Phenomenology of Perception

This is the new definitive translation which returns the reader to reading much more of the text than trying to understand the translation of Phenomenology of Perception (PoP), incredibly helpful and scholarly notes, and a powerfully useful index. Included in the margins is reference to the 2005 French edition pagination. For other edition concordances you can google "Concordance of Editions" of MP's POP and thereby coordinate with all other versions, French and English. I think Simon de Beauvoir's quote on the cover jacket (above) summarizes it all--"the human condition is at stake in this book." For fun, here is my summary of the Introduction: Phenomoneology is about describing, not explaining or analyzing, neither constructing nor constituting. I am not a man or a consciousness, but the absolute source. My existence moves out and sustains my physical and social surroundings. I am in and toward the world and it is in the world that I know myself. I know about dreams and reality because I have an experience of the difference, so my problem is to make explicit my primordial knowledge of the "real, " the perception of the world as our idea of the truth. The world is what we perceive. Beauty: Kant demonstrated there is a unity of the imagination and the understanding, a unity of subjects prior to the object. As in beauty there is harmony between the sensible and the concept, between myself and another. The hidden art of the imagination gives rise to discovering of oneself and appreciating oneself, not just as the aesthetic which grounds the unity of consciousness, but also as knowledge. With true/radical reflection: we step back from the world (not withdraw from it) in order to see transcendences, revealing the world's strangeness and paradoxes. Intellectualism is unaware of the problem of others, the world ( they have no "thisness"). The old Cogito devalues the perception of others and of the world. Unless I find myself situated in the world, I can not find others (inter-subjectivity) or the world. Intellectualism breaks with the world by a constituting consciousness rather than by being grasped directly. Empiricism presents the absolute belief in the world as the totality of spatio-temporal events, and treats consciousness as a region of that world. Intellectualism and empricism are "naturalistic" positions which hide true perception. All signification of language is measured by the experience we have of ourselves and this consciousness that we are. Consciousness is the actual presence of myself to myself prior to words, concepts and thematizations. Operative intentionality (qua Husserl) establishes the natural and pre-predicative unity of the world and of our life as seen in our desires, evaluations and landscape. It is the text prior to precise language. Because we are in the world, we are condemned to sense, and to acquire a name in history. The analytic/empirical is the figure upon which the background of the phenomenal lies. Figure and background are thus the structures of consciousness, irreducible to qualities of consciousness. There is a misconception of judgment as perception when it loses its constituting function and becomes an explanatory principle, position taking, knowing for me across all moments. False judgment reduces sensing to appearance, denying evidence of phenomena everywhere. To perceive is not to judge but to grasp a sense immanent in the sensible. Judgment is only true if it follows spontaneous organization and the particular configuration of the phenomena. "I am a consciousness, a singular being who resides nowhere and can make itself present everywhere through intention. Everything that exists, exists as either thing or as consciousness, and there is no in between. The thing is in a place, but perception is nowhere, for if it were situated it could not make other things exist for itself." (p. 39, 2012)

I read this slowly over the course of a few months, along with a commentary published by George Marshall. Much of my understanding of the book was informed by having read Sartre's Being and Nothingness about 10 months earlier. I would compare POP and BAN to a Windows vs. Mac scenario. Both works are approaching the same complex problem (what the hell is human reality?), with similar but slightly different approaches. Both books are long and quite comprehensive. By the end of each work, you find that you understand the author's overall system of ontological understanding, and can approach new every day problems and experiences from their perspective about how reality is formed. In comparison to Sartre, I found Merleau-Ponty to be more thoughtful about relating ontology to everyday life. Indeed, his embodied ontology moves through the phenomenological method to examine what reality looks like with normal human eyes, rejecting the various scientisms of his day in favor of direct experience (and its limitations). Sartre was much more effective at relating his ontology to human ethics, but I also found that I didn't care for some of his ideas. I don't think we nihilate when forming awareness of ontological objects. I think Merleau-Ponty's vision of a weakly held consciousness that provides the background and formational structures for all moments of objectivity to be a better fit for my experience of the human mind. Whatever you might think of either author, there is a lot of merit to reading both books if you can find the time. They complement and contrast with one another in a way that deepens your understanding of each. Both were intensely influenced by the work of Descartes Husserl, as well as Kant and (esp. for Sartre) Heidigger, whom I look forward to reading in the coming years. If you want a peak at the underlying machine code that's running within your mind, and want to see what it's like to be conscious from the outside, both Phenomenology of Perception and Being and Nothingness are thoughtful and comprehensive works.

