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Na psicologia do desenvolvimento tem-se realizado pesquisas que buscam investigar os processos desenvolvimentais em suas dimensões cognitivas, sociais e biológicas em todo o ciclo da vida. Nesse contexto o presente trabalho buscou evidenciar o papel da afetividade como dimensão fundamental no processo desenvolvimental do sujeito, através da investigação das implicações entre a formação de vínculos intersubjetivos na primeira infância e o desenvolvimento da afetividade humana à partir do legado da obra de Merleau-Ponty. À vista disso, a presente investigação baseou-se nos estudos de Merleau-Ponty sobre a psicologia do desenvolvimento infantil, nomeadamente o diálogo que o filósofo estabeleceu em seus trabalhos com Henri Wallon e com a perspectiva psicanalítica. Também foi a proposta deste trabalho, prolongar esse diálogo com produções mais recentes nessas áreas citadas. Neste sentido, encontramos na Fenomenologia da Percepção de Merleau-Ponty e nos trabalhos sobre a emersão da consciência em Rochat (2002) descrições sobre a experiência afetiva do recém-nato em que esta é representada por um o Si corporal sustentado por funções anônimas e por uma experiência de generalidade. O egocentrismo infantil, sobretudo nas considerações de Bimbenet (2002), é entendido nesse contexto como uma experiência de abertura radical da criança ao mundo, fundada em uma relação de Ineinander, ou seja, de inerência e de mutua penetração de corpos entendida como uma experiência de indistinção baseada em uma intercoporeidade. Essa circunstância manifestaria-se sobretudo, nas considerações apresentadas por Meltzoff e Gallager (1996), Wallon (1959) e Bimbenet (2011) no âmbito das imitações neonatais em que estas são apresentadas em seu caráter não funcionalista e de identificação em profundidade com o outro, expressando-se como a manifestação privilegiada de um descentramento originário. Nesse sentido chegou-se a proposição de que tais fenômenos seriam sustentados por uma mimesis, uma vez que esta expressaria uma relação de ser dentro de uma perspectiva ontológica em que a alteridade tem destaque. O conceito de prematuração é apresentado por Merleau-Ponty (1949-52/2010), Bimbenet (2002) e Lacan (1984) nesse contexto como a expressão de uma relação de um exterior constitutivo do interior em que a ênfase recai nas relações da criança com o adulto, nomeadamente com a mãe. A mimesis se expressaria nesse contexto em um investimento afetivo, que seria deflagrado através de um processo identificatório com o representante materno, que passaria a expressar uma condição narcísica e da formação de uma imagem corporal pela criança e a decorrente assunção desta enquanto sujeito portador de uma vida oficial / In developmental psychology research has been carried out to investigate developmental processes in their cognitive, social and biological dimensions throughout the life cycle. In this context, the present work sought to highlight the role of affectivity as a fundamental dimension in the developmental process of the subject, through the investigation of the implications between the formation of intersubjective bonds in early childhood and the development of human affectivity from the legacy of Merleau-Ponty\'s work . Thus, the present investigation was based on Merleau-Ponty\'s studies on the psychology of child development, namely the dialogue that the philosopher established in his works with Henri Wallon and with the psychoanalytic perspective. It was also the proposal of this work, to prolong this dialogue with more recent productions in these areas. In this sense, we find in the Phenomenology of the Perception of Merleau-Ponty and in the works on the emersion of consciousness in Rochat (2002) descriptions about the affective experience of the newborn in which it\'s represented by a bodily \"Self\" sustained by anonymous functions and by an experience of generality. The child egocentrism, especially in the considerations of Bimbenet (2002), is understood in this context as an experience of radical opening of the child to the world, founded on an Ineinander relation, that is, of