Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology Research Articles

Maracatu bodies: some reflections crossing in the light of the Laban/Bartenieff system

This text deals with the approximations of the Maracatu dance, a typical dance from the Northeast region of Brazil, with some concepts and practices coined by the Laban/Bartenieff System and aims to identify and analyze the basic movements/steps of three emblematic characters in the Maracatu dance. of this fun, namely: the caboclos, the dama-do-paço and the baianas. The methodological contribution comes from Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology in particular from the researcher's lived world and the sensitive senses of the Maracatu phenomenon.

PERCEPTION OF PATIENTS LIVING WITH INTESTINAL STOMAS: REFLECTION IN THE LIGHT OF PHENOMENOLOGY

Objective: to present a reflection on the perception of patients living with intestinal stomas in the light of phenomenology, presenting Merleau-Ponty's assumptions as a philosophical basis. Method: this is a reflective study based on the philosophical theoretical basis of phenomenology, presenting findings in the literature and the author's view on the topic addressed. Results: perception isn't simply the thing visible to the eye, but it has a meaning in relation to the subjective interpretation of the observer, with the body as the center of observation. People with ostomies have an individual perception of the changes that the ostomy can bring to their lives, and in this aspect we can make a connection with Merleau's thoughts, in which the perception of the body and the being it presents itself in a particular way from the perspective of the observer. Conclusion: This reflection enabled a better perception of patients living with intestinal ostomies, presenting, for each situation they experience, a positive or negative emotion, as a reflection of the body and mind relationship, enabled the understanding of the vision of people with ostomies before of the lived experiences from the corporal change based on the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty's thoughts.

Al-Qur’an Portrays Women’s Bodies: Critical interpretation of verses on existence, freedom, and morality

The oppression of women often stems from the body and the way a person or tradition interprets it. From ancient times to the present, the history of women's bodies has always been about the history of oppression; that is, about the fate of women's bodies in the face of patriarchal culture. When women's bodies often become symbols of various forms of oppression, then liberating women must start from their liberation efforts that are embodied in patriarchal biased interpretations, both formal and cultural interpretations. At this point, there is a need for an interpretation that departs from other possibilities in understanding verses related to women. The focus of the study presented in this paper is trying to criticize the interpretations related to the verses of existence, freedom and morality of women interpreted through Merleau Ponty's phenomenology of perception. This stems from the author's basic assumption, when the Qur'an is understood as rahmatan lil alamin, it is impossible for the Qur'an to produce discriminatory interpretations.

Post-secular Anthropology as Recognition and the Limits of Understanding

Abstract This article contributes to discussions around a post-secular anthropology that seek to engage seriously with religious traditions and theology. Conversations in Morocco with Muslims who experienced possession by jinn spirits point to the importance of recognition. To understand those experiences risks translating them into my concepts. Recognizing them accepts that what the other says has significance. They call me to visit the broader Islamic tradition that they creatively draw on in an effort to decenter my own thinking and to open up to possibility. This space for possibility and the limits of understanding are explored by putting into dialogue Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology as critique of Descartes's dualism of mind and world, with a discussion in the Islamic tradition, between al-Ghazālī and Ibn Sīnā.

Cinema of Senescence: Old Age, Slow Cinema, and Form

AbstractIf speed is a cornerstone of contemporary life, then one of the most difficult hurdles to overcome in the fight against agism is the fact that senescence entails a slowing down of the human body and mind. The question this essay asks is whether this form of life can afford epistemological and moral benefits within a productivist culture of speed that stigmatizes slowness and inactivity. In order to pursue an answer to this question, the essay turns to what critics have begun to call “slow cinema” and examines two films about people suffering from senescence-related slowness: Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953) and Lee Chang-dong's Poetry (2010). The essay treats the slowness that can accompany age as an experiential form and places it on the same plane of formalist inquiry as slow cinema, an aesthetic form characterized by a decelerated pace, long takes, minimalist editing, and an emphasis on the temporality of quotidian life. The essay establishes its methodological approach by bringing Caroline Levine's formalism into conversation with Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology and André Bazin's writings on cinematic realism. Ultimately, the essay contends that Ozu's and Lee's films associate the value of slowing down our thinking and expanding our attention spans with the perceptual potentialities of age-related slowness within a culture of speed.

