As Husserl argues in the fifth Cartesian Meditation, the similarity of my Body (Leib) with the body (Körper) of another person is the founding moment of the experience of the other. This similarity is based on the previous objectivation of my Body. Husserl continuously worried to explicate this similarity-premise and by doing so, it appeared that this objectivation already presupposes intersubjectivity. By running into this problem, the Meditation actually fulfils its program by showing that the other is co-constitutive of the (...) world and more precisely of my existence as a worldly human being. At the same time he developed an alternative approach by identifying the original experience of the other as an expressive unity (Ausdruckseinheit) as the condition of possibility of intersubjective experience. By drawing on the relevant Forschungsmanuskripte in the volumes on Intersubjectivity and on Ideas II, it appears that the Meditation offers a naturalistic theory of intersubjectivity that results from the introduction of the reduction to primordiality. When one takes into account Husserl's analysis of the experience of an expressive unity, that is a defining characteristic of the personalistic attitude, one can clarify the derivative nature of this naturalistic approach. (shrink)

This paper has two objectives. The first is to formulate a critique of present-day cognitive linguistics concerning the inner workings of the cognitive system during language use, and the second is to put forward an alternative account that is inspired by the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty. Due to its third-person methodology, CL views language use essentially as a problem-solving activity, as coping with two subproblems: the problem of minimum and maximum, which consists in selecting the appropriate expression out of an unlimited (...) multitude of possibilities, and the problem of the underdetermination of signification. This approach presupposes a notion of an isolated subject and a representationalist view of perception. We defend an alternative view of man's relation to the world in which intersubjectivity is constitutive of embodied subjectivity and which exchanges the representationalist view of perception for a direct nonrepresentationalism. We describe the ensuing view of linguistic action as intra- and interpersonal “all-at-onceness.” This approach dismisses the two subproblems CL implicitly identifies as constitutive of language use. The first is countered by rethinking what it means to be a situated speaking subject and results in the concept of “style.” The second is tackled by opposing the concept of “overdetermination” to CL's notion of underdetermination. (shrink)

The paper argues for the relevance of phenomenology for the contemporary debate about a naturalistic explanation of phenomenal c o n s c i o u s n e s s . Phenomenology's analysis of intentionality in terms of the conscious act, its representational content and the intentional object sustains an interpretation of qualia as intrinsic, nonrepresentational properties of the conscious mental acts themselves and not of their content. On the basis of this anti-representationalist clarification of the nature of qualia, (...) the paper substantiates the claim for a more comprehensive naturalistic explanation of embodiment. A phenomenological, i.e. noetico-noematical, analysis of bodily experience helps to integrate the role of the lived body in accepted psycho-physical explanations of conscious embodiment (for instance of proprioception). Furthermore and more importantly, noetical phenomenology identifies a proper bodily self-awareness, consisting of sensations localized on the lived body, as the quale of conscious embodiment. It is maintained that naturalizing embodiment demands a radical explanation of the conditions of possibility of this bodily self-awareness. (shrink)

Introduction Je souhaite défendre la pertinence de la phénoménologie dans le débat contemporain quant à la possibilité d?une clarification et d?une explication naturaliste de la conscience phénoménale. La première partie explique comment une théorie des actes mentaux intentionnels en termes d?acte conscient, de contenu représentationnel et d?objet intentionnel, qui est in­spirée par la phénoménologie husserlienne, conduit à concevoir la conscience phénoménale comme une propriété non intentionnelle et non représen­tationaliste d?événements mentaux. Cette conception soutient une distinction entre la qualité phénoménale de (...) la conscience et les qualia . Les qualia doivent être compris comme des propriétés phénoménales de l?objet perçu, et peuvent dans ce sens être expliqués comme éléments du contenu intentionnel ou représentationnel, en ligne avec le représentationalisme récent. La se­conde partie clarifie la conscience phénoménale, ou le caractère subjectif spécifique des processus mentaux conscients, comme une expérience de soi préréflexive ( self-awareness ). Dans la dernière partie, une phénoméno­logie de l?incarnation, qui clarifie les propriétés phénoménales du corps-vécu, contribue à spécifier l?expérience de soi préréflexive en termes d?une expérience de soi spécifiquement corporelle. On soutiendra que la naturalisa­tion éventuelle de l?incarnation réclame une explication radicale. (shrink)