inherency and mutual penetration of bodies, understood as an experience of indistinction based on an intercoporeity. This circumstance would be manifested mainly by Meltzoff and Gallager (1996), Wallon (1959) and Bimbenet (2011) considerations in the context of neonatal imitations in which they are presented in their non-functionalist character and in-depth identification to the other, expressing itself as the privileged manifestation of an original decentering. In this sense, it has been proposed that such phenomena would be supported by a \"mimesis\", since it would express a relation of being within an ontological perspective in which the otherness stands out. The concept of prematureness is presented by Merleau-Ponty (1949-52 / 2010), Bimbenet (2002) and Lacan (1984) in this context as the expression of a relation of an exterior which is constitutive of the interior and in which the emphasis falls on the relations of the child with the adult, especially with the mother. The \"mimesis\" would be expressed in this context as an affective investment, which would be triggered by an identification process with the maternal representative, which would begin to express a narcissistic condition and the formation of a corporal image by the child and the consequent assumption of this child as a subject who sustains an official life

Davi, E. H. D. (2013). Belíssima: um estudo merleau-pontyano da corporalidade travesti. 2013. 183 pps. Tese (Doutorado) Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras, Universidade de São Paulo. Ribeirão Preto. Nosso objetivo é compreender os significados e sentidos que as travestis atribuem ao processo de transformação de seu corpo. Realidade mutante, o corpo na contemporaneidade ocupa o lugar de mercadoria um produto com direito a pequenos reparos e duração programada. Observa-se a construção de identidades e subjetividades baseadas em artefatos fixados sob ou sobre a pele: piercings, tatuagens, escarificações, silicone, hormônios, body building, crossdressing que passaram a constituir maneiras e práticas de afirmação do eu a partir do corpo. O trânsito pelos gêneros e sexualidades também alcança novo status e a corporalidade se tornou o lócus privilegiado de apresentação de novas práticas afetivo-sexuais. Dentre as hodiernas intervenções, percebemos o uso de silicone, hormônios e cirurgias plásticas para atingir um pretenso modelo ideal de corpo por diferentes grupos sociais. Mais particularmente, entre as travestis, o processo de bombar o corpo se tornou algo corriqueiro levando a um problema de saúde pública devido às lesões, deformações e até mortes. O método fenomenológico e as ideias do filósofo Maurice Merleau-Ponty foram eleitos por nós na perspectiva de ampliar a compreensão deste processo de transformação corporal, valendo-se das vivências das próprias travestis que experienciam e dos significados atribuídos por elas a este fenômeno. Desse modo, analisamos os relatos de dez travestis, pertencentes às classes sociais C e D; na faixa etária entre 20 a 40 anos sobre os sentidos que atribuem ao processo de modelagem do corpo e as práticas afetivo-sexuais decorrentes dessa transformação. Resultados apontam cinco categorias: a primeira, denominada As vivências iniciais do travestir-se; na qual nossas colaboradoras circunscreveram suas primeiras vivências homoafetivas e também as incipientes experiências do travestir-se; a segunda Fazendo o corpo; nesta categoria, as travestis falaram das intervenções mais radicais sobre o corpo, como o processo de hormonização e seus efeitos, as aplicações de silicone, dentre outras práticas; na terceira O corpo desvelado na pista; as colaboradoras nos relataram sobre a modelagem do corpo ao entrarem para o universo da prostituição, falaram do aprendizado, dos obstáculos, dos prazeres e como isso afeta diretamente sua corporalidade; na quarta categoria Movimentos do ser-travesti; as travestis expuseram suas experiências fora do mundo da prostituição e como estas vivências contribuem para ressignificar sua relação com seu corpo e sua identidade; por fim, na quinta categoria Sonhos e projetos; as colaboradoras descreveram seus projetos