This dissertation interrogates the generation of novel sense and meaning in the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In taking up the theme of creative transformation prominent in his work, I show how the emergence of novel sense and the advent of meaning structures are made possible through the asymmetrical relation of adversity and cliché. While the scholarship focuses primarily on expression, institution, and reversibility as the three principal forms of creative transformation within the work of Merleau-Ponty, I maintain that this asymmetrical relation provides the originary ground on which these forms operate. To this end, this project consists primarily of the elucidation of three terms within the context of Merleau-Ponty’s thought – namely, novelty, cliché, and adversity – and the latter two notion’s roles in the generation of sense and meaning manifest in several fields of experience including perception, the aesthetic, and the political. The immediate import of this project is in its contribution to Merleau-Ponty scholarship through a description of the relation of adversity and cliché on the generation of sense and meaning which has received little attention to date. Subsequently, this project – like the inauguration of sense and meaning – institutes a trajectory for future research. This dissertation serves to describe a fertile field of interrogation both within and in relation to Merleau-Ponty’s work on adversity, cliché, and novelty.

Thesis advisor: John Sallis / The present dissertation explores the motif of gesture and demonstrates that it encompasses the resonances between the works of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty. My thesis specifically is that the notion of gesture articulates the problems of art and language, revealing fundamental convergences in the ways in which Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty investigate a non-metaphysical approach to the sensible and question the limits of philosophy. I develop this argument by closely following Merleau-Ponty's reading of Heidegger's works in the lecture-notes from his courses at the Collège de France. I also rely heavily on Heidegger's reflections on gesture and the body as they are depicted in the Zollikon seminars, considering that some of these reflections retrieve crucial arguments from Being and Time and that they bear a significant resemblance to Merleau-Ponty's understanding of the body. In this way, I elucidate what may be called the gestural character of the work of art and language, establishing structural connections between the texts of these two thinkers. This dissertation is divided into three parts. I devote the first part to the themes of the body and gesture and show that the concept of form and the problem of perception lead to questions concerning the possibilities of a phenomenology of the body. I conclude this part by arguing that, for both Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty, the notion of gesture corresponds to a phenomenological approach to the body as openness to the world and as an affective milieu. Departing from the arguments and comparisons delineated in the first part, in the second and third parts I examine separately the works of Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty in order to determine the settings of the notion of gesture within their respective approaches to art and language. The second part treats problems concerning the sensible character of the work of art, arguing that gestures perform a poetical disclosure of nature. In the third part I focus on questions of language and demonstrate that gestures unfold what could be called the logos of the sensible, which constitutes the primary source of language and meaning. I conclude by interpreting Heidegger's work as a gestural philosophy that emphasizes the performative dimension of language, an emphasis that is missing from Merleau-Ponty's work. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

Arthur Yee Shun Luk. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: leaves 51-52.

This dissertation examines the phenomenon, understanding, and treatment of trauma at the intersection of phenomenology, psychology and neuroscience. I argue that Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological method, with its emphasis on the conscious and embodied nature of human phenomena, provides crucial insights into the nature and treatment of combat trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). By situating the discussion of trauma and adaptation within research on the topic in neuroscience and psychology, the dissertation demonstrates how phenomenological understanding of trauma contributes fundamentally to the understanding of trauma proffered by the sciences. After discussing the history of trauma in psychology, phenomenology and neuroscience, I address traumatic memory as a prevalent feature of trauma. In traumatic memory, the victim relives rather than simply remembers the traumatic experience. I show how traumatic memory differs psychologically, neurologically, and phenomenologically from non-traumatic memory. In particular, I argue that phenomenological analysis of traumatic memory dramatically reveals the subjective and embodied character of human experiences, thereby providing psychological and neuroscientific accounts of trauma with a necessary, largely overlooked dimension of the experience. No serious study of trauma can neglect the question of adaptation. Using Merleau-Ponty’s work on adaptation, I argue that PTSD is better understood as the result of an attempt to adapt to a traumatic event than as a mental illness. In the last chapter of the dissertation I demonstrate how, against the backdrop of this interdisciplinary understanding, one specific adaptive tool to PTSD, namely, narrative therapy, can contribute positively to the process of adapting to trauma. This dissertation is the first detailed examination of combat trauma in the phenomenological tradition. Moreover, it offers new philosophical insights into the understanding and treatment of trauma. As an in-depth example of how insights from phenomenology, psychology and neuroscience can be fruitfully combined, it also provides a model of the potential of phenomenological inquiry to enhance our scientific accounts of human phenomena.

