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Husserl and Merleau-Ponty on Embodied Experience

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Advancing Phenomenology

Part of the book series: Contributions To Phenomenology ((CTPH,volume 62))

Abstract

In this paper I want to re-examine Husserl’s foundational discussion of embodiment and reassess its influence on Merleau-Ponty.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    (An earlier ersion of this paper was presented to the “100 Years of Merleau-Ponty Centenary Conference” held at the University of Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria, 14–16 March 2008. I would like to thank Ivan Kolev for his comments.)

  2. 2.

    E. Husserl, Ding und Raum, hrsg. Ulrich Claesges, Husserliana Bd. XVI (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1973; trans. Richard Rojcewicz as Things and Space. Lectures of 1907 (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1997). Herafter “DR” followed by the pagination in English, then in German.

  3. 3.

    See E. Husserl, Wahrnehmung und Aufmerksamkeit. Texte aus dem Nachlass (1893–1912), Husserliana vol. XXXVIII (Dordrecht: Springer, 2004).

  4. 4.

    M. Merleau-Ponty, Signes (Paris: Gallimard, 1960), trans. R. McCleary, Signs (Evanston: Northwestern U.P., 1964).

  5. 5.

    M. Merleau-Ponty, Phénoménologie de la perception (Paris: Gallimard, 1945), trans. C. Smith as Phenomenology of Perception (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962). Henceforth “PP” followed by page number of English translation; then, pagination of French edition.

  6. 6.

    Edith Stein, Zum Problem der Einfühlung (Halle: Buchdruckerie des Waisenhauses, 1917, reprinted Muenchen: Verlagsgesellschaft Gerhard Kaffke, 1980), trans. Waltraut Stein, On the Problem of Empathy (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1964; 3rd ed., Reprinted Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1989).

  7. 7.

    This treatise has been translated as E. Stein, Philosophy of Psychology and the Humanities, ed. Marianne Sawicki, trans. Mary Catherine Baseheart and Marianne Sawicki, Collected Works of Edith Stein Vol. 7 (Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies, 2000).

  8. 8.

    Stein, op. cit., p. 17.

  9. 9.

    A. D. Smith, “The Flesh of Perception: Merleau-Ponty and Husserl,” in T. Baldwin, ed. Reading Merleau-Ponty on Phenomenology of Perception (London & New York: Routledge, 2007), pp. 1–22, also seeks to assess Husserl’s relation to Merleau-Ponty, but Smith interprets Merleau-Ponty as classifying Husserl with the “intellectualists” whereas I do not.

  10. 10.

    See, for instance, Hubert Dreyfus, “Merleau-Ponty’s Critique of Husserl”s (and Searle’s) Concept of Intentionality”, Rereading Merleau-Ponty: Essays Beyond the Continental-Analytic Divide, eds. Lawrence Hass and Dorothea Olkowski (New York, NY: Humanity Books, 2000); and idem, “Intelligence without representation – Merleau-Ponty’s critique of mental representation”, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Vol 1, No. 4, Special Issue: Hubert Dreyfus and the Problem of Representation, Anne Jaap Jacobson, Ed. (Kluwer Academic Publishers: 2002); and idem, “Merleau-Ponty and recent Cognitive Science”, The Cambridge Companion to Merleau-Ponty, ed. Taylor Carman and Mark Hansen (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

  11. 11.

    See M. C. Dillon, Merleau-Ponty’s Ontology, 2nd Edition (Evanston: Northwestern U.P., 1988), p. 87.

  12. 12.

    A. D. Smith, ‘The Flesh of Perception: Merleau-Ponty and Husserl,’ in T. Baldwin, ed. Reading Merleau-Ponty on Phenomenology of Perception (London & New York: Routledge, 2007), pp. 1–22.

  13. 13.

    See, for instance, Donn Welton, “Soft Smooth Hands: Husserl’s Phenomenology of the Lived-Body”, in Donn Welton ed. The Body: Classic and Contemporary Readings (Oxford: Blackwell, 1999), pp. 38–56.

  14. 14.

    Heidegger interprets intentionality in terms of the ekstasis of Dasein in the Basic Problems of Phenomenology as well as in Being and Time, see Dermot Moran, “Heidegger’s Critique of Husserl’s and Brentano’s Accounts of Intentionality,” Inquiry Vol. 43 No. 1 (March 2000), pp. 39–65; reprinted in Phenomenology. Critical Concepts in Philosophy, Ed. Dermot Moran and Lester E. Embree. (London & New York: Routledge, 2004), Vol. 1, pp. 157–183.

  15. 15.

    M. Merleau-Ponty, Le Visible et l’invisible, texte établi par Claude Lefort (Paris: Gallimard, 1964), p. 200, trans. A. Lingis, The Visible and the Invisible (Evanston: Northwestern U.P., 1968), p. 253. Henceforth “VI” and page no. of English translation; followed by page number of French edition.

  16. 16.

    M. C. Dillon, op. cit., p. 102.

  17. 17.

    See M. C. Dillon, Merleau-Ponty’s Ontology, 2nd Edition (Evanston: Northwestern U.P., 1988), p. 51.

  18. 18.

    M. Merleau-Ponty, The World of Perception, trans. Oliver Davis (London: Routledge, 2004), p. 39.

  19. 19.

    Merleau-Ponty, The World of Perception, op. cit., p. 59.

  20. 20.

    E. Husserl, Ideas I, § 19, p. 35; Hua III/I 35.

  21. 21.

    Ideas I, § 19, p. 35; Hua III/1 34.

  22. 22.

    Edmund Husserl, Analysen zur passive Synthesis. Aus Vorlesungen-und Forschungsmanuskripten (1918–1926), hrsg. M. Fleischer, Husserliana, Band XI (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1988); trans. Anthony Steinbock as Analyses concerning Passive and Active Synthesis (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2001). Hereafter: APS.

  23. 23.

    Husserl, Edmund. “Kant and the Idea of Transcendental Philosophy.” Trans. Ted E. Klein and William E. Pohl. Southwestern Journal of Philosophy Vol. 5 Fall 1974, pp. 9–56.

  24. 24.

    Husserl, Ideas I, § 20, p. 38; Hua III/I 38.

  25. 25.

    Merleau-Ponty, The World of Perception, op. cit, p. 63.

  26. 26.

    Alva Noë, Perception in Action (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004).

  27. 27.

    A colorless crystalline compound, C15H18O3, obtained from a species of wormwood, especially santonica, and used as an anthelmintic (i.e., to kill intestinal worms).

  28. 28.

    E. Husserl, Zur Phänomenologie der Intersubjektivität. Texte aus dem Nachlass, 3 vols, Hua XIII, XIV and XV, hrsg. I. Kern (The Hague: Nijhoff, 1973).

  29. 29.

    E. Husserl, Transzendentaler Idealismus. Texte aus dem Nachlass (1908–1921). Hrsg. Robin Rollinger & Rochus Sowa. Hua XXXVI (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2003).

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  1. School of Philosophy, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

    Dermot Moran

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  1. Dept. Philosophy, University of Memphis, Clement Hall 316, Memphis, 38152, USA

    Thomas Nenon

  2. School of History, Philosophy & Religion, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, USA

    Philip Blosser

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Moran, D. (2010). Husserl and Merleau-Ponty on Embodied Experience. In: Nenon, T., Blosser, P. (eds) Advancing Phenomenology. Contributions To Phenomenology, vol 62. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9286-1_12

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