirdly, it is to be noted that, if one tries to find out whether what
appears to us has anything to do with this possibility, one faces two main
difficulties: on the one hand, as pointed out above, when one tries to iden-
tify the components of the “system of forces” of which what appears to us
is the “resulting force”, they tend to escape detection; on the other hand, it
is possible to become aware of them (or at least of some of them) without
becoming aware of the fact that they too have the nature of a point of view.
For there is no βασιλεία ὁδός in these matters, and it is not easy to discern
whether a given determination, assumption, etc., has the nature of a point
of view. Because we are not naturally aware of the alternatives, etc., our
whole tendency is to uphold the absolute validity of our own perspectives
and to leave it at that.
The upshot of all this is that the above mentioned possibility (namely
the possibility that our own view of things includes components that seem
to be free of all relativity and yet, on closer inspection, turn out to have
the nature of a point of view) remains even when we have tried to ascer-
tain to what extent our view of things is a mere point of view. There is
what we can term a lack of transparency, and any attempt to settle these
matters has to struggle against a very difficult kind of invisible enemy – to
wit, blind angles. So that even if one has tried hard, and even if a series of
steps has unmasked several components of one’s view of things, there is al-
29
As in ancient “σκιαγραϕία” – see, for example, Keuls (1978), in particular pp. 59-87,
Rouveret (1989), and Keuls (1997), in particular pp. 107-145.
30
With the result that the realm of possible otherness (the “ἐνδέχεσθαι ἄλλως ἔχειν”:
the possibility of viewing things in a different way or the possibility that things are other than
they appear to us) rises vertiginously. Multiple anamorphosis in the sense we are talking about
means multiple “ ἐνδέχεσθαι ἄλλως ἔχειν”. In other words, if there is such a thing as multiple
anamorphosis in this sense, then everything appearing to us (i. e., not only each “object”,
but indeed each “moment” of each object) permits a multiplicity of alternatives – and, what
is more, an open multiplicity of alternatives – corresponding to the various determinations
of each object (viz. of each of its moments) and to the possibility that several of these
determinations are nothing other than the correlate of a conditioning factor, i. e., a mere
point of view.

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ways the possibility that the results thus achieved viz. the terminus ad quem
of these changes still has a composite structure in the sense that it still in-
cludes components (both hidden components –“grey eminences”,“geheime
Urteile” – and components we are aware of) that seem to be free of all rela-
tivity and yet, on closer inspection, can turn out to have the nature of a mere
point of view.
This too is an important point. Any attempt to settle this issue is like a
voyage in uncharted waters or like trying to find the way in a labyrinth: one never
knows where one really is and where the voyage goes viz. the path leads.

4. Point of View,Restriction and Puzzlement. — Multiplication and

Subtraction: the Peculiar “Arithmetic of Point of View”.
But there is yet one more aspect of untying from the origin and widening
in comparison to it that played a major role in the historical development
of the notion of point of view – an aspect no discussion of this issue can
rightfully ignore.
In the original meaning of the notion the conditioned and relative char-
acter of what is designated point of view does not significantly affect the
natural pretension of one’s view of things, it does not call it into question
as regards its status, it does not disorient, it does not create puzzlement or
confusion. It fits perfectly into the natural self-evaluation regime of our ac-
cess to things without disturbing it and without even slightly “keeping in
check” the version in force in it. If the notion of point of view involves
a restriction, a note of relativity (the admission of alternatives, etc.), the
sphere of incidence with regard to what causes it is a circumscribed one
which, as we have said, does not prevent many other aspects of one’s view
of things from being completely free of any mark of relativity or restriction
– so that nothing separates them from an “unrestricted validity”. The re-
sult being that one’s overall view of things remains marked by a validity of
this order. In fact, the very relativity of the visual presentation and the
restrictions corresponding to it seem “natural” and are not considered to
hamper even slightly its effectiveness or to call into question in any way
the status of what one has by having it.
In short, in the original context, the identification of the conditioning
at stake in the notion of point of view is, fundamentally, perfectly innocuous.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