메를로-퐁티의 현상학에 담긴 음악교육적 의미 탐색 및 적용

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, to explore themeaning of music education with his phenomenology, and to apply it to Music education. Methods: To this end, this study examined Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology through literature researchand derived Music education implications contained in the phenomenology. Based on this, this studyproposes an application plan for singing and choral education based on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. Results: Considering the core content of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology from the perspective ofMusic education, which values sensation, perception, and embodiment, Music education can enablestudents to explore themselves and the world as subjects of perception and develop into beings whomove forward with others in the world. If it is applied to singing education, students can developsinging skills through body perception and body expansion, and this individual experience is extendedand applied to choral education, allowing students to experience musical communication through anensemble based on auditory perception and intersubjectivity. Conclusion: Through this study, Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology can be a new perspective in Musiceducation, and the meaning of Music education will have expanded to not only develop students' musicalitybut also to perceive and understand others and the world. It is expected that numerous studies onMerleau-Ponty's phenomenology will be drawn upon in the field of Music education through this research.

Perceptions of Medieval Manuscripts: The Phenomenal Book by Elaine Treharne

Reviewed by: Perceptions of Medieval Manuscripts: The Phenomenal Book by Elaine Treharne Sonja Drimmer Elaine Treharne. Perceptions of Medieval Manuscripts: The Phenomenal Book. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. 272 pp., 29 illustrations. $40. ISBN: 9780192843814. It wasn't easy getting a copy of this book. When I accepted the invitation to review Elaine Treharne's Perceptions of Medieval Manuscripts: The Phenomenal Book, I was told that, because Oxford University Press's website listed the book as out of stock, it might be challenging to get a hard copy; perhaps interruptions to the supply chain caused by the pandemic were partly to blame. Eventually, and happily, a hard copy arrived at my door. This is a book I could place on a shelf, reach for, hold, and use my hands to annotate. The logistics of a book's procurement are not usually fodder for a review, but in the case of Perceptions of Medieval Manuscripts, they could be considered one of the intangibles cleaving to tangibility that Treharne asks us to consider in our engagement with books produced in the Middle Ages. The book's premise is that we attend to the whole manuscript as a thing in the world—inclusive not only of its material properties and content and accretions over time, but also of the many aspects of its immanence that are perceived through the senses but often elude the scholar's empirical capture. The theoretical armature for Treharne's proposal is Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, which takes the embodied perception of the world as offering each individual their perspective on it; manuscripts are "are archetypally phenomenal objects, dependent on sensory engagement for their fullest interpretation" as whole objects irreducible to their constituent parts (6). A key term for Treharne's intervention is the architextuality of the book (a notion inspired by, but ultimately distinct from, the architext as conceived by Gérard Genette): its essence as a concrete object through which humans have passed and experienced its transcendent properties over time. Informing the study's concept of the manuscript as an actual and ideated form, and structuring its itinerary, is Riddle 26 from the tenth-century [End Page 147] (Exeter Cathedral Library, MS 3501). The poem is spoken in the voice of a book narrating its own production and reception—not the book in which this riddle appears but a notional and abstract book inspirited with a voice that meditates on its own flesh. Excerpts from this riddle provide the heading for each of the book's chapters, which focus chiefly on British manuscripts from the seventh through the thirteenth centuries, and move us both logically and trilogically from the first three chapters on manuscripts' making and inscription to the central three chapters on the visible and invisible presences of successive users, to the final three chapters on manuscripts' representations from within medieval books themselves to their modern digital surrogates. Treharne's exegesis of this poem in chapter 2 shimmers, as she conjures its sensuality and the sonic allure of its unvoiced consonants, evocative of the parchmenter's scrape of a lunellum and swipe of a bone folder over thick membrane. As concerned as it is with its material facture, so too is this personified book aware of its transcendent value: its origins in violence and culmination as a glorious form echo the narrative of humanity's redemption through the Passion of Christ, the Word made flesh (26). The aperçu that cracks open manuscripts' affective power is that "books save lives"—whether lives here are read as Christian souls or the physical bodies that have been protected apotropaically and shielded literally by their form (35). The magnetism of the book as an enfleshment of affect resides particularly legibly in the traces of the scribes who left inky tracks of their handiwork across the pages. In this, what I found to be the most evocative chapter, Treharne reflects on the writing on the page as a manifestation of the union of scribe, tool, and effort. Here, Treharne merges the paleographer's resolute precision with a lyrical sympathy to the letterforms as they rest on the surface of skin, hover over a blind-ruled base line, and...

