Merleau-Ponty and the lateral emergence of the sensible sense

Abstract

The present article proposes to examine the genesis of the sense of experience in Merleau-Pontian phenomenology from the conception of laterality. Understanding the sense as lateral emergence implies a reformulation of perception, insofar as it is not only a sensitive apprehension of the transcendent world, but also the opening of an original intention that constitutes the experience of the body. For this, in the first place, the phenomenological idea of intentionality is reviewed from the perspective of sensibility, emphasizing the central place occupied by the body in Merleau-Ponty. Secondly, the way in which this corporeality sensibly inhabits space is exposed, making the world a sensibly open thematic horizon. Finally, this lateral and horizontal habituality of one's own body is posited from its motor constitution, given that it is the movement of the body proper that conveys perception and, therefore, informs the sense of the experience of the world.