de vida e suas expectativas que, para elas, passam ainda pelo corpo e sua transformação como subsídio do alcance de objetivos afetivos e materiais. Na busca do corpo perfeito, as travestis ousam e cruzam as fronteiras dos gêneros criando uma sintaxe erótica sui generis. A corporalidade travesti, numa perspectiva merleau-pontyana, é o substrato de uma linguagem erotizada; e esse mundo-vida é também lugar de realização de projetos, espaço onde o tempo marca sua passagem e desvela uma subjetividade peculiar e subversiva. Ao se equilibrar entre o feminino e o masculino, a dor e o prazer, as travestis reivindicam a existência de um ethos específico, refletido no seu corpo vivo. / DAVI, E. H. D. (2013). Beautiful: a Merleau-Ponty study about transvestites corporality. 2013. 183 pgs. Thesis (Ph. D.) Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Arts, University of São Paulo. Ribeirão Preto. Our purpose is to understand the meanings and feelings attributed by transvestites to the process of changing their bodies. As a changing reality, nowadays the body is treated as merchandise a product that can be repaired, with planned duration. It is possible to see identities and subjectivities built based on artifacts used under or over the skin: piercings, tattoos, scratches, silicone, hormones, body building, cross-dressing which are ways to set means and practices of self-affirmation using the body. The passage through genders and sexualities also reaches a new status, and corporality has become the privileged locus for introducing new affective and sexual practices. Among daily interventions, it is possible to notice the use of silicone, hormones and plastic surgery to reach a desired paragon of the body by different social groups. Particularly among transvestites, the process of pumping the body has become common place, leading to public health issues due to injuries, deformities and even death. The phenomenological method and the reflections of philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty were elected for expanding the understanding of the body transformation process, based on transvestites experiences and the meanings they attribute to this phenomenon. We have analyzed the description of ten transvestites from social classes C and D, who are between 20 and 40 years old, about the meanings they attribute to the process of shaping up their bodies and the affective and sexual practices derived from this change. The results show five categories: the first one is called Initial experiences of becoming a transvestite, in which participants described their first homoaffectionate experiences, as well as the initial experiences of becoming a transvestite; the second one is called Building the body, in which transvestites talked about more radical interventions on the body, such as taking hormones and its effects, administrating silicone, among other practices; the third one is called The body unveiled in the street, in which participants described the process of shaping up the body when entering the prostitution environment, talked about what they learned, obstacles, joys and how it directly affects their corporality; the fourth category is called Movements of a transvestite; in which transvestites described their experiences outside the prostitution environment, and how these experiences contributed to redefine their relationship with their own body and identity; the fifth category is called Dreams and projects, in which participants described their life projects and expectations, which are related to the body and its transformation as a mean to reach their affective and material goals. In their effort to shape up the perfect body, transvestites dare and cross the line between genders, creating a sui generis erotic syntax. The transvestite corporality, from Merleau-Pontys perspective, is the basis of an erotized language; this life and environment is also where projects are put into practice, a place where time passes and unveils a unique and subversive subjectivity. Reaching balance between female and male, pain and joy, transvestites look for a specific ethos, reflected on their live bodies.

