The Blind Spot of the Sovereign Eye： On the Gaze in Merleau-Ponty and Lacan

In this essay I will explicate the gaze （le regard） and the ways in which it exceeds or transcends what we know as vision, the objectifying or representational power of the eyes. Building critically on Sartre, the gaze in Lacan and Merleau-Ponty is part of the technical apparatus used to describe the foundation, production, and reproduction of the subject. I will begin by discussing the role of visual perception in subject-formation in their respective work, differentiating between the Merleau-Pontian notion of the ＂gaze of the world,＂ i.e., the ways in which things cast their gaze upon us, and the Lacanian gaze as a manifestation of the scopic drive. Through an analysis of anamorphosis I will show （1） how the gaze evades the spectator, （2） what the relationship of the gaze is to the object petit a as the object of the scopic drive, and （3） how both Merleau-Ponty and Lacan require a movement that precedes and destabilizes the subject of intentional consciousness.

The Art of Authenticity： Constantin Stanislavski and Merleau-Ponty

Constantin Stanislavski＇s Russian acting system, further developed by contemporary methodological practices, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty＇s philosophy of the body as object-subject are compared to illustrate how simple, learned techniques can assist in the production of authentic and transparent interrelational presence. Authentic presence requires three components： （1） honest exposition of a person＇s singular, essential being; （2） empathy towards the needs of other, distinct and separate from the self; and （3） mutual reciprocation, which means giving back or responding somewhat equitably to the other with whom the self is in communication, and accepting the same respondence from the other if afforded. The comprehension of Merleau-Ponty＇s ontology combined with Stanislavski＇s performance technique is uniquely suited to interpersonal communications in the ＇real world＇. Stanislavski＇s artistic vision demands an intensity of attentive involvement in order to achieve onstage authenticity. Merleau-Ponty provides supportive philosophical schematics, especially in his controversial but effective use of the expression ＇flesh＇. While this study may initially appear to focus on the artist, the development of interrelational skills is reliably applicable to anyone who desires to obtain a higher degree of authenticity in collaborative presence.

Bazin and Merleau-Ponty： Film and Its Ontological Bet

There is a harmony between Andre Bazin＇s and Maurice Merleau-Ponty＇s approaches to cinema. They both see cinema as a new imperative language to express the being, capable of reflecting on our promiscuity with the world and things. Both realized the ontological bet that the game of imagination contains： the emergence of the image wrapped in a back and forth movement, from things to form, from fact to sense and meaning, and vice versa. The purpose of this article is to discuss Merleau-Ponty＇s and Bazin＇s interest in an ontological investigation of the cinema, analyzing their affinities and differences, identifying paths to be explored and affirming a certain idea of cinema.

Writing as Painting： Creative Scholarly Writing From H616ne Cixous＇ Post-structuralism and Maurice Merleau-Ponty＇s Body Phenomenology

This paper deals with scholarly writing and a testing and experimental review of its related conventions. The author applies to her review of the subject a theoretical stimulus that returns to the starting point of H616ne Cixous＇ （2008） post-structuralism and Maurice Merleau-Ponty＇s （2012） phenomenology of the body. The author becomes open to meditation on the topic as a bodily soothsayer redeeming permission for creative scholarly writing using the intuitively associative method and style of writing which she has developed. The author suggests that a theoretical starting point located in post-structuralism and the phenomenology of the body offers the possibility to equate creative scholarly writing with painting. The aim of this paper is to start from post-structuralism and the phenomenology of the body and to conceive a new method of understanding and adapting creative scholarly writing, while the author allows herself to perceive and write in her intuitively associative style.

The Cultural Paradigm of Visuality in Times of Blindness

Visuality can be generically described as the quality of the visual,that is,as the given visual field in which a subject’s attention is concentrated.In fact,the visual is intrinsically linked to human vision,and this presupposes the existence of a visible horizon from which(visual)images are given.However,this formulation presents something uncanny paradoxical because it forgets,on one hand,the broader status of the image(such as auditory and olfactory images)-seeing is not just a visual process(at least since Diderot we know it)and there are mental mechanisms in the visual constitution process that help to fabricate reality and that gestalt theory has explained-and on the other hand,the possibility of seeing beyond what is visible,after all,everything(or almost everything)that presents itself in a digital and virtual environment it can be quite ontologically suspect.Based on some of these premises,we will trace a path of analysis that leads us to the current blindness:unconditional faith in digital technology and the fragile hope of happiness in a way that rejects the reality of the visible.

