Phenomenology

Phenomenology of Percept ion
‘In this text, the body-organism is linked to the world through a network of primal significations, which arise from the perception of things.’ Michel Foucault ‘We live in an age of tele-presence and virtual reality. The sciences of the mind are finally paying heed to the centrality of body and world. Everything around us drives home the intimacy of perception, actionand thought. In this emerging nexus, the work of MerleauPonty has never been more timely, or had more to teach us . . . The Phenomenology of Perception covers all the bases, from simple perception-action routines to the full Monty of conciousness, reason and the elusive self. Essential reading for anyone who cares about the embodied mind.’ Andy Clark, Professor of Philosophy and Director of theCognitive Science Program, Indiana University

Maurice

Merleau-Ponty
Phenomenology of Perception

Translated by Colin Smith

London and New York

Phénomènologie de la perception published 1945 by Gallimard, Paris English edition first published 1962 by Routledge & Kegan Paul First published in Routledge Classics 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE 29 West 35thStreet, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor and Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 1945 Editions Gallimard Translation © 1958 Routledge & Kegan Paul All rights reserved. No part of thisbook may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British LibraryLibrary of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-99461-2 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0–415–27840–6 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–27841–4 (pbk)

C ONTENTS

Preface INTRODUCTION Traditional Prejudices and the Return to Phenomena 1 2 3 4 The ‘Sensation’ as a Unit of Experience ‘Association’ and the ‘Projection of Memories’ ‘Attention’ and‘Judgement’ The Phenomenal Field

vii

3 15 30 60

PART I The Body Experience and Objective Thought. The Problem of the Body The Body as Object and Mechanistic Physiology The Experience of the Body and Classical Psychology The Spatiality of One’s own Body and Motility The Synthesis of One’s own Body The Body in its Sexual Being The Body as Expression, and Speech 77 84 103 112 171 178 202

1 2 3 4 56

vi

contents

PART II The World as Perceived The Theory of the Body is already a Theory of Perception Sense Experience Space The Thing and the Natural World Other Selves and the Human World 235 240 283 348 403

1 2 3 4

PART III Being-for-Itself and Being-in-the-World 1 2 3 The Cogito Temporality Freedom 429 476 504 531 539

Bibliography Index

P REFACE

What isphenomenology? It may seem strange that this question has still to be asked half a century after the first works of Husserl. The fact remains that it has by no means been answered. Phenomenology is the study of essences; and according to it, all problems amount to finding definitions of essences: the essence of perception, or the essence of consciousness, for example. But phenomenology is also a philosophy whichputs essences back into existence, and does not expect to arrive at an understanding of man and the world from any starting point other than that of their ‘facticity’. It is a transcendental philosophy which places in abeyance the assertions arising out of the natural attitude, the better to understand them; but it is also a philosophy for which the world is always ‘already there’ before...