Abstract
Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a mid-twentieth century French philosopher whose work was influenced by the German phenomenologists Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. Merleau-Ponty went on to influence existentialism, philosophy of perception, the study of consciousness and subjectivity, and, eventually, contemporary cognitive science. His work uses phenomenological methods to examine embodied perception. He grapples with inherited philosophical questions about mind-body dualism and methods of inquiry. Like most twentieth century French philosophers, Merleau-Ponty engages with philosophical problems that were set by René Descartes in the 17th century. In fact, his main thesis—that the mental and the material are continuous through one's experience as an embodied consciousness—is a deliberate rejection of Cartesian dualism.
Publication Date
5-2024
Document Type
Thesis
Student Type
Undergraduate
Degree Name
Philosophy (BS)
Department, Program, or Center
Philosophy, Department of
College
College of Liberal Arts
Advisor
Evelyn Brister
Advisor/Committee Member
Brian Schroeder
Advisor/Committee Member
Timothy Engstrom
Recommended Citation
Smith, Gareth E., "Revisiting the Phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty in the Context of Contemporary Cognitive Science" (2024). Thesis. Rochester Institute of Technology. Accessed from
https://repository.rit.edu/theses/11711
Campus
RIT – Main Campus
