Carl's review of Phenomenology of Perception
Phenomenology of Perception (Routledge Classics) by Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Along with Heidegger, Sartre, Beauvoir, and Levinas, Merleau-Ponty is an "existential phenomenologist": a philosopher concerned with the experiences that constitute human existence. He's often overlooked in favor of Heidegger or Sartre, but this is unfair; his analysis of human embodiment not only build on theirs, but go much, much further.
Phenomenology of Perception is concerned with the first-person experience of being embodied, or of having a body. Merleau-Ponty shows how basic features of human experience, such as the perception of objects as independent of us, space and time, and rationality are all inseparable from the structure of the human body.
I've been slooowwly re-reading PP over the past few months. I first read it in my first semester of grad school, before I knew anything about anything. Now I'm seeing far more richness and intricacy in the argument and in the rhetoric. It's mind-blowing.
Phenomenology of Perception is concerned with the first-person experience of being embodied, or of having a body. Merleau-Ponty shows how basic features of human experience, such as the perception of objects as independent of us, space and time, and rationality are all inseparable from the structure of the human body.
I've been slooowwly re-reading PP over the past few months. I first read it in my first semester of grad school, before I knew anything about anything. Now I'm seeing far more richness and intricacy in the argument and in the rhetoric. It's mind-blowing.
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