The world of perception

From September to November 1948, Merleau-Ponty was invited to give seven lectures on the theme of perception on French National Radio. This book is compiled based on the recordings of his broadcasts.
The lecture explores a theme that lies at the heart not only of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy but of phenomenology as a whole. Merleau-Ponty rejects the view that perception is unreliable and prone to distorting the world around us, arguing instead that perception is inseparable from our senses and that we rely on them to make sense of the world.
Merleau-Ponty explores this instructive theme through brilliant insights across a range of topics—science, space, our relationships with others, animal life, and art. Throughout, he insists that perception is never something learned and then applied to the world. He reminds us that as embodied beings, we are born sentient and, like other animals and infants, in a state of constant, natural, and unpredictable engagement with the world. Merleau-Ponty also provides vivid examples, drawing on Kafka, animal behavior, and especially modern art, particularly the work of Cézanne.

2019-05-01

江苏人民出版社

132

9787214227355