Dialogue 56 (3):527-558 (
2017)
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Abstract
ABSTRACT: In this paper, I demonstrate the pivotal function of consciousness
in the second part of Phenomenology of Perception. A new meaning of the notion
avoids the alternative between empiricism and intellectualism that gives this
second part its structure. Consciousness, bogged down with the world, is neither
only a state, nor only an act; in other words, it conveys life, conceived by Merleau-
Ponty as a ‘living’ and a ‘making.’ Thus, it has a metaphysical dimension that renders
it irreducible to experience. Consciousness, which I show is both ‘original’
and ‘philosophical,’ corresponds to an effective comprehension of contradiction in
everything.