To be sure, we have tried to show that, in the final analysis, there is nothing
innocuous about the “fragmentation” and “explosion” the phenomenon of
point of view (namely the phenomenon of point of view in the original
sense – in the sphere of vision proper) is all about. But, as also pointed out
above, both the common awareness of the phenomenon of point of view
in this original sense and the common notion of point of view in general
are characterized by the fact that they are indeed pretty innocuous.
Now, in these circumstances, the untying from the original context and
the identification of the different conditioning and relativity factors af-
fecting one’s view of things opens new possibilities, and the discovery of
more relativity factors can bring with it an aggravation and reveal how
the conditioning and relativity of our access to things have a much more
serious and much more disturbing character – that no longer leaves it un-
affected, no longer corresponds to just a detail without significant con-
sequences (a detail which does not affect the “Peace”, security or status of
one’s view of things), but rather “puts it in check”, disturbing its status,
rendering it problematical. That is, the discovery of other conditioning
aspects can make anything innocuous that the notion of point of view has
disappear. It can cast the presentation we have into a situation (into a self-
evaluation, an evaluation of its status) very different from that in which it
unwarily supposes itself: into a situation in which it shows itself to be radi-
cally conditioned,radically relative – and at this point has difficulty perceiving
what it is that it corresponds to, what its own status is31.
31
All this has to do with what can be described as a general ambiguity of the very no-
tion of point of view – namely an ambiguity as to whether it is innocuous or not. In the
common usage the notion of point of view always means that there are other points of
view beyond the one in question. A single point of view viz. a point of view without al-
ternatives is a contradictio in terminis. But this does not prevent the other points of view
one acknowledges from being perceived as wrong, as irrelevant, etc. Now the point is that
when this is the case there is no real acknowledgement of one’s own view as a mere point
of view. In other words, when this is the case, though we speak of “point of view” and
characterize our own view as a “point of view”, there is no real restriction (no real sense of
restriction, no real acknowledgement of restriction) – and therefore there is no real reduction
of one’s view to a mere point of view among others. In short, the fact that other points
of view are perceived as being wrong, irrelevant, etc., renders them completely innocuous.
But if they are innocuous there is no real restriction of one’s own view – and so one’s view
is not perceived as a mere point of view among other equally legitimate points of view.
This leads us to a further topic. In the strong sense of the word, a point of view (the real

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

acknowledgement of another point of view viz. the real acknowledgement of one’s own
view as a mere point of view) cannot be completely innocuous. And this in turn means
that, in the final analysis, points of view are not merely juxtaposed – they cannot be merely
juxtaposed, as if they simply coexisted and did not interfere with each other. Real acknowledge-
ment that one’s own view is a mere point of view always introduces a certain amount of
strain – it puts one’s view under some pressure. In other words, point of view means tension: a
quantum minimum of tension, a quantum minimum of sense of blindness – a quantum minimum
of the possibility that things are not quite the way we see them. Take, for example, the case of
vision proper and of the “fragmentation” that is inherent to it. Even supposing it is only
a matter of incompleteness, this “fragmentation” is all about the fact that in everything we
see there is much more than meets the eye. To be sure, one usually feels able to anticipate
what remains unseen or one disqualifies it as being irrelevant, unnecessary details, etc.
– in which case one perceives one’s own view as being more than enough, with the result
that the other points of view one acknowledges do not put one’s own view under any
pressure. I. e., insofar as it includes the anticipation of the unseen and seems “to have
everything under control”, one’s own view is not really perceived as a mere point of view
among many others. But as soon as one realizes that these anticipations are misleading,
and that there is much one is unable to anticipate (as soon as one realizes that there is
something really beyond one’s grasp, and that one does not know to what extent it may be rel-
evant and make everything appear in a new light), the acknowledgement of one’s own
view as a mere point of view becomes effective – it ceases to be completely innocuous, it
introduces at least some amount of tension, it puts one’s own view under some pressure,
it puts it in check, etc. Kant expresses this in one passage of his Träume eines Geisersehers,
Kant (1902-), vol. II, p. 340, where he writes the following: “Das Urtheil desjenigen,
der meine Gründe widerlegt, ist mein Urtheil, nachdem ich es vorerst gegen die Schale
der Selbstliebe und nachher in derselben gegen meine vermeintliche Gründe abgewogen
und in ihm einen größeren Gehalt gefunden habe. Sonst betrachtete ich den allgemeinen
menschlichen Verstand blos aus dem Standpunkte des meinigen: jetzt setze ich mich
in die Stelle einer fremden und äußeren Vernunft und beobachte meine Urtheile sammt
ihren geheimsten Anlässen aus dem Gesichtspunkte anderer. Die Vergleichung beider
Beobachtungen giebt zwar starke Parallaxen, aber sie ist auch das einzige Mittel, den
optischen Betrug zu verhüten und die Begriffe an die wahre Stellen zu setzen, darin sie
in Ansehung der Erkenntnißvermögen der menschlichen Natur stehen.” In this passage,
Kant draws our attention to the fact that, in the final analysis, there is no real acknowl-
edgement of another point of view (and this means: there is no real acknowledgement
of our own view as a mere point of view) unless the other point of view is perceived as a
view I could adopt – as having a claim to become my own view. In other words, if there
is to be any real acknowledgement of another point of view (if there is to be any real ac-
knowledgement of our own view as a mere point of view), there must be some challenge viz.
some tension between different possibilities. Without this quantum minimum of challenge and
tension, “otherness” becomes completely “neutralized” – there is no real “otherness” in
the crucial sense: no real ἐνδέχεσθαι ἄλλως ἔχειν (no real possibility that things are other-