Pandemic mutilated pedagogy: Teaching "in there" without my hearing body

Although students with disabilities have generally been identified as a vulnerable group during the pandemic, the specific experiences of those with impaired hearing have not yet gained attention within the debates and literature on online teaching. Since the same condition holds for academic teachers, I will in this essay contribute an original and critical perspective by sharing my own story. Embraced by the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, the reader will be invited into my world of hearing differently, and be able to see what this means when teaching online. Through significant embodied experiences of having been born with impaired hearing, and concrete situations from my own online teaching, I reveal how academia is normatively structured around people with normal hearing, and how this norm has become even more strengthened during the pandemic. Against this background, my essay ends with suggesting a more inclusive “new normal” than is currently practiced and portrayed in the post-pandemic future.

Children and the city’s streets: playing as a possibility for leisure in different communities in Florianópolis, southern Brazil

ABSTRACT Playing in the streets is presented as a possibility for leisure. In order to study this phenomenon, the article aimed to understand the configuration of playing in vulnerable communities in Florianópolis, southern Brazil, during the covid-19 pandemic. This is a research with a qualitative and descriptive perspective, inspired by researchers of Merleau Ponty phenomenology, which adopts a posture of deep observation in relation to human movement. Children who were present on the streets of communities in vulnerable situations in Florianópolis participated in this study. Data collection consisted of observations performed by the main researcher. Considering the obligation to maintain a distance, the car was identified as an innovative transportation for data collection. The observations refer to the passages through the streets, at moments captured and written in a field diary. Nine car trips were carried out with an approximate duration of five hours each. The results are presented as narratives, subjected to critical review by the researchers in the study. The narratives describe the delicacy of each observation about who plays and experiences leisure on the streets. Playing in the streets of Florianópolis communities has meanings that reveal leisure as a manifestation of the creative experimentation of subjects with rights.

Professional identity of mental health nurses: a phenomenological study in Merleau-Ponty.

To understand the professional identity of Mental Health Nurses. Qualitative research, based on Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, conducted between October 2019 and April 2020, with sixteen Nurses working in the field of Mental Health, located in two municipalities of the State of Bahia, Brazil. The Phenomenological Interviewwas used to produce the data, which, after transcription, was submitted to analysis using the Analytics of Ambiguity. We outlined the categories: From Classical Psychiatry to Psychosocial Care;Identity leap mediated by the experience of the body itself. We understand that the know-how of Mental Health Nursing is being built in the intersubjectivity with users and the multiprofessional team. Although the Nursing performance reveals ambiguities that show the transition between Classical Psychiatry and Psychosocial Care, it proved to be powerful to make the "identity leap", a transcendence that shows how much this experience enables acting in Mental Health.

"My life only happened on the Internet": Pedro's case in the perspective of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology

The Internet has changed our relationship with time and also transformed experiences, developing new forms of subjectivation. In contemporary society, individuals are increasingly connected, which can lead to addictions such as Internet gaming disorder. This is related to one of the dimensions that underlies human existence: time. This work aims to understand, from the view of Merleau-Ponty's philosophical phenomenology, the experience of the lived time of Pedro, a young man dependent on Internet gaming. We use the single case study as a method, and we understand Pedro's addiction to Internet gaming as a phenomenon linked to the relationships established between him and the contemporary world, whether in the individual or collective sphere. These relationships are inseparable from the elements that make up Pedro's Lebenswelt (lifeworld), such as temporality. The time of the clock influenced the internal time and vice versa, denoting the indivisibility of the phenomenon inwhich there is only a sense of time because man is time itself.

Deleuze, Bergson, Merleau-Ponty: The Logics and Pragmatics of Creation, Affective Life, and Perception by Dorothea E. Olkowski

