Hands up those of you who know that the unsynthesised manifold is a concept from Kantian philosophy? According to Professor Germaine Greer, if you read the Guardian, you should have had your hand in the air. Apparently, professor Greer wrote the following in a Guardian article in October:
"The first attribute of the art object is that it creates a discontinuity between itself and the unsynthesised manifold."
As a result, she has been awarded a Golden Bull award by the Plain English Campaign, who clearly felt that Professor Greer’s pronouncement was, shall we say, less than crystal clear English language.
However, Germaine protests:
Most reasonably educated Guardian readers would, I faintly hope, have recognised the phrase "unsynthesised manifold" as an English version of a basic concept in Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Judgment, first published in English in 1790 and familiarised in Britain by the work of Coleridge and just about anybody else who writes about aesthetic theory. The expression endures because in more than 200 years no one has found a better way of rendering the idea, although its content continues to evolve with changes in our understanding of brain function and the mechanics of perception.
Erm, sorry Germaine, I failed the test. I am a Guardian reader, and I consider myself somewhat educated, but "manifold" to me usually carries connotations with exhausts and engines. I did science, not aesthetics, at school and university. I trust that this does not make me a bad person…
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