Plein, Nadja Gabriela;
(2025)
Holism from Gestalt Psychology to Merleau-Ponty's Theory of Intersubjectivity.
Masters thesis (M.Phil.Stud), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
In the chapter “Others and the Human World” in the Phenomenology of Perception (1945), Maurice Merleau-Ponty argues that the problem of other minds is only a problem for intellectualism. If everything in the world as I live and perceive it is constituted by my mind, then I cannot conceive of other minds: something alien in the sphere of my experience – something I did not constitute – is inconceivable (PP, 365/407). Solipsism, on this view, is insurmountable, according to Merleau-Ponty. Instead, he posits a primordial sociality based on a common corporeality. However, whereas the first approach faces the problem of solipsism, in the second approach there is a danger of both ego and alter-ego vanishing into a sphere of common generality. Indeed, Levinas famously argues that the other subject is lost in Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of anonymity (Levinas, 1990a, 57). I argue that difference – both ego and alter-ego – are accounted for in Merleau-Ponty’s theory. I argue that his theory of intersubjectivity is profoundly informed by Gestalt theoretical principles and, moreover, that it is these principles that allow us to see how Merleau-Ponty’s theory supports difference. In contrast to existing literature – which has so far overlooked this vital aspect of Merleau-Ponty’s thought – I argue that we need to gain a firm grounding in the relevant aspects of Gestalt Theory, and Merleau-Ponty’s critique and further development of Gestalt principles, before we can tackle his theory of intersubjectivity. With this background in Gestalt Theory in place, I argue that the other arises as an immediate whole, that is a Gestalt (which Merleau-Ponty will call a behaviour), appearing as a figure against a shared ground of sociality, thus assuring both the primordial intersubjectivity and individuality.
| Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | M.Phil.Stud |
| Title: | Holism from Gestalt Psychology to Merleau-Ponty's Theory of Intersubjectivity |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Philosophy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10210444 |
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