Reviewed by: Deleuze, Bergson, Merleau-Ponty: The Logics and Pragmatics of Creation, Affective Life, and Perception by Dorothea E. Olkowski Elodie Boublil OLKOWSKI, Dorothea E. Deleuze, Bergson, Merleau-Ponty: The Logics and Pragmatics of Creation, Affective Life, and Perception. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2021. 180 pp. Cloth, $63.00; paper, $28.00 [End Page 152] Dorothea E. Olkowski's latest book carefully examines "the relationship between the creation of ideas and their actualization in relation to semiology, logic and the cosmos in the philosophies of Deleuze, Bergson, and Merleau-Ponty." However, this work is neither an extensive or historical account of Deleuze's, Bergson's, and Merleau-Ponty's philosophies, nor an attempt to homogenize their views on space, time, or perception. Instead, it subtly compares their differences and similarities to move beyond metaphysical dualism, and fruitfully rethinks the relations between formal logic and ontology. Indeed, the author aims to draw a "theory of form," based on the logic of sensation, ultimately designed "to take the place of a theory of the real, of material physical forces." Chapter 1 retraces the history of postmodernist claims and their philosophical legacy. Olkowski explains that postmodernism is not first and foremost a political worldview or a debunking of objectivity in natural sciences. Instead, "it begins as a formal system or series of formal systems." Olkowski explores how Deleuze draws on the knowledge of modern science and logic (Bolzano, Cavaillès) and on Bergson's critical analysis of it to elaborate his logic of sensation. Bergson's conception of affectivity impacted Deleuze's and Merleau-Ponty's theories of corporeality and sensation, and their understanding of perception. Bergson's concept of "body image" specifically influenced Deleuze's elaboration of the concept of "movement-image," through which he tried to overcome the dichotomy set up by mind–body dualism. Chapter 2 focuses on Deleuze and Guattari's critique of logic as an attempt to find a third way between idealism and materialism and to overcome the disconnection between formal logic and lived experience. It reviews their critique of Euclidean geometry, their objections to formal logic as set out by Frege and Russell, and their assessment of phenomenology in order to eventually show Deleuze's affinity with Peirce's pragmatist approach. Then, the author aims to determine if Deleuze's attempt could be compatible with the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty and Bergson's understanding of quality and multiplicity. Chapter 3 focuses on Bergson. Recalling the controversy with Russell, Einstein, and Langevin, Olkowski refers to Merleau-Ponty's defense of Bergson's concept of intuition to prove the accuracy of his reflection on creative forces and pure duration. As she explains, "[T]he intent here is to clarify the relations between these different aspects of Bergson's thought and draw out how Deleuze makes use of these structures derived from Bergson's philosophy." This leads her to explore, more specifically, how Deleuze reworks the concept of "multiplicity" along the lines of Bergson's analysis of the élan vital. In chapter 4 the author focuses on Deleuze's work on cinema to deepen the philosophical correlation between Bergson's concepts, Deleuze's analysis, and the influences of Merleau-Ponty and Pierce. It aims to rethink the relation between movement and time, notably through the notions of time-image and movement-image. Olkowski notably showcases Deleuze's concept of destiny, "which is the pure power of time that [End Page 153] overflows all possible reaction. It defeats, immobilizes, and petrifies figures in their own affectivity; it sends them to their fate, destroying conventions along the way. For Merleau-Ponty, as for Bergson, acts are still possible in a network of temporal relations so that motion and time are destiny but differently than for Deleuze." Chapter 5 addresses the Phenomenology of Perception and how Merleau-Ponty provides an opportunity to rethink perception. In this book and his Courses on Nature, Merleau-Ponty "does not dismiss either position—that of objective science or that of the natural attitude—but argues that although each contains an element of truth, it is perception and only perception that allows us to bridge the gap between physical reality and behavior/comportment." Deleuze will depart from...

On the Actuality and Virtuality of Autistic Encounters: Respecting the Autistic Voice and Reimagining the Social

