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Phenomenology of Perception 1st Edition
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First published in 1945, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s monumental Phénoménologie de la perception signalled the arrival of a major new philosophical and intellectual voice in post-war Europe. Breaking with the prevailing picture of existentialism and phenomenology at the time, it has become one of the landmark works of twentieth-century thought. This new translation, the first for over fifty years, makes this classic work of philosophy available to a new generation of readers.
Phenomenology of Perception stands in the great phenomenological tradition of Husserl, Heidegger, and Sartre. Yet Merleau-Ponty’s contribution is decisive, as he brings this tradition and other philosophical predecessors, particularly Descartes and Kant, to confront a neglected dimension of our experience: the lived body and the phenomenal world. Charting a bold course between the reductionism of science on the one hand and intellectualism on the other, Merleau-Ponty argues that we should regard the body not as a mere biological or physical unit, but as the body which structures one’s situation and experience within the world.
Merleau-Ponty enriches his classic work with engaging studies of famous cases in the history of psychology and neurology as well as phenomena that continue to draw our attention, such as phantom limb syndrome, synaesthesia, and hallucination. This new translation includes many helpful features such as the reintroduction of Merleau-Ponty’s discursive Table of Contents as subtitles into the body of the text, a comprehensive Translator’s Introduction to its main themes, essential notes explaining key terms of translation, an extensive Index, and an important updating of Merleau-Ponty’s references to now available English translations.
Also included is a new foreword by Taylor Carman and an introduction to Merleau-Pontyby Claude Lefort.
Translated by Donald A. Landes.
- ISBN-100415834333
- ISBN-13978-0415834339
- Edition1st
- Publication dateAugust 9, 2013
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions6.13 x 1.57 x 9.25 inches
- Print length610 pages
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"... Donald A. Landes’ rendering of Merleau-Ponty’s magnum opus is a welcome arrival for both the student and the scholar, especially in the light of the renewed and well-warranted interest in that thinker’s work over the last two decades. ... As someone who has given a course on Phenomenology of Perception for several years, I will recommend this book to my future students with enthusiasm." - Timothy Mooney, International Journal of Philosophical Studies
"This new translation, which is accurate, sensitive and eloquent, will, I hope, enable the reader to better deal with the inaccuracy, opacity and rigidity which are part of any perception and of any text." - Eran Dorfman, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"This is an extraordinary accomplishment that will doubtless produce new readers for the remarkable philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. This excellent translation opens up a new set of understandings of what Merleau-Ponty meant in his descriptions of the body, psychology, and the field of perception, and in this way promises to alter the horizon of Merleau-Ponty studies in the English language. The extensive index, the thoughtful annotation, and the guidance given about key problems of translation not only show us the richness of Merleau-Ponty's language, but track the emergence of a new philosophical vocabulary. This translation gives us the text anew and will doubtless spur thoughtful new readings in English." - Judith Butler, University of California - Berkeley, USA
"This lucid and compelling new translation not only brings one of the great breakthrough books in phenomenology back to life – it gives to it an entirely new life. Readers will here find original insights on perception and the lived body that will change forever their understanding of themselves and the world they inhabit." - Edward S. Casey, Stony Brook University, USA
"This book is not to be read as a contribution to a school of philosophy (called Phenomenology), but as one of the classical works of philosophy in the Western tradition, essential reading for any school. I love it partly for the incredibly rich diet of examples, both personal and scientific, described in such a way as to make you rethink every aspect of human life and experience. The new translation and its appendices enrich the understanding - and enjoyment - of today's reader." - Ian Hacking, Collège de France, France
"Landes' excellent translation preserves the fluidity and subtlety of Merleau-Ponty's philosophical prose. Phenomenology of Perception is finally available in an English-language edition fully adequate for the purposes of scholarship, and which allows the reader to appreciate with accuracy the distinctive patterns and movements of Merleau-Ponty's thought." - Sebastian Gardner, University College London, UK
"It is impossible to define an object in cutting it off from the subject through which and for which it is an object; and the subject reveals itself only through the objects in which it is engaged. Such an affirmation only makes the content of naive experience explicit, but it is rich in consequences. Only in taking it as a basis will one succeed in building an ethics to which man can totally and sincerely adhere. It is therefore of extreme importance to establish it solidly and to give back to man this childish audacity that years of verbal submission have taken away: the audacity to say: "I am here." This is why The 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." - Simone de Beauvoir, 1945