Stuck with the Sur-face： An Ethical Approach to Facial Disfigurement in Willa Cather＇s ＂The Profile＂

The human face consists of three dimensions： （1） the visible, static sur-face, （2） the mobile dimension, which communicates thoughts, emotions, and states of mind, and （3） the invisible dimension, the face aspars-pro-toto for the whole person who owns the face. In this latter sense, the human face is at the center of Emmanuel Levinas＇ theory of ethics： We encounter each other face-to-face, he argues, and it is the other＇s face that calls for my ethical response to the holiness of his/her wholeness and essence. The primary ethical imperative is： ＂Thou shalt not kill.＂ When we encounter a facially disfigured person, we usually fail to respond ethically because we concentrate on the disfigurement. The second dimension, as a result of the disfigurement, is often impaired and thus incapable of communicating in such a way that we can ＂read＂ the face. With our gaze fixed on the disfigured part of the face, we lose sight of the person as a whole. Metaphorically speaking, we could even say that we ＂kill＂ the person. Levinas conceives of the other＇s face not in its plastic manifestation. But the encounter with the other does at first take place as embodiment. According to Merleau-Ponty, this encounter is by definition interactive and dialogical. In Willa Cather＇s short story ＂The Profile,＂ young beautiful Virginia marries a portrait painter after he has finished her portrait in profile. The left side of her face is severely disfigured because of a burn. Her husband is waiting impatiently for her to talk about ＂it＂ and the suffering it must cause her in order to ＂heal＂ her with his love, but she behaves as if it did not exist and even likes to dress extravagantly. In the following analysis of the short story, it will be illustrated how the husband fails to respond to his wife＇s face＇s invitation to interact with it and get in touch with the wholeness of her person that it stands for. Instead, he reduces her to the disfigurement. When he finally names the scar, he metaphorically ＂kills＂ her, as well as their marriage.

Tess:a Phenomenal Body

Few people read Tess from Maurice Merleau-Ponty's"body theory".In Phenomenology of Perception,Merleau-Ponty states that it is body as the subject that perceives the world;such body is a phenomenal body in contrast to an objective body.Tess's"being in the world"through the body connotates a new way of looking at the classic Tess.Tess's way of perceiving and understanding the world also enlightens us about relationship between human and self,human and other,human and society,human and nature.

Life and Flesh: The Bacon’s Painting in the Perspective of Body Aesthetics

Body aesthetics believes that the body and spirit are one,and that spirit and consciousness arise in the body,so we should pay attention to the feeling of the body.F.Bacon’s paintings take the body as the main content of expression,trying to depict an“image”that can trigger physical feelings.Bacon values the movement of the body in painting,the accidental nature of painting,and believes that art could break the shackles of society on the body.Body aesthetics is well interpreted in Bacon’s paintings.

Embodied Perception and the Schemed World:Merleau-Ponty and John Dewey

It is now widely accepted that a mind that is saturated with bodily experience is necessary for the dual constitution of the self and the perceptual field,and that the deployment of perception is always associated with a double reafferent flow—a tactile flow and a proprioceptive flow.In this article,I will discuss this issue in a pragmatically orientated way(following John Dewey),with a possible rejoinder from the phenomenological tradition(specifically Merleau-Ponty).I make cross-references between the thought of Merleau-Ponty and of Dewey,and I believe that many insights can be drawn from such comparison.By bringing pragmatic insights’into the phenomenological context,I will place Dewey's pragmatic way of thinking about the embodied mind in a different light.However,different though they may seem,I will further argue that there is a deep sympathy between the phenomenological and pragmatic perspectives of these two thinkers,especially when we take Dewey's existential ontology into consideration.

Toward a Multi-Layered Chiasme-Focused Topology: A Reading of Merleau-Ponty's Later Writings

This paper traces the genealogy of reversibility,chiasma,and chiasme in Merleau-Ponty's writings and offers a new characterisation of his later ontology in terms of a multi-layered chiasme-focused topology informed by subtle differences and interconnections among these notions.We need to grasp the significance of reversibility not only in terms of constant recoil and impossible overlap but also of its situatedness in the crisscrossing between Dasein and things,and between the inside/invisible and the outside/visible."Chiasma" was initially introduced as a reference to the intersection of perspectives.Merleau-Ponty deploys it to articulate macroscopic insights concerning the nature of philosophy and the interweaving connections between self,other,and the world.In comparison,"reversibility" is primarily used to describe the microscopic bond between touching-touched and perceiving-perceived.I argue that,as Merleau-Ponty's ultimate choice of wording,"chiasme" incorporated the significance of both "reversibility" and "chiasma." A chiasme-focused topology that retains the significance of all three of the terms would serve to better convey the import of Merleau-Ponty's later ontology,which aims to dissolve and to re-configure our conceptions about being,body,self,and the other from within and from below.

