The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast PREMIUM-Closereads: Merleau-Ponty on the Body
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Sep 6, 2024 Dive into Merleau-Ponty's transformative ideas on perception and the body. Discover how perception alters our understanding of objects, illustrated through the example of a house. Hear reflections on the philosophical landscapes shaped by thinkers like Heidegger. Explore the nuances of immediate versus derived perspectives and how they inform our experiences. Engage in a discussion that bridges phenomenological methodology with the essence of reality, all while connecting past philosophical dialogues to modern interpretations.
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Perception Is Perspective Plus Wholeness
- Merleau-Ponty emphasizes that we perceive objects from a perspective but grasp them as unified wholes.
- The phenomenological 'gaze' gives an immediate, incorrigible sense of the object beyond its partial appearances.
Objects As Bundles Of Perspectives
- Husserl's notion of the object as the 'bundle' of possible perspectives influences Merleau-Ponty.
- The object appears as something that unifies and explains all actual and possible perceptions.
Perception Beats Physiology In Phenomenology
- Phenomenology privileges the 'natural' perceptual standpoint over physiological explanations.
- We ordinarily experience the world as objects causing our perceptions, not as retinal or neural events.