Davi, E. H. D. (2013). Belíssima: um estudo merleau-pontyano da corporalidade travesti. 2013. 183 pps. Tese (Doutorado) Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras, Universidade de São Paulo. Ribeirão Preto. Nosso objetivo é compreender os significados e sentidos que as travestis atribuem ao processo de transformação de seu corpo. Realidade mutante, o corpo na contemporaneidade ocupa o lugar de mercadoria um produto com direito a pequenos reparos e duração programada. Observa-se a construção de identidades e subjetividades baseadas em artefatos fixados sob ou sobre a pele: piercings, tatuagens, escarificações, silicone, hormônios, body building, crossdressing que passaram a constituir maneiras e práticas de afirmação do eu a partir do corpo. O trânsito pelos gêneros e sexualidades também alcança novo status e a corporalidade se tornou o lócus privilegiado de apresentação de novas práticas afetivo-sexuais. Dentre as hodiernas intervenções, percebemos o uso de silicone, hormônios e cirurgias plásticas para atingir um pretenso modelo ideal de corpo por diferentes grupos sociais. Mais particularmente, entre as travestis, o processo de bombar o corpo se tornou algo corriqueiro levando a um problema de saúde pública devido às lesões, deformações e até mortes. O método fenomenológico e as ideias do filósofo Maurice Merleau-Ponty foram eleitos por nós na perspectiva de ampliar a compreensão deste processo de transformação corporal, valendo-se das vivências das próprias travestis que experienciam e dos significados atribuídos por elas a este fenômeno. Desse modo, analisamos os relatos de dez travestis, pertencentes às classes sociais C e D; na faixa etária entre 20 a 40 anos sobre os sentidos que atribuem ao processo de modelagem do corpo e as práticas afetivo-sexuais decorrentes dessa transformação. Resultados apontam cinco categorias: a primeira, denominada As vivências iniciais do travestir-se; na qual nossas colaboradoras circunscreveram suas primeiras vivências homoafetivas e também as incipientes experiências do travestir-se; a segunda Fazendo o corpo; nesta categoria, as travestis falaram das intervenções mais radicais sobre o corpo, como o processo de hormonização e seus efeitos, as aplicações de silicone, dentre outras práticas; na terceira O corpo desvelado na pista; as colaboradoras nos relataram sobre a modelagem do corpo ao entrarem para o universo da prostituição, falaram do aprendizado, dos obstáculos, dos prazeres e como isso afeta diretamente sua corporalidade; na quarta categoria Movimentos do ser-travesti; as travestis expuseram suas experiências fora do mundo da prostituição e como estas vivências contribuem para ressignificar sua relação com seu corpo e sua identidade; por fim, na quinta categoria Sonhos e projetos; as colaboradoras descreveram seus projetos de vida e suas expectativas que, para elas, passam ainda pelo corpo e sua transformação como subsídio do alcance de objetivos afetivos e materiais. Na busca do corpo perfeito, as travestis ousam e cruzam as fronteiras dos gêneros criando uma sintaxe erótica sui generis. A corporalidade travesti, numa perspectiva merleau-pontyana, é o substrato de uma linguagem erotizada; e esse mundo-vida é também lugar de realização de projetos, espaço onde o tempo marca sua passagem e desvela uma subjetividade peculiar e subversiva. Ao se equilibrar entre o feminino e o masculino, a dor e o prazer, as travestis reivindicam a existência de um ethos específico, refletido no seu corpo vivo. / DAVI, E. H. D. (2013). Beautiful: a Merleau-Ponty study about transvestites corporality. 2013. 183 pgs. Thesis (Ph. D.) Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Arts, University of São Paulo. Ribeirão Preto. Our purpose is to understand the meanings and feelings attributed by transvestites to the process of changing their bodies. As a changing reality, nowadays the body is treated as merchandise a product that can be repaired, with planned duration. It is possible to see identities and subjectivities built based on artifacts used under or over the skin: piercings, tattoos, scratches, silicone, hormones, body building, cross-dressing which are ways to set means and practices of self-affirmation using the body. The passage through genders and sexualities also reaches a new status, and corporality has become the privileged locus for introducing new affective and sexual practices. Among daily interventions, it is possible to notice the use of silicone, hormones and plastic surgery to reach a desired paragon of the body by different social groups. Particularly among transvestites, the process of pumping the body has become common place, leading to public health issues due to injuries, deformities and even death. The phenomenological method and the reflections of philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty were elected for expanding the understanding of the body transformation process, based on transvestites experiences and the meanings they attribute to this phenomenon. We have analyzed the description of ten transvestites from social classes C and D, who are between 20 and 40 years old, about the meanings they attribute to the process of shaping up their bodies and the affective and sexual practices derived from this change. The results show five categories: the first one is called Initial experiences of becoming a transvestite, in which participants described their first homoaffectionate experiences, as well as the initial experiences of becoming a transvestite; the second one is called Building the body, in which transvestites talked about more radical interventions on the body, such as taking hormones and its effects, administrating silicone, among other practices; the third one is called The body unveiled in the street, in which participants described the process of shaping up the body when entering the prostitution environment, talked about what they learned, obstacles, joys and how it directly affects their corporality; the fourth category is called Movements of a transvestite; in which transvestites described their experiences outside the prostitution environment, and how these experiences contributed to redefine their relationship with their own body and identity; the fifth category is called Dreams and projects, in which participants described their life projects and expectations, which are related to the body and its transformation as a mean to reach their affective and material goals. In their effort to shape up the perfect body, transvestites dare and cross the line between genders, creating a sui generis erotic syntax. The transvestite corporality, from Merleau-Pontys perspective, is the basis of an erotized language; this life and environment is also where projects are put into practice, a place where time passes and unveils a unique and subversive subjectivity. Reaching balance between female and male, pain and joy, transvestites look for a specific ethos, reflected on their live bodies.

