Introduction

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961) would be generally agreed to be the most distinguished French phenomenologist, and his book Phenomenology of Perception, first published in French by Gallimard in 1945 and in English by Routledge & Kegan Paul in 1962, is certainly his major work. In it, he first outlines what he means by “phenomenology”, namely, the description of our direct, pre-reflective contact with the world around us in perception. The rest of the book consists in developing a phenomenological account of the various elements in our perceptual experience, such as our awareness of our own bodies, the social world of other people, time and space as they are “lived”, history, freedom and action, and the cogito. This account enables him to make distinctively original and illuminating contributions to the discussion of such traditional philosophical topics as the mind-body problem, the relation of consciousness to the unconscious, the explanation of human behaviour, the freedom of the will, the relation of the individual to society and the meaning of history and its relevance to politics. What emerges from these discussions is a particular view of our humanity, as embodied beings participating actively in the world and finding meaning in it as a result.

If we want a guide that will help us to find our way about a book such as this, it is probably best not to attempt a chapter-by-chapter commentary, following the order of topics as they appear in the work.