On the Actuality and Virtuality of Autistic Encounters: Respecting the Autistic Voice and Reimagining the Social Sofie Boldsen* (bio) Autism is a highly heterogeneous phenomenon. Not only is it difficult to understand the various and diverse aspects of autism, their relation to each other is also complex and still poorly understood. In my article, “Material encounters. A phenomenological account of social interaction in autism,” I have addressed this heterogeneity by presenting an understanding of how social features of autism (e.g., difficulties with social interaction) relate to behavioral features (e.g., preoccupation with objects). Straddling this divide between the social and the non-social that still pervades much thinking in philosophy, psychiatry, and psychology is crucial for understanding the diverse experiences of autistic persons and how social connectedness may emerge out of practices commonly regarded as asocial (Williams, Costall, & Reddy, 2018). Thus, my approach to autism has been one of questioning deep-rooted distinctions within the field. However, in their generous and perceptive commentaries, Lucy Osler and Derek Strijbos both draw attention to the importance of making certain distinctions, such as between the different forms of social engagement that different objects afford and between the differential contributions of the various dimensions of such objects. From The Digital to the Virtual Strijbos suggests one way of teasing out the distinct contribution of materiality in facilitating social interaction by exploring how autistic persons experience social interaction in virtual spaces. This is indeed a promising line of research and an important contribution to the field because it opens the possibility of exploring and recognizing forms of interaction in which many autistic persons experience a social connectedness that they are missing in their everyday lives. However, I think one should be cautious about using the distinction between the physical and the virtual as a shortcut to delineating the distinct social role of materiality. I introduce this caution because the virtual should not be seen as disconnected from or in opposition [End Page 217] to the material. Recent research on embodiment in E-sports shows that our bodies play a crucial role in the ability to interact in digital spaces, and thus, the gap between the physical and virtual is perhaps not as clearcut as is often assumed (Ekdahl, 2021). Rather than immaterial (and disembodied), we should think of digital spaces as virtual. The distinction between the actual and the virtual might be a promising direction for thinking about the role of materiality in facilitating social interaction for autistic persons. In the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, virtuality is an intrinsic part of our perception of and interaction with the concrete world of everyday experience (Merleau-Ponty, 2012). In perceiving the world, we are not only presented with a series of “actual” perceptions but also a space of possibility or virtuality because its horizons transcend what is intuitively present in direct perception. Paraphrasing Merleau-Ponty, Irene Breuer beautifully emphasizes how “we are already placed in the virtual, at the end of the line which our finger prolongs into a centrifugal or cultural space” (Breuer, 2020, p. 2). This understanding of virtuality is also brought out by Osler through the notion of finite provinces of meaning, with which she describes how interaction with and through objects opens different spaces of meaning. Digitally mediated spaces (e.g., online platforms like WhatsApp or online games like World of Warcraft or Elder Scrolls) modulate the structure and dynamics of social spaces and regulate our normative expectations of how interaction should proceed. Studies have drawn attention to how autistic communities have flourished in online spaces (Bagatell, 2010). More than two decades ago, it was noted that “in cyberspace, many of the nation’s autistics are doing the very thing the syndrome supposedly deters them from doing—communicating” (Blume, 1997, p. 6). As Osler emphasizes, the a-synchronicity of most online communication allows time to understand and form responses, and the virtual mediation of such spaces constrain aspects of social encounters that may be experienced as overwhelming to autistic persons. Moreover, through sources such as the autistic blogosphere and internet (e.g., WrongPlanet.net), online spaces may be a source of identity, community, and social connectedness in a life affected by...

메를로 퐁티의 현상학적 관점에서 무용의 철학적 의미

Objectives The purpose of this study is to philosophically explore the physicality of dance from the perspective of Merleau-Ponty phenomenology. Methods Analysis of Discourse in Qualitative Research Methods Results Merleau-Ponty can systematize phenomenological thinking about the body, that is, the body frame, in the sense of time and space, and it can be said that it provides an analysis frame. When interpreted in this context, dance is a body-based area, and it can be expected that it can be revealed as a performance embodied in various types through training or teaching in artistic and educational aspects. Conclusions Dance implies that it is an aesthetic medium that makes human life beautiful. Therefore, physicality can be assumed that everyday life is revealed as a body in time based on aesthetic sensitivity. Therefore, it mentions the need for a philosophical approach of researchers who can reflectively understand and perform the body's subjectivity revealed in dance.

소매틱 움직임 원리로 본 벽사 정재만류 승무 교육적/치료적 가치

This study is to investigate the educational/therapeutic value by applying the somatic movement breathe(SMB) principle to the Byuksa Jeman Jung’s Seungmu (BJJS) Yeombuljangdan. In the first beat of Yeombuljangdan, the Hangeul Janggo pronunciation “gideng” is the upper breath, the flat breath, and the lower breath in the 3 sobak. The awareness of myeongmunhyeol started the lower respiration from the danjeon and raised it upward, and sutaeyangsojang-gyeong activated it. It is expected that BJJS in the metaverse will become a frame of reference for the principle of SMB. purpose of this research is to consider the meaning of communication process in dance, by applying the concept from Phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty.

The Flesh of Imagination: Locating Materiality in Biology-Inspired Visual Art

Abstract In this article, the authors explore the sensuous and material dimensions of artworks inspired by biological science. They use Maurice Merleau- Ponty's concept of “flesh” to reflect upon the embodied processes of understanding that unfold during a viewer's initial encounter with an artwork. Using Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception and the work of selected artists based in India who engage with biology and botany, the authors locate the sensing body in a reciprocal relationship with these artists' works.

