Marginalized by the scientific age with its metaphysical and philosophical systems, the lessons of the senses have been overtaken by the dominance of language and the information revolution. . Exploring the deleterious effects of the systematic downgrading of the senses in Western philosophy, Michel Serres GC ?o member of the Acade mie franc ?aise and one of France's leading philosophers GC ?o traces a topology of human perception. Writing against the Cartesian tradition and in praise of empiricism, he demonstrates repeatedly, and lyrically, the sterility of systems of knowledge divorced from bodily