"... Donald A. Landes’ rendering of Merleau-Ponty’s magnum opus is a welcome arrival for both the student and the scholar, especially in the light of the renewed and well-warranted interest in that thinker’s work over the last two decades. ... As someone who has given a course on Phenomenology of Perception for several years, I will recommend this book to my future students with enthusiasm." - Timothy Mooney, International Journal of Philosophical Studies
"This new translation, which is accurate, sensitive and eloquent, will, I hope, enable the reader to better deal with the inaccuracy, opacity and rigidity which are part of any perception and of any text." - Eran Dorfman, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews
"This is an extraordinary accomplishment that will doubtless produce new readers for the remarkable philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. This excellent translation opens up a new set of understandings of what Merleau-Ponty meant in his descriptions of the body, psychology, and the field of perception, and in this way promises to alter the horizon of Merleau-Ponty studies in the English language. The extensive index, the thoughtful annotation, and the guidance given about key problems of translation not only show us the richness of Merleau-Ponty's language, but track the emergence of a new philosophical vocabulary. This translation gives us the text anew and will doubtless spur thoughtful new readings in English." - Judith Butler, University of California - Berkeley, USA
"This lucid and compelling new translation not only brings one of the great breakthrough books in phenomenology back to life – it gives to it an entirely new life. Readers will here find original insights on perception and the lived body that will change forever their understanding of themselves and the world they inhabit." - Edward S. Casey, Stony Brook University, USA
"This book is not to be read as a contribution to a school of philosophy (called Phenomenology), but as one of the classical works of philosophy in the Western tradition, essential reading for any school. I love it partly for the incredibly rich diet of examples, both personal and scientific, described in such a way as to make you rethink every aspect of human life and experience. The new translation and its appendices enrich the understanding - and enjoyment - of today's reader." - Ian Hacking, Collège de France, France
"Landes' excellent translation preserves the fluidity and subtlety of Merleau-Ponty's philosophical prose. Phenomenology of Perception is finally available in an English-language edition fully adequate for the purposes of scholarship, and which allows the reader to appreciate with accuracy the distinctive patterns and movements of Merleau-Ponty's thought." - Sebastian Gardner, University College London, UK
"It is impossible to define an object in cutting it off from the subject through which and for which it is an object; and the subject reveals itself only through the objects in which it is engaged. Such an affirmation only makes the content of naive experience explicit, but it is rich in consequences. Only in taking it as a basis will one succeed in building an ethics to which man can totally and sincerely adhere. It is therefore of extreme importance to establish it solidly and to give back to man this childish audacity that years of verbal submission have taken away: the audacity to say: "I am here." This is why The 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." - Simone de Beauvoir, 1945
About the Author
Maurice Merleau-Ponty was born in 1908 in Rochefort-sur-Mer, France. Drawn to philosophy from a young age, Merleau-Ponty would go on to study alongside Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Simone Weil at the famous École Normale Supérieure. He completed a Docteur ès lettres based on two dissertations, La structure du comportement (1942) and Phénoménologie de la perception (1945). After a brief post at the University of Lyon, Merleau-Ponty returned to Paris in 1949 when he was awarded the Chair of Psychology and Pedagogy at the Sorbonne. In 1952 he became the youngest philosopher ever appointed to the prestigious Chair of Philosophy at the Collège de France. He died suddenly of a stroke in 1961 aged fifty-three, at the height of his career. He is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
Product details
- Publisher : Routledge; 1st edition (August 9, 2013)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 610 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0415834333
- ISBN-13 : 978-0415834339
- Item Weight : 2.1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.13 x 1.57 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #48,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #14 in Phenomenological Philosophy
- #19 in Existentialist Philosophy
- #75 in Political Philosophy (Books)
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About the authors
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Donald A. Landes is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Université Laval in Québec City, Canada. Previously he was Assistant Professor of Philosophy (limited term) at Concordia University in Montréal. He holds an MA in Philosophy from Dalhousie University and a PhD in Philosophy from Stony Brook University. He also held a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at McGill University between 2010 and 2012. His research focuses on 20th century European Philosophy (particularly phenomenology) and Ethics.
www.donaldlandes.info
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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.
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)
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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.