Univ., Diss--Trier, 1998.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-07-22T20:50:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-07-30. Added 1 bitstream(s) on 2015-08-11T03:26:32Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 Publico-DanielCardozoSevero.pdf: 555289 bytes, checksum: fbd11f83bc32b8d37e41fff5013f0668 (MD5) / Este trabalho teve como objetivo central compreender o lugar da linguagem como uma das formas de expressão do corpo. Merleau-Ponty trata desse tema, pela primeira vez e de forma explícita, no último capítulo da primeira parte da obra, Fenomenologia da Percepção, intitulado de O corpo como expressão e a fala. Para esclarecer a relação entre esses três elementos - fala, expressão e corpo - fez-se necessário combater alguns problemas filosóficos que o autor encontra ao colocar a linguagem nesse outro lugar, diferente da concepção defendida pela tradição anterior a ele. O principal deles estaria na base do pensamento ocidental, pois ele pautou-se em premissas equivocadas para compreender a realidade, as quais o autor denominou de pensamento de sobrevoo. A escolha do adjetivo sobrevoo se deu pelo tipo de resposta, científica e filosófica, ao problema da sensação e da percepção encontrado no “realismo ingênuo”, ou seja, a solução dada por eles separaria e reduziria à realidade a dicotomia sujeito/objeto. Desse modo, houve uma deturpação da percepção tanto do corpo quanto da linguagem, porque, com a cisão da realidade, estabeleceu-se a separação corpo e alma, a qual submeteu o primeiro ao último, consagrando a supremacia do pensamento. Nessa soberania, a sujeição da linguagem se deu com o nascimento do conceito de representação, matéria-prima do pensamento. Portanto, para Merleau-Ponty, o primeiro passo a ser dado para a real compreensão do mundo seria retornarmos aos fenômenos originários, tentarmos religar essa relação perdida pelas representações da consciência, por fora dela. Desse modo, com o abandono do pensamento de sobrevoo e com a luta contra o império da representação, o autor revela que a fonte da linguagem seria a fala, modulação existencial do corpo próprio. A fala se apoiaria na intenção do sujeito falante, o qual infla a palavra de significação própria, pois seu sentido adviria do gesto e não do pensamento. Seria pelo interior do gesto que perceberíamos que a palavra é fonte de sentido e não uma representação de algo. A fala nasceria para ampliar a capacidade de movimento do corpo e não para representar os objetos ou suas relações. Ao retomar o sentido instaurado pela percepção, a fala o prolongaria à comunicação. Falar significaria, assim, uma forma de projeção ao mundo e uma forma de evocação das experiências. Retomar-se-ia o passado, seja para dar-lhe um novo sentido (gesto) ou para recordá-lo (hábito). Seria esse o meio que Merleau-Ponty, com a fala, conseguira revelar a última faceta do corpo próprio, reformulando o problema do mundo. / TEDE

Thesis advisor: John Sallis / Maurice Merleau-Ponty's last essay about art, Eye and Mind, refers to many painters, to painting, and even to sculpture. Yet there is hardly any use of the traditional categories used in art criticism to categorize artistic movements or to evaluate painters' contributions to their period. Instead, he uses terms such as `body' and `flesh' that are alien to that tradition, thereby indicating that he clearly intends to go beyond commenting on and assessing the artistic value of the works he mentions. Instead, the essay is a reevaluation of meaning of painting as a whole. Merleau-Ponty says that all painting from Lascaux to our day has been a celebration of `the visible.' However, to understand what he means by `the visible' involves considerable complexity. The standard by which Merleau-Ponty evaluates painting emerges from his phenomenological and ontological research into perception. I argue that in fact Eye and Mind answers a question that arose in his first major book concerning the relationship between consciousness and nature. Because the evolution of the ideas underlying the Eye and Mind's answer is so vast, the goal of this dissertation is to trace the thread leading from his earlier work in order to provide a unifying viewpoint that will ground an adequate understanding of the essay's various arguments. The dissertation argues that Merleau-Ponty's