Habitual Learning as Being-in-the-World： On Merleau-Ponty and the Experience of Learning

In Phenomenology of Perception, both intellectualism and empiricism were blamed for not grasping consciousness in the act of learning. This was, Merleau-Ponty thought, due to an objective volatilizing of the subjective role of the lived body in perception. In order to overcome the difficulties in the tradition of learning and the philosophy of consciousness, Merleau-Ponty＇s next important step was to take maximal grip as a central case of learning. To him, learning as being-in-the-world, basically has to be sketched out in embodied and socially contextualized situations. Drawing upon this asymmetrical identity from Merleau-Ponty, our argument in this paper is that learning is best understood as a phenomenon that involves the learner＇s engagement with the world and her intention to make sense of its structures. A new perspective is thus employed to present learning as an embodied and socially embedded phenomenon, which is always projected by habitual experience and involves transcendence. These characteristics of learning are brought together in an integral and comprehensive way and have relevance to studies of learning in institutions and in daily experience.

Embodied Perception and Harmonious Unity： Aesthetic Experience in Merleau-Ponty's Theory of Painting and Chinese Song Dynasty Landscapes

This paper explores embodied perception and its relation to aesthetic experience based on French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty＇s philosophy of painting. The discussion draws cases from both Western art, post-impressionist Paul Cezanne （1839-1906） and non-Western art, Chinese landscape paintings from the Northern Song Dynasty （960-1127）. As I argue, their general vision for the primacy of embodiment in perception is similar; artists in both practices aim at a balance between representing visible forms of nature and interpreting their invisible, yet deeper meanings for human existence. Further, I will argue, a focus on Chinese aesthetic thought helps us recognize the aesthetics of moral existence and hence contributes significantly to self-cultivation. Influenced by Chinese philosophical traditions, Chinese landscape paintings, compared with Cezanne＇s works, exemplify more strongly the indispensable role of the human body and indicate more explicitly a link between embodiment and moral ethics. The latter suggestion of the moral underpinnings in aesthetic perception and experience is particularly significant since Merleau-Ponty has not elaborated upon this point in any explicit manner.

The Marginality of Phenomenology

The essence of Husserfs intentionality does not lie in any object,but in the marginal horizon presupposed by intentional acts.This characteristic can be seen whether on the level of intensional act or that of noema(intentional object).The reason is that all intentional act and noema come from the stream of internal time consciousness,and thus have Zeithof(time halo or time aureole),while the original meaning constituted by such a halo is prior to the object they are concretized into,and the noema that contains the possibility of meaning will also be intuited together with the perceived adumbration.Using Husserl9 s idea that the meaning of non-objectification is prior to the object,Scheier breaks through HusserPs dogma that the presentation of an object must precede the giving of value to the object,and thus puts forward the new train of thought that the feeling of value is not later than the objectification,or even prior to it.Heidegger deepens and expands the sense of the marginal horizon,revealing in all human behaviors and world presentation such an ontological structure,that is,halo-like meaning or the act of Being itself precedes objects and beings created by the separation of subject and object.Maurice MerleaPonty states that the body field is prior to the separation of body and mind,and the body's perception of external phenomena is first carried out in the manner of field rather than definite objects,therefore,it must have the original ambiguity and be realized in the fonn of body schema instead of a causal chain.So,the philosophical vitality of phenomenology does not significantly lie in the explanation of the levels and functions of intentional objects,but in the construction premise of such objects,namely,the spatio-temporal halo manifested as marginal horizon,time stream,and the displaying of existential vista.

Many Healths： Nietzsche and Phenomenologies of Illness

This paper considers phenomenological descriptions of health in Gadamer, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Svenaeus. In these phenomenologies of health, health is understood as a tacit, background state that permits not only normal functioning but also philosophical reflection. Nietzsche＇s model of health as a state of intensity that is intimately connected to illness and suffering is then offered as a rejoinder. Nietzsche＇s model includes a more complex view of suffering and pain as integrally tied to health, and its language opens up the possibility of many ＂healths,＂ providing important theoretical support to phenomenological accounts of the diversity and complexity of health and illness.