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

This too constitutes an important direction of the transformation of

the historical notion of point of view: the fact that it ceases to have to do
with more or less innocuous details of the access one has, the fact that rel-
ativity ceases to be circumscribed to aspects that are more of detail within
frameworks (reference systems) themselves in no way affected by any rela-
tivisation – the fact that relativity eventually extends to these same frame-
works and to more “virulent” aspects, which more profoundly shake up the
security of one’s view of things.
In short, if one tends to not spontaneously associate the notion of
point of view with any disturbance of this kind (so that in fact it remains
distant from the idea of such a disturbance), what is at stake in it, starting
from the moment in which it unties itself from the initial framework and
starts to correspond to a type of conditioning and relativity and embraces
all the different factors that correspond to this type, involves the possibility
of this disturbance – with everything depending on the extent of the conditioning
and relativity,to which one’s view of things in fact gets to show itself to be subjected.
If we take the notion of point of view to mean something of this sort,
then our access to things tends precisely to not see itself as a point of view,
in this sense – it tends to steer clear of conceiving these possibilities. And
if – as some have done – one talks over and again of our whole access to
things as a point of view, one is aiming precisely at maintaining a distance
vis-à-vis the pretension, that this access naturally has, of being an access that
is effective,“transparent” as regards reality – that shows things exactly as they are.
That is, one is aiming at maintaining a distance vis-à-vis its cognoscitive
pretension (vis-à-vis the pretension, which it has, of constituting knowl-
wise). Or, as Kant suggests in the passage just quoted, there is no real acknowledgement
of points of view (no real acknowledgement of other points of view and no real acknowl-
edgement of one’s own view as a mere point of view) without a quantum minimum of parallax.
In other words, where there is no experience of parallax, there is no real awareness of points
of view. This is not the place to discuss the notion of parallax, its history and its meaning.
But it should be borne in mind that parallax has to do with the fact that viewing objects
from different angles makes them appear in different apparent positions viz. gives rise to
apparent displacements. For instance, the objects around me present different views as I
close one eye and then the other – they “jump” back and forth as they are viewed from
one eye or the other. And that is precisely the point here: where there is no quantum
minimum of some kind of “jumping back and forth” between different possibilities there
is no real acknowledgement of points of view either.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

edge, in its proper and strong sense, as already expressed by Plato32 ).

Said in another way, because its historical development took this di-
rection and because it has to do with this possibility the notion of point of
view is intrinsically connected with what is at stake in the philosophical
tradition, when – as starting from its origins and passing through Plato,
etc. – it considers the possibility that our access to things has a radically
non-cognoscitive character and is, as Kant puts it, not “Erkenntnis” but a mere
“Vorstellungsart”.
But it is time to conclude. My final remark concerns a problem of arith-
metic, namely of a peculiar kind of arithmetic: the arithmetic of point of view.
In one of the most extraordinary books ever written about these matters,
Uno, nessuno e centomila (One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand), L. Piran-
dello draws our attention to this peculiar arithmetic. In Book V there is
a chapter under the heading “Moltiplicazione e sottrazione” (Multiplica-
tion and Subtraction) in which he sums up some of the issues this book is all
about, and spells out the meaning of the title (One, No One,and One Hundred
Thousand)33. Pirandello describes a conversation between three persons.
One of them, the protagonist, Moscarda, realizes that the conversation
does not take place between three but rather between many more than
three persons, for each of them is something different for himself and for
each of his interlocutors. Now, according to “normal” arithmetic the re-
sult of this multiplication would be nine. Not so in the peculiar arithmetic
of points of view Pirandello makes us acquainted with. In this peculiar
arithmetic the result is eight. But how come? The person who realizes
that the conversation does not take place only between three interlocu-
tors knows that he is something different viz. someone different for each one
of his interlocutors, but for himself – because he is aware of this, because he
is aware of the multiplication in question – he is no longer the one he used
to be before realizing this. I. e., he is no longer one at all. Or, as Pirandello
viz. his Moscarda puts it, in the arithmetic of point of view multiplication
32
For example, Respublica 477b10: “Oὐκo υν ἐπιστ ήµη µὲν ἐπὶ τ ῳ ὄντ ι πέφυκε,
γν ωναι ὡς ἔστ ι τ ὸ ὄν ;” See also 478a6: “ ᾿Επιστ ήµη µέν γέ πoυ ἐπὶ τ ῳ ὄντ ι, τ ὸ ὂν
γν ωναι ὡς ἔχει;”). A slightly free translation could be: “By its own nature knowledge is
related to that which is, to know it just as it is?”, “Knowledge [is related] to that which is,
to know it just as it is?”.
33
Cf. L. Pirandello, Uno, nessuno e centomila, V, vi, in: Pirandello (1993), p. 863.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

