On the motivations for Merleau-Ponty’s ontological research

This paper attempts to clarify Merleau-Ponty’s later work by tracing a hitherto overlooked set of concerns that were of key consequence for the formulation of his ontological research. I argue that his ontology can be understood as a response to a set of problems originating in reflections on the intersubjective use of language in dialogue, undertaken in the early 1950s. His study of dialogue disclosed a structure of meaning-formation and pointed towards a theory of truth (both recurring ontological topics) that post-Phenomenology premises could not account for. A study of dialogue shows that speakers’ positions are interchangeable, that speaking subjects are active and passive in varying degrees, and that the intentional roles of subjects and objects are liable to shift or ‘transgress’ themselves. These observations anticipate the concepts of ‘reversibility’ and ‘narcissism’, his later view of activity and passivity, and his later view of intentionality, and sharpened the need to adopt an intersubjective focus in ontological research

Las ciencias del hombre y la fenomenología

Al tratar de las relaciones de la fenomenología con las ciencias del hombre, no pienso abordar un problema de escuela, que no se asentaría más que en las tesis o en las opiniones de una, cierta tendencia filosófica. La fenomenología se ha presentado desde su iniciación como una tentativa por resolver un problema que no es de una secta sino más bien el problema del siglo: preocupa desde 1900 hasta nuestros días. El esfuerzo filosófico de Husserl está destinado en efecto, dentro de su espíritu a resolver simultáneamente una crisis de la filosofía, una crisis de las ciencias del hombre y una crisis de las ciencias ni más ni menos, crisis de la cual no hemos salido aú

Suvokimo fenomenologija

Publikuojama prancūzų fenomenologo M. Merleau-Ponty veikalo „Suvokimo fenomenologija“ ištrauka. Joje pateikiamas fenomenologijos statuso apibūdinimas, komentuojamos E. Husserlio plėtotos redukcijos, esmių, intencionalumo sąvokos, sąmonės, racionalumo samprata. Fenomenologija – tai esmių tyrinėjimas, ir visos problemos, fenomenologų požiūriu, išsprendžiamos apibrėžus esmes, pvz., suvokimo, sąmonės esmę. Transcendentalinė filosofija susilaiko nuo natūraliosios nuostatos teiginių, jai būdingas siekimas būti griežtu mokslu, bet kartu ji yra ataskaita už erdvę, laiką, gyvenamąjį pasaulį. Visas mūsų žinojimas apie pasaulį, įskaitant net mokslo žinias, remiasi mano požiūriu ir pasaulio patyrimu, be kurio mokslo simboliai negalėtų nieko pasakyti. Suvokimas nepateikia žinių apie pasaulį, jis yra visų aktų susidarymo ir egzistavimo pagrindas. Redukcija yra aiškios, prasmingos medžiagos suvokimas, aktyvi prasmės suteikimo operacija. Be aktų intencionalumo, skiriamaas funkcionuojantis intencionalumas, kuris nustato natūralų ir ikipredikatyvų pasaulio bei mūsų gyvenimo vienumą ir pasireiškia mūsų noruose, vertinimuose, gamtovaizdyje aiškiau nei objektyviame pažinime

Las ciencias del hombre y la fenomenología

Al tratar de las relaciones de la fenomenología con las ciencias del hombre, no pienso abordar un problema de escuela, que no se asentaría más que en las tesis o en las opiniones de una, cierta tendencia filosófica. La fenomenología se ha presentado desde su iniciación como una tentativa por resolver un problema que no es de una secta sino más bien el problema del siglo: preocupa desde 1900 hasta nuestros días. El esfuerzo filosófico de Husserl está destinado en efecto, dentro de su espíritu a resolver simultáneamente una crisis de la filosofía, una crisis de las ciencias del hombre y una crisis de las ciencias ni más ni menos, crisis de la cual no hemos salido aú

Merleau-Ponty and neuroaesthetics: Two approaches to performance and technology

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Digital Creativity, 23(3-4), 225 - 238, 2012. Copyright @ 2012 Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14626268.2012.709941.Assisted by the rapid growth of digital technology, which has enhanced its ambitions, performance is an increasingly popular area of artistic practice. This article seeks to contextualise this within two methodologically divergent yet complimentary intellectual tendencies. The first is the work of the philosopher Merleau-Ponty, who recognised that our experience of the world has an inescapably ‘embodied’ quality, not reducible to mental accounts, which can be vicariously extended through specific instrumentation. The second is the developing field of neuroaesthetics; that is, neurological research directed towards the analysis, in brain-functional terms, of our experiences of objects and events which are culturally deemed to be of artistic significance. I will argue that both these contexts offer promising approaches to interpreting developments in contemporary performance, which has achieved critical recognition without much antecedent theoretical support

European institutions?

© 2016 The British Society for Phenomenology. The aim of this article is to sketch a phenomenological theory of political institutions and to apply it to some objections and questions raised by Pierre Manent about the project of the European Union and more specifically the question of “European Construction”, i.e. what is the aim of the European Project. Such a theory of political institutions is nested within a broader phenomenological account of institutions, dimensions of which I have tried to elaborate elsewhere. As a working conceptual delineation, we can describe institutions as (relatively) stable meaning structures. As such, the definition encompasses phenomena like the European Commission, Belgium, marriage, the Dollar, the Labour Party, but also political subjects themselves. In order to develop said theory of institutions, I will draw primarily upon resources in the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and John Searle

The Scarlet Letter: A critical review

Nathaniel Hawthorn’s 19th century romance The Scarlet Letter centres on the simple transgression of adultery and its social consequences. Hawthorn’s narrative and story-telling skill, however, is far from simple; the author manages to subtly and cleverly set the tale within a framework of other transgressions. Ideas of space and other social constructions such including language and belief systems are tested and subverted in this description of a 17th century Puritan settlement. In this paper David Littlefield and Rachel Sara set out the transgressive qualities of this classic American text, putting it into the context of the theme Body + Space and demonstrating how the book pre-figures much 20th century thinking on the subject

Merleau-Ponty and the Measuring Body

In recent years a growing number of scholars in science studies and related fields are developing new ontologies to displace entrenched dualisms. These efforts often go together with a renewed interest in the roles played by symbolisms and tools in knowledge and being. This article brings Maurice Merleau-Ponty into these conversations, positioning him as a precursor of today’s innovative recastings of technoscience. While Merleau-Ponty is often invoked in relation to his early work on the body and embodiment, this article focuses on his later work, where the investigation of perception is integrated with an ontological exploration. The resulting approach revolves around the highly original idea of the body as a standard of measurement. We further develop this idea by coining the term ‘the measuring body’, which to a greater extent than did Merleau-Ponty accentuates the relative autonomy of symbolisms and tools and their capacity to decentre the perceiving body