El sentido y el silencio: apuntes para una fenomenología del silencio

 This paper aims to outline the principles of phenomenology of silence based on the texts Meaning without language and the task of phenomenology by Antonio Zirión Quijano and Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of perception. Our paper investigates what is known as the "limit zones" of phenomenology. It proposes a conception of its method that links the Husserlian roots of the method with the findings derived from our study of silence as a phenomenon given to consciousness. We will enunciate the features of what we have called the "phenomenology of silence", which focuses on reviewing the limited modalities of appearing. Thus, we will review what has been considered an issue that exceeds the scope of phenomenology since silence had been analysed only as "natural silence" (silence of absence) over subjective silence. Here we will discuss the belief that phenomenology only partially deals with regions of being and that its methodology is insufficient to explain the world as a whole when confronted with phenomena such as silence.

Education and Corporeality: Contributions from the Philosophy of Sport

Corporeality is a subject strongly present in educational discussion nowadays. The purpose of this paper is to present an outline of issues we may address from the philosophy of sport that could foster a fruitful dialogue with the philosophy of education. It is understood that the philosophy of education can benefit from reflections on corporeality and human movement, namely from sports and games. Initially, the article introduces the philosophy of sport as a field of study that addresses reflections on human movement from sports and games. They highlight elements that are not specific to such practices and foster reflexions on different areas. Afterwards, it explores the experience of corporeality and the dialogical dimension of human movement based on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. Human movement indicates a unique way of being communicative. Finally, it presents some reflections on playing games as an experience that helps us think about our relationships with others and the environment. From this perspective it is possible to seek some critical features to understand education in the experience of human movement, namely from playing games, such as experience, dialogue, and expressiveness. Thoughts on human movements may reinforce the role corporeality plays in education as a collective experience and the recognition of the body's expressive potential in constructing knowledge.

Phenomenological Synthesis of Cultural Understanding Among Senior High School Research Classes

The development of student's skills in the conduct of research, both qualitative and quantitative, is envisioned in the K to12 curriculum. This study uses qualitative research to show students' perceptions and understanding of a particular issue. Similarly, it describes apparent cultures postulated within the students' chosen themes. Finally, it determines the development of cultural knowledge in the context of Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception among Grade 11 students at a Senior High School near Laguna Lake in the City of San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines, during the school year 2016-2017. Semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and triangulation was used to obtain students' cultural understanding and share their experiences undertaking diverse qualitative research using purposive sampling. The data was analyzed using phenomenological analysis. Students' perceptions and streams of consciousness include street children, child labor fishermen, and school violence. Cultural understanding encompasses (a) the economic and psychological implications of family, (2) camaraderie, pakikisama and pakikiisa, and (3) education as a survival strategy. Senior High School students' research experiences connect underpinnings of cultural understanding.

Inkblots as a cultural phenomenon: On the centenary of the Rorschach test

Abstract Introduction Approved or not, the Hermann Rorschach test can be considered more than just a test to a clinical trial. Reflection on it as a broader phenomenon may yield what is the most valuable: better knowledge of human nature. Objective This article aims to present the dual nature of Rorschach's inkblots: as a test of “guessing” the meaning of signs and as a test of perception. Method Narrative literature review on the meaning and interpretation of the Rorschach test. Results The nature and reception of inkblots. The inkblots have a dual nature: they require visual perception, and at the same time they are signs, whose meanings are extracted in the process of interpretation. This process is largely subject to cultural determinants; it also depends on the structure of stimuli and on their artistic expression. Charles Sanders Peirce's theory of signs and the sign nature of inkblots. According to Peirce, the interpretation of a sign, as a triadic structure, belongs to the ontic order and is a continuous process, taking place perpetually. Mental interpretation, as it were, follows the ontic dimension and constitutes a kind of reflection of this dimension. The phenomenology of perception and the interpretation of inkblots. Perception as viewed by Rorschach found its unintended, though strikingly consistent, complement in the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. This is particularly clear in the acknowledgment of the role of the body in perception and in emphasis placed on the active and dynamic nature of the subject–object relationship. Rorschach and Merleau-Ponty vs. Peirce: similarities and differences. The seemingly completely different ways of understanding interpretation in Peirce's semiotics (indirect cognition) and in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology (direct cognition), actually show important similarities. I draw attention to the ontic dimension of interpretation and its systemic character, which both philosophers stress, and to the view of interpretation as a perpetual process that is never completed, both in Peirce's semiotics and in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. Conclusion The semiotic and perceptual nature of the inkblots created by the Swiss psychiatrist reflects two basic and mutually complementary ways in which humans experience the world. This experience has both a psychological and an ontic nature, which makes it possible for an examination using the Rorschach test to become an encounter with an existential dimension.