Merleau-Ponty and Perception

For French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, everything we perceive takes the form of a shape. You don’t just see green and splotches: you see a tree. Even before your rational brain gets its motor running, your body has a sense of what’s out there, and indeed what’s useful—or dangerous—for your life. But what happens when you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t make sense of your visual field? And how much work is really being done with your body, as opposed to your rational mind? Josh and Ray organize their senses with Taylor Carman from Barnard College, author of Merleau-Ponty (Routledge Philosophers).