The role of experience in perception

Rodrigo Ribeiro

pp. 559-581

in: Human Studies 37 (4), 2014.

Abstract

Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception comprises two main levels of analysis: the description of the general foundation upon which all human perception occurs and that of the lived, situated aspects of perception, as experienced by individuals. These "structural' and "situated' accounts of perception assume, respectively, the existence of a pre-personal body, which all human beings possess in principle, and of a historical body, which is the product of an individual's "synchronization' with the world. A comprehensive and faithful description of human perceptual experience must contain, simultaneously, the general, structural, individual, and situational elements involved in perception. It has also to show the ways in which these elements impact each other, leading to distinct outcomes. I propose, here, a situated account of perception that fulfills these requisites while confirming Merleau-Ponty's insights and descriptions empirically, through cases of perceptual skill and learning in a large industrial plant near the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

Cited authors

Merleau-Ponty Maurice