"The Keener Touch": Walter Pater and the Hermeneutic Scene of Contact

Abstract:This article situates Walter Pater's thought within the broader philosophical inquiry of his generation into the fundamental nature of experience. Across his works, Pater sets forth an original theory of intersubjectivity grounded in close analysis of emblematic "scenes of contact" in the sphere of art. His concepts of "touch," "impress," and the "scene of human experience" show how the artwork participates in broader relationships that make social existence possible. The affinity of these concepts to Wilhelm Dilthey's contemporaneous theories of lived experience, expression and understanding shows Pater's participation in an emerging intellectual paradigm. Taken together, these readings offer an alternative to accounts of Pater as a materialist, an impressionist, or a hedonist.