THE LIVED BODY AS PRE-REFLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS: MERLEAU-PONTY ON THE COGITO
THE LIVED BODY AS PRE-REFLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS: MERLEAU-PONTY ON THE COGITO
Author(s): Luís Aguiar De SousaSubject(s): Philosophy
Published by: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai
Keywords: Merleau-Ponty; Subjectivity; Embodiment; Pre-Reflective Consciousness; Sartre.
Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I sketch out Merleau-Ponty’s theory of subjectivity as it is presented in the Phenomenology of Perception. I will start by showing that Merleau-Ponty’s theory presupposes Sartre’s notion of consciousness as anonymous and pre-reflective. Merleau-Ponty takes up these features and embeds them in the lived body. The result is Merleau-Ponty’s notion of the “tacit cogito” as pre-reflective subjectivity, always presupposed in our everyday embodied engagement with the world and in every explicit reflexive grasp of ourselves as such. Further, I show that the outcome of reflection, the “spoken cogito”, presupposes linguistic ability and thus the expressive power of the body. In the end I argue that, contrary to Sartre, who viewed pre-reflective consciousness as a nothing, for Merleau-Ponty the lived body or tacit cogito is always something in and of the world.
Journal: Studia Universitatis Babes-Bolyai - Philosophia
- Issue Year: 63/2018
- Issue No: 1
- Page Range: 7-20
- Page Count: 14
- Language: English