Denna kandidatuppsats i teater- och dansvetenskap vid Stockholms universitet (VT 2012) undersöker den sensoriska nivån inom scenkonsten, hur den kan se ut och hur ett publikt deltagande i den kan förstås. Mitt material består av ett urval teoretiska ingångar som jag dels diskuterar sinsemellan, dels provar användbarheten av genom ett förstapersonsperspektiv av koreografin Epic av Mårten Spångberg. Genom detta skapar jag en begreppsapparat som kan fungera som tillvägagångssätt för en större studie av den sensoriska nivån. Min infallsvinkel är fenomenologisk, där Maurice Merleau-Pontys Phenomenology of Perception (1945) utgör min huvudkälla. Vid sidan om denna preciserar jag mitt perspektiv inom ett teater- och dansvetenskapligt fält genom Stanton B. Garner, Bert O. States, Susan Foster och Jana Parviainen. Min undersökning visar hur en fenomenologisk förståelse av människan som kropp situerad i tid och rum bildar ett material för att komma i kontakt med den sensoriska nivån. Jag lyfter fram hur den sensoriska nivån inrättar oss i ett utvidgat åskådarperspektiv där vi ser föreställningen från flera punkter samtidigt och genom att avstå från tecknets värde skapar en materialitet som når oss som intensifierad verklighet. Hur denna kropp är förbunden med omvärlden genom ett gemensamt förbund förklarar vidare hur vi deltar i en sensorisk upplevelse. Empatibegreppet visar hur ett deltagande i den sensoriska nivån kan skapa en expanderad jagupplevelse som sträcker sig över både tid och rum. Samtidigt smälter en upplevelse av den sensoriska nivån samman med den symboliska och bildar en hyperverklighet, vilket ifrågasätter den reella skillnaden mellan sensationer och symboler.

The musical performer’s embodied experience is an aspect of the performing process that has yet to be adequately considered in music scholarship. The embodied experience is relegated to the realm of the inaccessible and subjective, rather than being considered a valuable source of information for both the music analyst and performer. This thesis contends that the performing body can provide deep insights into musical meaning and can act as a resource for developing musical understanding. The sensations and experiences of the performer’s body during the process of creating music can lead to the recognition of important moments and fundamental meanings within a musical work. Engaging with scholarly literature from a variety of disciplines, this thesis will explore the classical singer’s embodied experience from the three primary perspectives of phenomenology, ecological perceptual theory and body communication theory. Each perspective is explored in and through a comparative listening analysis of Luciano Berio’s work for solo voice Sequenza III per voce femminile (1966) in order to illuminate specific aspects of the singer’s embodied experience. This embodied approach to musical analysis considers the singer’s body as a contributor to not only the production of sound but also to the creation of musical meaning, and can thus offer rich insights into that which is discovered through traditional analysis.

Aquest treball gira a l'entorn de la gestació i l'evolució de l'obra de Merleau-Ponty en base a la hipòtesi que l'obra de Proust ha tingut un paper molt important en la definició de la darrera ontologia del filòsof. L'objectiu és analitzar la presència velada de La Recerca amb vista a interpretar algunes de les intuïcions més enigmàtiques dels darrers escrits.Si bé l'obra de Merleau-Ponty es centra inicialment en la qüestió de la visió i en l'anàlisi del cos perceptiu, de seguida neix l'interès per la paraula com un procés derivat del món perceptiu que potencia l'instrument significant del cos. L'expressió corporal i lingüística definirà l'estructura ontològica que determina els vincles orgànics que el subjecte manté amb el món. L'experiència d'aquesta dependència mútua entre elements interns i externs, visibles i invisibles, dibuixa un Ésser de porositat. Aquest pas d'una fenomenologia de la percepció a una ontologia de la visió es realitza en bona part sobre la idea de quiasme (terme que pren de la retòrica). L'estil de Proust excel·leix precisament perquè descriu en detall els elements quiasmàtics que enllacen la vivència amb aquell invisible on es submergeix la mirada i dóna compte del rerefons latent que impregna tota experiència. La petita frase musical o el gust de la magdalena (Pel camí de Swann) no són idees provocades des del subjecte sinó que s'esdevenen en la vivència, sorgeixen naturalment, i per això Merleau-Ponty les anomena idees sensibles. En aquest tipus d'idees troba un punt de recolzament per vertebrar el sensible: són els indicis que el que hi ha és una fissió que fa néixer el visible i l'invisible alhora, l'un per l'altre, són l'expressió d'una idealitat que no és estrangera a la carn, sinó que, al contrari, li dóna els seus eixos, la seva profunditat i les seves dimensions. A partir d'un cert moment, el filòsof assumeix la necessitat d'haver d'abandonar un llenguatge eloqüent per passar a un llenguatge de significació indirecta que li permeti, seguint el camí traçat per Proust, aprofundir en la riquesa de la multiplicitat sensible (pensem en les descripcions de l'aigua de la piscina a L'Oeil et l'Esprit, del color vermell dels teixits, del desvetllament del matí, etc., a Le visible et l'invisible). El filòsof reprèn aquest estil orgànic per poder definir una ontologia del sensible que retroba en l'obra de Proust, especialment en les idees sensibles i en el rerefons de passivitat, uns puntals que cimenten la darrera formulació del quiasme. A la llum de l'estil proustià, l'experiència perceptiva que descriu Merleau-Ponty esdevé un mode específic de l'ésser i revela una definició del quiasme a partir de l'acte creatiu. El treball posa de manifest aquesta consonància estilística, confrontant els textos dels dos autors des de la forma, i sobretot, des del fons on tots dos es submergeixen. Més enllà de rastrejar el substrat filosòfic d'una obra de ficció, s'indaga en allò que la literatura i la filosofia es poden llegar l'una a l'altra. / This thesis revolves around the way Merleau-Ponty's work has evolved and is based on the hypothesis that Proust's work has played a very important role in shaping the philosopher's later ontology. Its objective is to study the veiled influence of In Search of Lost Time with a view to interpreting some of the most enigmatic intuitions of the later writings.Although Merleau-Ponty's work initially focuses on the notion of seeing and an analysis of the perceptive body, an interest soon arises for the word as a process derived from the perceived world which enhances the instrument of signification of the body. Bodily and linguistic expression define the ontological structure which determines the organic links that the subject maintains with the world. The experience of this mutual dependence between internal and external, visible and invisible elements makes up a Porous being. This step from a phenomenology of perception towards an ontology of seeing is largely formulated around the idea of the chiasm (a term that he borrows from rhetoric). Proust's style excels precisely for its detailed description of chiasmic elements which link living experience with the invisible whereby our seeing is immersed into and becomes aware of the latent backdrop which impregnates all experience. The small phrase of the musical piece or the taste of the piece of cake (Swann's Way) are not ideas provoked by the subject but arise from experience. They spring up naturally, and that's why Merleau-Ponty calls them ideas of sensation. He finds a point of support in this type of ideas with which to vertebrate the sensible: they are indications that there is a fissure which gives birth to the visible and the invisible at the same time. Both the former and the latter are the expression of an ideality which is not alien to the flesh, but on the contrary, gives it its axis, its depth and its dimensions. From a certain moment on, the philosopher recognises the need to give up an eloquent language in order to proceed towards a language of indirect signification which will enable him, following the path marked out by Proust, to delve in depth into the wealth of sensible multiplicity (for example, the descriptions of pool water in "Eye and Mind, of the red colour of fabrics, of the coming of dawn, etc., in The visible and the invisible). The philosopher takes up this organic style once again in order to define an ontology of the sensible which he rediscovers in Proust's work, especially in the sensible ideas and the backdrops of passivity, pillars on which rests the later formulation of the chiasm. In the light of the Proustian style, perceptive experience described by Merleau-Ponty becomes a specific mode of being which reveals a definition of the chiasm through the creative act. The thesis deals with this stylistic consonance, approaching the texts by the two authors from the point of view of form, and above all, from the depth where both of them are immersed. More than tracing the philosophical substratum of a work of fiction, it delves into the realm where literature and philosophy can be linked to one another.