notion of the Gestalt or structure is the framework for understanding the origin and depth of the aperçus developed in Eye and Mind. Ironically perhaps, this notion is not mentioned in Eye and Mind. As if it had lost its original meaning, it is only referred to indirectly and vaguely in terms of transcendence. Nevertheless, the main issue settled in The Structure of Behavior dominated his understanding of the body in The Phenomenology of Perception, and underwent a transformation when Merleau-Ponty discovered language as a diacritical structure. This made possible the radical use he made of it in Eye and Mind without expressly mentioning it. Once the interpretation of Gestalt in relation to Paul Klee and Rudolf Arnheim had been worked out, this dissertation could use this notion--usually undervalued in Merleau-Ponty scholarship--to make sense of Eye and Mind's main contention in light of the interpretive reconstruction of the notions of expression, reversibility, body, and flesh Merleau-Ponty elaborated on the way to that essay. Part I of the dissertation deals with the phenomenology of the Gestalt structure prior to Merleau-Ponty's ontological turn, which in turn frames and underpins many of the insights achieved in this pre-ontological period, especially those about the body. The first two chapters introduce the notion of structure as it emerges in its application to behavior, and explain Merleau-Ponty's own contribution to the notion through the overcoming of earlier psychologists' static reduction of the notion to the physical level. The third and last chapter of Part I discusses the structural dimension of the body. There are two extraordinary things in Eye and Mind: the first is Paul Valery's statement that the painter "takes his body with him"; and the second is the analogy between the problems of the body and the problems of painting, by which Merleau-Ponty proposes that understanding one is indispensable for understanding the other. To clarify his proposal we have to return to The Phenomenology of Perception's analysis of the body according to embodied intentionality or motor intentionality, in which the body operates according to an "I can" that must replace the mechanical reaction to a stimulus. Here Merleau-Ponty was helped by Kurt Goldstein's insight into the body as a Gestalt. The dissertation illustrates what this could mean for the structure of a painting by using examples. What was formerly Part II profiles Merleau-Ponty's embodied notion of the Gestalt form against Arnheim's aprioristic account, which explains the relationship between consciousness and nature through an isomorphism that is even more ambitiously totalizing than the ones envisioned by the original Gestalt psychologists. Because of the detailed nature of our account this part is in two appendices. What is now Part II focuses on the problem of painting more directly. Using both the Notes de Cours (where Merleau-Ponty's most extensive comments on Paul Klee occur) and Paul Klee's own celebrated Notes, Chapter Four on Paul Klee reconsiders the relationship between consciousness and nature as the one between the painter and the world. Klee interpreted abstraction in terms of Gestalt as a form of transcendence involving the visible and the invisible, in contrast to Sartre's idea of transcendence, which also employs the figure/ground formation of the Gestalt. In Eye and Mind the expression of painting is interpreted as "a `visible' to the second power, a carnal essence or icon of the first." So Chapters Five and Six discuss the notion of structure from the viewpoint of expression. The doubling of expression in painting is seen first as analogous to philosophy as a hyper-reflection, and then in the linguistic distinction between le langage parlé et le langage parlant, which allowed Merleau-Ponty to interpret and generalize the model of expressive language via the diacritical structure of language and not restrict expressive language to bodily gestures. Rather than a return to the original (as The Phenomenology may have suggested), the point of this doubling aspect of expression is the recognition of the qualities of reversibility and difference that constitute `depth.' With the clarification of terms such as `perceptual faith' and `style,' Chapter Seven introduces the notion of reversibility