L'équilibre du sens : vers un concept phénoménologique de norme chez Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Although philosophers may first find it odd to speak of norms in the context of perception, the argument for normativity finds support in the writings of some of the spearheads of the phenomenological tradition, amongst them Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In what follows, I draw on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s existential phenomenology to conduct research on the topic of normativity in perception. However, a phenomenological analysis of perception’s normative claim requires that we redefine our traditional conception of norms as authoritative standards or prescriptive moral guidelines: phenomenologists hold that prior to any theoretical or moral engagement with the world, certain sets of norms already play a role at an embodied, pre-reflexive level and account for our ability to orientate ourselves in the intersubjective world. To this end, I argue that a set of embodied norms open up horizons of experience through a normative structure of apprehension that shapes both the existential possibilities we conceive of and the nature of our engagement with the world. My research focuses primarily on Merleau-Ponty’s notion of spatial and existential norms, as this notion helps shed light on the extatic temporality of bodily commitments carried through in personal and subpersonal layers of experience. In view of these commitments, I examine the transformative promise of experiences of bodily disorientation and their relevance in bearing witness to the fundamental vulnerabilities of embodied existence. Lastly, I am interested in the agential and ethical consequences of aknowledging these vulnerabilities and in the existential transformations they can prompt.
perception orientation Edmund Husserl Maurice Merleau-Ponty phenomenology normativity norms embodiment temporality identity