No description available.

Based on past studies, entrepreneurial knowledge is known for the two functions: opportunity recognition and coping with the liabilities of newness, and the utility of knowledge is simplified and addressed to be a beneficial tool to advance entrepreneurial process. This perspective brings a problem to view the production of entrepreneurial knowledge as an input-output process, in which the entrepreneur¡¦s experience is seamlessly able to be translated into the entrepreneurial experience. Also this production process of entrepreneurial knowledge ignores the subjectivity of entreperneur and the notion of creativity of entrepreneurial knowledge. In light with the lens of entrepreneuring, this study aims to investigate the creation process of entrperneurial knowledge, arguing that entrepreneurial knowledge is knowledge to ¡§make things done¡¨ with that an entrepreneur is capable of tackling his/her problem and moving the entrepreneurial process forward. The creativity of such entrepreneurial knowledge is crafted from the bodily practice in everyday life instead of originating from intellectual operation. The body philosophy of Freanch phenomenologist Merlau-Ponty is adopted in this research to probe the notions of perception, embodiedment, body schema, and habits in the creative process of entrepreneurial knowledge, and how these body practices enhance and create a stylized entrepreneurial knowledge. Bed and Breakfast (B&Bs) is the primary research field, which has been growing as an eminent industry in Taiwan with NTD 16.83 billions annual value of production and 1.85 million visitng guests per year. On the foundation of phenomenological analysis of B&Bs entrepreneurs¡¦ stories, this paper argues that the creation of entrepreneurial knowledge reveals a bodily engagement process, in which entrepreneurial knowledge is accumulated and re-invented through the movement of embodiment. An entrepreneur also increases his/her bodily engagement along with the various pratices and then starting a becoming-entrepreneur process. In the end, the creation of entrepreneurial knowledge develops the composition of subjectivity. This finding risists the entities holding by the conventional entrepreneurial studies, drawing the attention to the becoming process of entrepreneurial subject. Besides, it is also manifested that the creativity of entrepreneurial knowledge emerges in entrepreneurs¡¦ daily practice. Six practices to broaden the possibility of entrepreneurial knowledge are confirmed under the context of Taiwan B&B¡¦s industry. This research intends to axplicate that the creative process of entrepreneurial knowledge unfolds a self-discovery process. Through the re-construct the relationship of self and world, people will re-discover themselves and re-create their life-worlds to live up the existence of subject as well as to disclose the meaning of entrepreneuring. With the understading of bodily practice and its roots in phenomenology and life-world perspective, entrepreneurial knowledge extends its connotation from economic function and implies a new possibility of guneine knowledge of self.

No description available.