The Chiro-Phenomenology of Vilém Flusser: Exploring the Gestures of the Hand.

Vilém Flusser’s chiro-phenomenology fills an essential gap in scholarship by expanding and reinterpreting the ontological significance of gestures, focusing on the hand as a crucial site for understanding the embodied nature of human existence. This article explores Flusser’s unique contribution to the phenomenology of the hand, highlighting why his approach is necessary for a fuller understanding of gesture and embodiment. I begin by emphasizing the relevance of the hand in understanding gestures, arguing that phenomenology provides rich resources for this inquiry. Within the phenomenological tradition, two distinct perspectives emerge: Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, who concentrate on the perceptive and kinesthetic dimensions of the hand, and Heidegger and Levinas, who explore its ontological significance, viewing the hand as essential to human existence. I position Flusser within this ontological framework but show how he departs from his predecessors by developing an original manual approach that centers on the ‘gesture of making.’ By analyzing the eleven constitutive moments of this gesture, I demonstrate how Flusser’s chiro-phenomenology views gestures not only as expressive or communicative acts but as fundamental possibilities for human being-in-the-world. His work thus offers a crucial extension of phenomenology’s understanding of the body and action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]