Dr. Jakob Moser
Photo: Christopher Mavrič
Curriculum
Jakob Moser is a philosopher and cultural historian. Since June 2021, he has been a postdoctoral fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a researcher at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Vienna. His current research project addresses the history and theory of demonic simulacra. Recently, he published a monograph on the transmedial reception of the legendary temptations of St. Anthony (Turia + Kant 2022). He received his PhD with a thesis on Lucretius’ poetics of translation (V&R unipress 2022) and wrote a book on the interrelation of rhetoric and rationality in Descartes’ early work (Fink 2018). From 2014 to 2017, he was a research associate at the University of Konstanz. In the past, he was a visiting scholar at the UC Berkeley, the KHI in Florence, and IFK in Vienna. As a fellow of the DFG Centre for Advanced Studies ‘Imaginaria of Force’, he will investigate the relation between meteorology and theories of imagination in Lucretius.
Publications (selection)
- Lesende Dämonen. Schrift als Versuchung, Berlin/Wien: Turia + Kant (IFK lectures & translations, ed. by Thomas Macho) 2022.
- Dädalische Zunge. Lukrez als Übersetzer des Realen, Göttingen: Vienna University Press (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht) 2022.
- „Bookish Demons. Scriptural Temptations in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Iconography of St. Anthony“, in: Zeitsprünge. Forschungen zur Frühen Neuzeit, Vol. 26 (2022), pp. 88-127.
- Rationis Imago. Descartes’ Dichten, Träumen, Denken, Paderborn: Fink Verlag, 2018.
- „Manifest gegen die Evidenz. Tastsinn und Gewissheit bei Lukrez“, in: Helmut Lethen, Ludwig Jäger, Albrecht Koschorke (eds.), Auf die Wirklichkeit zeigen. Zum Problem der Evidenz in den Kulturwissenschaften, Frankfurt/New York: Campus Verlag 2015, pp. 85-105.
Research project: Physics of Clouds: Force of Nature and Phantasm in Lucretius
At the climax of his philosophical epic, in book 6 of De rerum natura, Lucretius devotes himself to meteorological phenomena. Following doxography, he refers to natural forces affecting the entire geosphere: storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, but also the hidden powers of magnetism and deadly epidemics. The book opens with repetitive and detailed depictions of the genesis of clouds and thunderstorms. Spanning over 400 verses, this is one of the most extensive descriptions in the epic forming an illuminating example of the poet's dynamic view of nature which repeatedly seeks visible expressions and analogies for the invisible atomic forces. On the one hand, Lucretius wants to free the heavens from theological terror; on the other, he wants to put the threatening powers of the heavens in the service of his rhetorical persuasion in order to overwhelm his audience. Enlightenment and sublime effects are inextricably intertwined in Lucretius' depictions of clouds. At the same time, the imagery of clouds that appears elsewhere in De rerum natura becomes a physical model explaining nightmarish simulacra. These images arise spontaneously and are detached from the restrictions of solids in the atmosphere. The research project focusses on the connection between clouds and phantasms which inaugurated a tradition beyond Lucretius. The aim is to show why phantasms, from a materialistic (Epicurean) perspective, are not only a problem of psychology, but also one of meteorology.
Research results: Physics of Clouds: Force of Nature and Phantasm in Lucretius
For Lucretius, clouds are the expression of a type of physics that mediates between the mechanics of solids and hydrostatics. Since meteorological phenomena are largely based on stochastic processes, they can hardly be predicted, and their causes cannot be totalized. That is why Lucretius follows Epicurus in applying multiple explanatory patterns. All conceivable causes are listed. This method opens a literary space that explores all procedures of the generating of rhetorical evidence. Clouds fulfill at least three functions:
(1) Clouds are a poetological catalyst. Since they defy immediate verifiability, they are illustrated by analogies from the realm of everyday experience. The multiple causes are multiplied by metaphors. A dense texture of epic comparisons takes the place of monocausal explanations. As a metaphor the cloud is an antithesis to the enlightenment that needs to be translated into non-mythical language. The power that lies dormant in the cloud is transformed from a force of nature into a power of linguistic persuasion, a topos that informs the aesthetics of the sublime.
(2) Clouds are a cosmological paradigm. Like dust clouds which make visible the invisible kinetics of atoms, clouds and the weather provide an insight into the dynamics of micro- and macrocosmic processes. Thunderstorms are expressions of an inner dichotomy of all things. They are analogies of the primeval chaos and simultaneously an anticipation of the future end of the world. The unpredictability of meteorological phenomena is not only inherent in the multiplicity of causes; it results from the clinamen, the non-deterministic atomic deviation.
(3) Clouds illustrate a materialistic theory of phantasm. Lucretius repeatedly speaks of simulacra that arise in the air like clouds. He describes dynamic images of clouds in which faces, monsters, and mythological beings appear. Images of clouds are a model for clouds of images that arise independently of solids and can assault us like a force of nature. Mythological, erotic, and dreamlike phantasms are therefore for Lucretius not only a question of psychology, but also of meteorology. This connection will go on to haunt some Renaissance cloud paintings.