Camden Philosophical Society: The World of Perception

The September 15th session will, as usual, be a hybrid gathering from 3:30-5:30 pm EDT on the third Tuesday of the month. All are welcome to participate, in-person at the Picker Room of the Camden Public Library or by Zoom. That goes for visitors, as well as year-rounders in Maine, and friends of the society wherever you may be.

If you wish to join via Zoom, please email sewright772@gmail.com. You will receive a Zoom invitation the morning of August 18th. Click on the “Join Zoom Meeting” link in that invitation at the time of the event.

At our last two meetings Greg Fahy introduced us to the thinking of John Dewey in “Experience and Philosophical Method” (June) and then “Art as Experience”(July). In both readings, Dewey stresses the importance of our experience as a unified experience that is possible when we perceive ourselves and our world as integrated and not as separate from the objects and the art that surround us. In fact, Dewey posits that it is this integration with our world that can produce an everyday “aesthetic.” 

It seems a good time now to introduce Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) as we continue to explore how we perceive the world in relation to ourselves and hence how we experience that world. In a series of talks commissioned by the French National radio and broadcast on their program at the end of 1948, Merleau-Ponty wrote seven lectures, six of which were broadcast during the weekly ‘The French Culture Hour’. 

At our August session we’ll read 3 of Merleau-Ponty’s lectures that explore the “world of perception” relating to space, sensory objects and art. Susan Wright will provide some brief opening remarks. 

The selections are taken from The World of Perception, translated by Oliver Davis. They can be read from the link provided on-line or downloaded as a pdf. 

Please read: 

• Introduction “Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy: Perception and the Body” (pgs 6-13) – this gives a broad view of Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy – provided by Thomas Baldwin
• Lecture 2 “Exploring the World of Perception: Space” (pgs 47-56)
• Lecture 3 “Exploring the World of Perception: Sensory Objects” (pgs 57-66)
• Lecture 6 “Art and the World of Perception” (pgs 91-101) 
• Extra credit but not required – Lecture 5 “Man Seen From the Outside” (pls 79-90) 

Here is the link: http://timothyquigley.net/cont/mp-wp.pdf