It is multidisciplinary and the best book so far that explains human condition in an adventurous and realistic fashion. To comprehend its themes and theses is surely very daunting, but it opens new horizons before you and makes your life and living very very interesting. You will learn that your life is ambiguous and contingent and that you are both *a pure consciousness* "who makes [or creates] others and the world (things, objects) exist for [you] and *a body* with "a psychological and historical structure". You are everything that you see and you have this means of escape. In other words, you are absolutely free (because you are a pure consciousness) despite the fact that you have a vulnerable and an aging body through which you are also part and parcel of this world. And you journey in this world towards your death. In brief, in the words of Simone de Beauvoir, Phenomenology of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty is not only a remarkable specialist work but a book that is of interest to the whole of man and to every man; the human condition is at stake in this book."

I have the 2014 Routledge paperback, ISBN 978-0-415-83433-9. It is the paperback of the 2012 edition, translated by Donald A. Landes. It's a good quality paperback. The print is clear and easy to read.

Gran libro, como todo lo escrito por Merleau-Ponty.

I bought this book, because I expected a normal reedited version of the classic Merleau-Ponty original. Unfortunately this version is absolutely useless to work with - even though I don't need glasses the print and the font used is too small and narrow so that after looking at one page your eyes get tired. The version also features supposed to be vintage-underlinings of the classic edition - with may seem charming to some readers, but if you actually plan to work with are as annoying as a library version, where other people have underlined stuff.. My advise for people who plan to actually read the book would be to use another version with a normal font-size or get a magnifying glass...

Libro falso, no comprar.

It is perfectly laughable to be asked by Amazon to review a dense, complex, major text of C20 European philosophy in a few sentences a week or two after purchasing it. Ask me again in six months, after I have read it and discussed it sentence by sentence with fellow-members of a philosophy seminar. In the meantime there are reviews and critiques of a few thousand words to be found in academic journals and text-books. It must be understood that Amazon's title and attribution are completely wrong. The book is not an introduction; nor is it by Taylor Carman. It is by Maurice Merleau-Ponty; it is a full exposition of his philosophy at this stage of his career; and Taylor Carman's contribution to this English translation is one of three introductory essays for English readers. For now, all I can say is: if you want one of the principal contributions to the development of post-Husserlian phenomenology, and of C20 philosophy outside the Anglo-American analytic sphere in general, buy it and struggle with it. If you want a good read to while away a long train-journey, don't.

This opus, is well worth reading BUT, having said that, it needs to be digested in bite size quantities and I find that the KINDLE version is what it takes for the experience to be both enriching as well as reader-friendly. The bilingual table of contents is a precious tool to enable the reader to pick and choose amongst the varied topics, some of which are more eminently readable (as well as relevant) than others. Also I like the e-book version for the ability to multiple color highlight important passages of the texts and re-read such passages over time in order for the complexity of the ideas/concepts/complex phraseology to “sink in” more fully. I should also mention in parenthesis that I have had in my possession over many years the French pocketbook version published by Gallimard. What with the condensed print, and absence of chapter/theme headings, the original is virtually unreadable – even for francophone readers such as myself. This English re-translation is eminently readable and often clearer than the original French (which can often happen when successive attempts are made at rendering certain difficult passages clearer to the contemporary non-academic reading public). Bearing in mind that this text was originally submitted as a thesis, it comes as no surprise that the level of interest to the non-academic reader is variable, depending on the subjects/themes treated in the book. Hence, the considerable value-added in sub-dividing the text paragraphs in thematic fashion, coupled with the ease of electronic referencing in the e-book version so as to pick and choose amongst the various topics referenced therein. So, it’s kindle all the way for prospective readers…. Merleau Ponty is an interesting figure to read, much more so than the now-debunked Jean Paul Sartre. I would also recommend Heidegger (or a good companion guidebook to Heidegger) to let the main tenets of phenomenology sink in. I say Heidegger coz Husserl has too many drawbacks that, to my mind, Heidegger cleared up. As a final comment, I would recommend the Phenomenology of Aesthetic Perception as a follow-up to Merleau Ponty.