before exploring its meaning, specifically in the second chapter of Eye and Mind. In Chapter Eight the earlier focus on the beginning of the definition of a painting as "a `visible' to the second power, a carnal essence or icon of the first," shifts to the meaning of the term "icon." This rounds off the meaning of `depth' and completes the exploration of the theme of the Gestalt structure. Now it becomes clear that the meaning of `depth' is articulated as the depth between the visible and the invisible, because the model used to understand depth is the by now very familiar basic articulation of the perceptual Gestalt: the articulation of a figure over a ground. Like a stain on a rug--in painting, in history, in philosophy, in language, or in perceptual faith--the crystallization of what appears always disguises an invisible dimension, whose invisibility is what makes the visibility of the visible possible. Chapter Nine then concludes the dissertation. It first considers Jean-Luc Marion's use of the icon in painting, in which, as in our interpretation of Merleau-Ponty on depth, uses his own idea of the depth between the visible and the invisible; and second, it responds to observations on Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of art by Veronique Fotí and criticisms of it by Michel Haar. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

Thesis advisor: Eileen Sweeney / This paper combines principles from aesthetic cognitivism with phenomenological embodiment as explained by Maurice Merleau-Ponty in order to construct both an argument for video games as a form of art as well as a method for appreciating them. I argue that the unique status of video games as interactive fictions warrants an adjusted set of aesthetic criteria. My proposed method of examination involves the concept of "fictional embodiment" in which an appreciator imaginatively undergoes the experiences of the video game character. After establishing this framework the paper applies it to narrative and emotion in video games before moving on to extended examples. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Philosophy.

The phenomenological approaches to embodiment presented by Levinas and Merleau-Ponty cannot provide an adequate account of bodily identity because their methodological commitments forbid them from admitting the central role that sensation plays in the constitution of experience. This neglect is symptomatic of their tradition's suspicion toward sensation as an explanatory concept, a suspicion stemming from Kant's critique of empiricist metaphysics and Husserl's critique of psychologism and objectivism. By contrast, I suggest that only with a robust theory of sensation can the integrity of the body and its relations be fully captured. I therefore develop--contra Kant and Husserl's idealism--a realist conception of sensation that is at once materialist and phenomenological. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Philosophy / PhD; / Dissertation;

Maurice Merleau-Ponty thinks that many classical theories of perception, especially reductionism, are influenced by the objective and the scientific form of thinking. Such influence is expressed in two preconceptions. The first preconception is that perception is reduced to units such as “impressions”. The meaning of these units is considered to be a representation of the world. The second preconception is that such perceptual meaning is caused by the world and the living being is passive in its relation to such constitution of meaning. In my view, the results of Merleau-Ponty’s criticism of these two preconceptions constitute his two main concepts: the phenomenal body and the perceptual meaning determined by the structural relation with the world. Despite the fact that some traces of these preconceptions can be found in the introduction of Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception, there is no straight argument that shows how he approached these two results from the rejection of these two preconceptions. My thesis is to present Merleau-Ponty’s view on the phenomenal body based on his criticism of the two preconceptions described above. In my view, Merleau-Ponty’s criticism of these preconceptions can be traced through his argument against Gestalt psychology, associationism, and behavioral associationism.