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3 - Holism, content and self

Jeff Malpas
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania
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Summary

[T]here must be, then, corresponding to the open unity of the world, an open and indefinite unity of subjectivity. Like the world's unity, that of the I is invoked rather than experienced each time I perform an act of perception, each time I reach a self-evident truth, and the universal I is the background against which these effulgent forms stand out: it is through one present thought that I achieve the unity of all my thoughts … The primary truth is indeed ‘I think’, but only provided that we understand thereby ‘I belong to myself’ while belonging to the world.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty, The Phenomenology of Perception

The idea of subjective space is tied to the idea of an experiencing creature around which such a space is organised. For a creature that has a grasp of the concept of subjective space – and a grasp of the concept of subjective space is necessary, as was seen earlier, to the grasp of the concept of objective space – the grasp of that concept must also be tied to the creature's grasp of its own self-identity and more specifically to the creature's grasp of the concept of itself. But what exactly is the relation between the concept of self or of subjectivity that is involved in a creature's grasp of subjective space and the idea of spatiality? One might ask the same question more generally of the relation between ideas of spatiality and the concepts of both subjectivity and objectivity.

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Place and Experience
A Philosophical Topography
, pp. 72 - 91
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

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  • Holism, content and self
  • Jeff Malpas, University of Tasmania
  • Book: Place and Experience
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487606.004
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  • Holism, content and self
  • Jeff Malpas, University of Tasmania
  • Book: Place and Experience
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487606.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Holism, content and self
  • Jeff Malpas, University of Tasmania
  • Book: Place and Experience
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487606.004
Available formats
×