Embodied Visual Perception. An Argument from Plessner (1923)
Phenomenology and Mind September 17, 2018 Roberta de Monticelli 2 citations
The Thatcher Illusion, where an upside-down face with inverted features appears normal until the image is rotated, challenges Gestalt theory's explanatory power by forcing a distinction between physiognomic identity (recognizing a face as such) and emotional expression (reading its affect). Helmuth Plessner's Aesthesiology, which integrates Gestalt insights, goes further by critiquing reductions of phenomenal consciousness to qualia and offering an embodied-enactive theory of perception. Plessner treats geometry and music as symbolic forms grounded, respectively, in goal-directed action and object manipulation versus emotional expression. The illusion is resolved using this distinction between identity and expression.