Exploring Perception in Philosophy and Modern Art: Introduction to Spatial Perception from Merleau-Ponty's Perspective
Merleau-Ponty's innovation is treating the body as existence or ontology, rejecting the separation of thought and body. He opposed mechanical psychology and two forms of absolutism—absolute Christianity and absolute Marxism—by introducing perception to connect consciousness and objectivity. Following Cezanne, he rejected dualism, integrating soul and body, sight and action. He emphasized the body's role in emotional perception and believed in a unified subject or Gestalt rather than isolated emotion or consciousness. His phenomenology extracts hypotheses humans make about themselves and their world. Time, for him, rises in human beings, who live in a continuum moving toward the future while reflecting on past experiences.