Phenomenology of Perception

Maurice Merleau-Ponty, one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century, reinterprets the phenomenological method he adopted from Husserl with an aesthetic understanding in his masterpiece, Phenomenology of Perception. This interpretation, which centers the body, on the one hand, adds a unique dimension to the ongoing debate between psychologism and intellectualism, a debate that has continued since Descartes and the empiricists. On the other hand, it allows us to rediscover the profound relationship between science and art through philosophy. This work, which lays out the initial drafts of the contemporary problems of both analytic philosophy and continental philosophy, in fact, appeals not only to the field of philosophy but also to a wide range of disciplines, from literature to social sciences, by serving as a reference book for those who want to embody thought, so to speak.

“We are in the world, that is, things appear as a picture, a gigantic individual affirms itself, every existence understands itself and others. All that needs to be done is to accept these phenomena, which underpin all our certainties.”

– Maurice Merleau-Ponty

“Merleau-Ponty always thought about seeing. (...) What is seeing? This question remained the basis for others to the very end; but this was not because we see before we speak or before we think, but rather because we always speak about this seeing but forget it, that questioning was about awakening a questioning that already passed through it, that it was about simultaneously vibrating the eye and the voice, accepting the mystery of expression...”

– Claude Lefort, “Preface to the Critical Edition”

(From the Promotion Bulletin)

Paper: 2nd quality

First Printing Year : 2017

Number of Printings : 1st Edition

Number of Pages : 624

Dimensions : 13.5 x 21

Original Title : Phénoménologie de la perception