Body and Reality - An Examination of the Relationships Between the Body Proper, Physical Reality, and the Phenomenal World Starting from Pl

Jasper van Buuren explores the nature of the body proper in Merleau-Ponty and Plessner, arguing that physical and phenomenal realism are not mutually exclusive but complementary. He examines the relationships between scientific and pre-scientific perspectives, living and non-living things, and humans and animals.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 312 pages
Publication date: 08 December 2021
Publisher: Transcript Verlag

The debate between materialism and phenomenology revolves around the nature of the phenomenal world, which is the world of everyday-life experience. Materialism claims that the phenomenal world is nothing but an illusion produced in physical reality, notably in the brain. On the other hand, phenomenology argues that the phenomenal world has a fundamental character that cannot be reduced to physical reality.

Jasper van Buuren addresses these questions by exploring the nature of the body proper in Merleau-Ponty and Plessner. He argues that physical and phenomenal realism are not mutually exclusive but complementary. This means that the phenomenal world can be understood in terms of physical processes, but it also has a unique and irreducible aspect that cannot be explained solely in terms of physical terms.

Van Buuren examines the relationships between scientific and pre-scientific perspectives, between living and non-living things, and between humans and animals. He shows that the phenomenal world can be understood in terms of both scientific and pre-scientific perspectives, and that the boundaries between these perspectives are not fixed or absolute. He also argues that the phenomenal world has a fundamental character that cannot be reduced to physical reality, and that this character is best understood in terms of the body and its relationship to the world.

In conclusion, the debate between materialism and phenomenology is a complex and ongoing one. While materialism claims that the phenomenal world is an illusion produced in physical reality, phenomenology argues that the phenomenal world has a fundamental character that cannot be reduced to physical reality. Jasper van Buuren's exploration of the nature of the body proper in Merleau-Ponty and Plessner provides a valuable contribution to this debate, showing that physical and phenomenal realism are not mutually exclusive but complementary.

Weight: 438g
Dimension: 147 x 225 x 16 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783837641639