eventually results in subtraction34. In other words, in the final analysis the

kind of multiplication that is inherent to the discovery of points of view
34
Cf. ibidem: “E poiché erano due a vedermi entrare, mi venne la tentazione di voltarmi
a cercare l'altro che entrava con me, pur sapendo bene che il "caro Vitangelo" del mio
paterno Quantorzo non solo era anch’esso in me come il Gengè di mia moglie Dida, ma
che io tutto quanto, per Quantorzo, altri non ero che il suo caro Vitangelo, proprio come
per Dida altri che il suo "Gengè". Due, dunque, non agli occhi loro, ma soltanto per me
che mi sapevo per quei due uno e uno; il che per me, non faceva un piú ma un meno, in
quanto voleva dire che ai loro occhi, io come io, non ero nessuno.
Ai loro occhi soltanto? Anche per me, anche per la solitudine del mio spirito che, in
quel momento, fuori d'ogni consistenza apparente, concepiva l'orrore di vedere il proprio
corpo per sé come quello di nessuno nella diversa incoercibile realtà che intanto gli davano
quei due.
Mia moglie, nel vedermi voltare, domandò.
«Chi cerchi?»
M'affrettai a risponderle, sorridendo:
«Ah, nessuno, cara, nessuno. Eccoci qua!»
Non compresero, naturalmente, che cosa intendessi dire con quel "nessuno" cercato
accanto a me; e credettero che con quell'"eccoci" mi riferissi anche a loro due, sicurissimi
che lí dentro quel salotto fossimo ora in tre e non in nove; o piuttosto, in otto, visto che
io - per me stesso - ormai non contavo piú.
Voglio dire:
1. Dida, com'era per sé;
2. Dida, com'era per me;
3. Dida, com'era per Quantorzo;
4. Quantorzo, com'era per sé;
5. Quantorzo, com'era per Dida;
6. Quantorzo, com'era per me;
7. il caro Gengè di Dida;
8. il caro Vitangelo di Quantorzo.
S’apparecchiava in quel salotto, fra quegli otto che si credevano tre, una bella conver-
sazione.”
That multiplication is what points of view are all about is pretty obvious. Leibniz ex-
presses this essential feature of the “arithmetic of points of view” when he speaks of a
“perpectivistic multiplication” (see his Monadologie §57, G. VI, 616: “Et comme une même
ville regardée de differens côtés paroist toute autre et est comme multipliée perspective-
ment, il arrive de même, que par la multitude infinie des substances simples, il y a comme
autant de differens univers, qui ne sont pourtant que les perspectives d’un seul selon les
differens points de veue de chaque Monade.”, emphasis added). But the point is that
points of view are not just about multiplication, and that subtraction plays a no less impor-
tant role in this context – and indeed so much so that subtraction can be the final product of
multiplication.

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M. Jorge de Carvalho A Further Point of View on Points of View

as points of view entails a risk of loss (and even of complete loss): the risk of no
one (nessuno – of becoming no one) and we could also say the risk of nothing
(of everything becoming nothing).
And this – namely the fact that we are, to an unknown extent, in a
labyrinth of points of view, and that this labyrinth entails both the “mul-
tiplication” and the “subtraction” (both the possibility of discovery and
the possibility of loss) we have just spoken of – is one of the reasons why
P. Valéry is perhaps right when he says: «Un homme n’est qu’un poste
d’observation perdu dans l’étrangeté»35.

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