Reading Philosophy Through Archives and Manuscripts

The philosophical manuscript is a peculiar object that has only recently started to receive proper consideration. However, in Europe for instance, major archival centers have for a long time been collecting important philosophical data — such as Nietzsche, Benjamin or Kierkegaard’s archives — and have contributed to preserve the memory of philosophical writing across the 20th century. This process has led to the constitution of an archival heritage that remains open to further exploration. This issue of Aisthesis aims to investigate the specific status of philosophical manuscripts and of the forms and modalities of expression to which they testify. We welcome contributions illuminating the approach to this type of document, and proposing methodological considerations embedded in specific practices of archival research. Philosophical manuscripts are usually known and studied by hyper-specialized scholars working on the critical edition of such or such thinkers. In this issue of Aisthesis, we wish to bring together various archival experiences testifying to the specificity of the work on philosophical manuscripts.