Personal Acts, Habit, and Embodied Agency in Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception
In Jeremy Dunham & Komarine Romdenh-Romluc (eds.), Habit and the History of Philosophy. Routledge. pp. 152–165 (2022)
Abstract
In Aspiration, Agnes Callard examines the phenomenon of aspiration, the process by which one acquires values and becomes a certain kind of person. Aspiring to become a certain type of person involves more than wanting to act in certain ways. We want to come to see the world in a certain way and to develop the dispositions, attributes, and skills that allow us to seamlessly and effectively respond to situations. The skilled athlete or musician, for example, has developed the muscle memory and the perceptual equivalent to naturally see what a situation requires and to respond well, whether playing a Rachmaninoff concerto or returning a tennis volley. I use Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception to flesh out the process of becoming, through which aspired-to values, skills, and characteristics become part of one’s embodied being-in-the-world. Although some rightly focus on Merleau-Ponty’s efforts to avoid over-intellectualizing skillful action, without appreciating his distinction between habitual actions and human (or personal) acts, we overlook an important aspect of robust human agency—the way “a human act becomes dormant and is continued absent-mindedly as a reflex” (90). Merleau-Ponty’s account of habit and its relation to personal acts offers a rich and phenomenologically sensitive picture of aspiration.Author's Profile
My notes
Similar books and articles
"Inhabiting" in the Phenomenology of Perception.Scott E. Weiner - 1990 - Philosophy Today 4 (4):342-353.
The Phenomenology of the Pipe Organ.Michael R. Kearney - 2020 - Phenomenology and Practice 15 (2):24-38.
Peirce, Merleau-ponty, and perceptual experience: A Kantian heritage.Sandra B. Rosenthal & Patrick L. Bourgeois - 1987 - International Studies in Philosophy 19 (3):33-42.
Merleau-Ponty and the transcendental problem of bodily agency.Rasmus Thybo Jensen - 2013 - In Rasmus Thybo Jensen Dermot Moran (ed.), The Phenomenology of Embodied Subjectivity, Contributions to Phenomenology 71. pp. 43-61.
Perception and its Development in Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology.Kirsten Jacobson & John Russon (eds.) - 2017 - London: University of Toronto Press.
"Gilbert Ryle and Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Critique of Descartes".Gabrielle Jackson - 2010 - In Kascha Semonovitch and Neal DeRoo (ed.), Merleau-Ponty at the Limits of Art, Religion and Perception. New York: continuum. pp. 63-78.
Mead and Merleau-Ponty: "Meaning, Perception, and Behavior".Sandra B. Rosenthal - 1990 - Analecta Husserliana 31:401.
Sense Experience and Poly-intentionality in Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception.John Montani - 2019 - Journal of Speculative Philosophy 33 (3):381-389.
Agency, Ownness, and Otherness from Stein to Merleau-Ponty.Timothy Mooney - 2017 - Philosophy Today 61 (1):175-187.
In Defense of Phenomenology: Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy.Douglas Beck Low - 2016 - New Brunswick: Routledge.
Image and ontology in Merleau-Ponty.Trevor Perri - 2013 - Continental Philosophy Review 46 (1):75-97.
The Concept of ‘Body Schema’ in Merleau-Ponty’s Account of Embodied Subjectivity.Jan Halák - 2018 - In Bernard Andrieu, Jim Parry, Alessandro Porrovecchio & Olivier Sirost (eds.), Body Ecology and Emersive Leisure. Londýn, Velká Británie: Routledge. pp. 37-50.
Analytics
Added to PP
2022-09-28
Downloads
48 (#246,518)
6 months
48 (#28,486)
2022-09-28
Downloads
48 (#246,518)
6 months
48 (#28,486)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
References found in this work
Explaining Actions with Habits.Bill Pollard - 2006 - American Philosophical Quarterly 43 (1):57 - 69.
Can virtuous actions be both habitual and rational?Bill Pollard - 2003 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 6 (4):411-425.
Thought in Action.Komarine Romdenh-Romluc - 2012 - In Dan Zahavi (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Phenomenology. Oxford University Press.