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Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Maurice Merleau-Ponty Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Maurice Merleau-Ponty Quotes

“True reflection presents me to myself not as idle and inaccessible subjectivity, but as identical with my presence in the world and to others, as I am now realizing it: I am all that I see, I am an intersubjective field, not despite my body and historical situation, but, on the contrary, by being this body and this situation, and through them, all the rest.”

WorldBodyRealizingSituationFieldsReflectionHistoricalContraryDespiteContemplationIdleIdenticalSubjectivityInaccessiblePhenomenology
Book:Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Basic Writings
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“I will never know how you see red and you will never know how I see it. But this separation of consciousness is recognized only after a failure of communication, and our first movement is to believe in an undivided being between us.”

KnowsFirstsBelieveConsciousnessKnow HowMovementCommunicationRedSeparation
Book:The Primacy of Perception: And Other Essays on Phenomenological Psychology, the Philosophy of Art, History and Politics
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“Existence permeates sexuality and vice versa, so that it is impossible to determine, in a given decision or action, the proportion of sexual to other motivations, impossible to label a decision or act ‘sexual’ or ‘non-sexual’ . There is no outstripping of sexuality any more than there is sexuality enclosed within itself. No one is saved and no one is totally lost.”

ActionMotivationLostGivenDecisionExistenceImpossibleDetermineVicesSexualitySavedLabelsProportionVice Versa
Author:Maurice Merleau-Ponty
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“Our body is not in space like things; it inhabits or haunts space. It applies itself to space like a hand to an instrument. And when we wish to move about, we do not move the body as we move an object.”

BodyHandsMovingWishSpaceObjectsInstruments
Book:The Primacy of Perception: And Other Essays on Phenomenological Psychology, the Philosophy of Art, History and Politics
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