Body and the Understanding of Others: Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Language

Abstract

This presentation aims to reconsider a link between the body and language in our understanding of others based upon the phenomenological framework of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961). In Phénoménologie de la perception (1945), Merleau-Ponty distinguishes the "existential meaning" of language from the "conceptual meaning", and claims that the former meaning is based not on "pure thought" but on "an attitude" towards the world. If Merleau-Ponty's view is true, and if the existential meaning of language is formed by the work of the body, then our language must be embedded in our ways of living. It is also through bodily interactions or intercorporeity ("intercorporéité") that people with different cultural backgrounds can comprehend each other. In this context, what is the role of body and language in our understanding of others in different cultures? I would like to clarify how we can understand others through our body without falling into private or subjective speech. This is an attempt to take language back to our bodily understanding of others.