Speaking Bodies: Communication and Freedom in Fichte and Merleau-Ponty
Loading...
Authors
Morrisey, Jeffrey James
Issue Date
2012-05
Type
Thesis
Language
en
Keywords
Fichte, Johann Gottleib, 1762-1814 , Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1908-1961 , Experience , Freedom , Perception (Philosophy) , Self (Philosophy)
Alternative Title
Abstract
Drawing on the ideas of J.G. Fichte and M. Merleau-Ponty, I argue that experience and freedom are intersubjective, linguistic, and bodily. In the first chapter, I take up Fichte's three "fundamental principles" from the Science of Knowledge alongside his ideas of embodiment and intersubjectivity from the Foundations of Natural Right to show that all experience is an indefinite mixture of self and not-self, and, therefore, that both the experiences of self-consciousness and its freedom must also be accomplished with reference to the not-self, and particularly others. The second chapter is an examination of Merleau-Ponty's account of expression in his Phenomenology of Perception. The key insight I pursue here is that the medium of expression, which makes possible all significance, is bodily and intersubjective, and that any expressive act is therefore both self-opaque and soliciting cooperation. In the end, I turn to how this cooperation, i.e. freedom, should be enacted.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Institute for Christian Studies