Phenomenology of Perception

This is the new definitive translation which returns the reader to reading much more of the text than trying to understand the translation of Phenomenology of Perception (PoP), incredibly helpful and scholarly notes, and a powerfully useful index. Included in the margins is reference to the 2005 French edition pagination. For other edition concordances you can google "Concordance of Editions" of MP's POP and thereby coordinate with all other versions, French and English.I think Simon de Beauvoir's quote on the cover jacket (above) summarizes it all--"the human condition is at stake in this book."For fun, here is my summary of the Introduction:Phenomoneology is about describing, not explaining or analyzing, neither constructing nor constituting. I am not a man or a consciousness, but the absolute source. My existence moves out and sustains my physical and social surroundings. I am in and toward the world and it is in the world that I know myself. I know about dreams and reality because I have an experience of the difference, so my problem is to make explicit my primordial knowledge of the "real, " the perception of the world as our idea of the truth. The world is what we perceive.Beauty: Kant demonstrated there is a unity of the imagination and the understanding, a unity of subjects prior to the object. As in beauty there is harmony between the sensible and the concept, between myself and another. The hidden art of the imagination gives rise to discovering of oneself and appreciating oneself, not just as the aesthetic which grounds the unity of consciousness, but also as knowledge.With true/radical reflection: we step back from the world (not withdraw from it) in order to see transcendences, revealing the world's strangeness and paradoxes.Intellectualism is unaware of the problem of others, the world ( they have no "thisness"). The old Cogito devalues the perception of others and of the world. Unless I find myself situated in the world, I can not find others (inter-subjectivity) or the world. Intellectualism breaks with the world by a constituting consciousness rather than by being grasped directly.Empiricism presents the absolute belief in the world as the totality of spatio-temporal events, and treats consciousness as a region of that world. Intellectualism and empricism are "naturalistic" positions which hide true perception.All signification of language is measured by the experience we have of ourselves and this consciousness that we are. Consciousness is the actual presence of myself to myself prior to words, concepts and thematizations. Operative intentionality (qua Husserl) establishes the natural and pre-predicative unity of the world and of our life as seen in our desires, evaluations and landscape. It is the text prior to precise language. Because we are in the world, we are condemned to sense, and to acquire a name in history.The analytic/empirical is the figure upon which the background of the phenomenal lies. Figure and background are thus the structures of consciousness, irreducible to qualities of consciousness.There is a misconception of judgment as perception when it loses its constituting function and becomes an explanatory principle, position taking, knowing for me across all moments. False judgment reduces sensing to appearance, denying evidence of phenomena everywhere. To perceive is not to judge but to grasp a sense immanent in the sensible. Judgment is only true if it follows spontaneous organization and the particular configuration of the phenomena."I am a consciousness, a singular being who resides nowhere and can make itself present everywhere through intention. Everything that exists, exists as either thing or as consciousness, and there is no in between. The thing is in a place, but perception is nowhere, for if it were situated it could not make other things exist for itself." (p. 39, 2012)

My major related writing.

It is multidisciplinary and the best book so far that explains human condition in an adventurous and realistic fashion. To comprehend its themes and theses is surely very daunting, but it opens new horizons before you and makes your life and living very very interesting. You will learn that your life is ambiguous and contingent and that you are both *a pure consciousness* "who makes [or creates] others and the world (things, objects) exist for [you] and *a body* with "a psychological and historical structure". You are everything that you see and you have this means of escape. In other words, you are absolutely free (because you are a pure consciousness) despite the fact that you have a vulnerable and an aging body through which you are also part and parcel of this world. And you journey in this world towards your death. In brief, in the words of Simone de Beauvoir, Phenomenology of Perception by Maurice Merleau-Ponty is not only a remarkable specialist work but a book that is of interest to the whole of man and to every man; the human condition is at stake in this book."

Text is difficult to read.

I have the 2014 Routledge paperback, ISBN 978-0-415-83433-9. It is the paperback of the 2012 edition, translated by Donald A. Landes.It's a good quality paperback. The print is clear and easy to read.

An important (complex) read that really showcases this philosopher's work. A major text that should be enjoyed in small pieces.

There are some critical reviews of this book. I think the criticism needs to be clarified. I am struggling to get going on this book. The barrier as I see it is the vocabulary and knowledge of the reader. The subject area is highly specialized. The translator either makes up some of the words or uses archaic forms no longer in the dictionary. This only adds to the confusion. I am an educated person who reads a lot. I just purchased a pocket dictionary to use on this book for looking up words I have never encountered Then there is the highly specialized knowledge base and the dropping of names I've never heard of much less understand why they are important to the author. I even find myself reading passages over and over but still not grasping the meaning. I finished the book. Last one hundred or so pages are easier to read. Given the author's technical wording, run-on sentences, and confusing logic; I can only say he doesn't know how to communicate. He writes the way he thinks. He draws conclusions in ways I cannot follow. I cannot repeat any of the concepts he addresses. This was a waste of my time. I sincerely hope other readers learn more from this book than I have.

Very informative book! Best on perception that I know of.

Absolutely awful print version.The text has been scanned from an original copy. The print is blurred and you can see underlining and notes from the previous version. Almost unreadable.This version https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0415834333/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 is the one to buy.

The book is new but it is a reproduction and contains much underscored parts in the the beginning. Very distracting and annoying.

Hard case, yes. But all pages are photocopies and most are not readable.

The print is very blurred and the notes and underlines in the preface as you can see reflect that it is just a copy