Perceptual Experience in Merleau-Ponty and Ryle

“Both Merleau-Ponty and Ryle sought to transcend the traditional either/or presuppositions of dualist frameworks. Taking ‘perception’ as a key concept, the author illuminates the intellectual affinities between Merleau-Ponty and Ryle through multiple lenses—sensation, psychology, imagination, language, and the Royaumont encounter. This work holds significance in bridging the divide between phenomenology and analytic philosophy while prompting a re-examination of future philosophical paradigms from a historical perspective.”
—Yubin Shen, School of Oriental Languages and Philosophy / Institute for Mutual Learning of East-West Civilizations, Zhejiang Gongshang University, China
This book explores the most important works of two authors of contemporary philosophy: Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a phenomenologist, and Gilbert Ryle, an analytic philosopher. The two share many interests in the field of philosophy of mind and perception, but represent distinct lines of research. Sâmara Costa compares the work of these two philosophers, and exposes the interest in both of showing that there are some problems in the use and clarification of important concepts for the study of perceptual experiences. Concepts that have become habitual in explanations of the experience and have crystallized into a language that no longer corresponds to the phenomenon itself. In addition to this conceptual analysis, Costa shows that there is also, in both authors, an attempt to make a phenomenology of the concept, obviously in connection with the lived experience.
Sâmara Costa studied Philosophy at UFMG and Physical Education at UNINCOR, Brazil. She completed her Master’s and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Porto, Portugal, with a doctoral internship at the University of Oslo, Norway. She works on intersections between phenomenology, analytic philosophy, and Aristotelian thought in contemporary debates.

Sâmara Costa studied Philosophy at UFMG and Physical Education at UNINCOR, Brazil. She completed her Master’s and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Porto, Portugal, with a doctoral internship at the University of Oslo, Norway. She works on intersections between phenomenology, analytic philosophy, and Aristotelian thought in contemporary debates.