MERLEAU-PONTY'S DIALECTIC OF BODY AND SENSATION

What is Merleau-Ponty's conception of the body? The aim is to examine the body as the central element in the study of perception and then to establish a dialogue between the body and the sensory world. For Merleau-Ponty the body is both subject and object. With his Phenomenology of Perception he inaugurated a rediscovery of the body. With this landmark publication Merleau-Ponty highlighted the dialectic between the body and its environment. This environment is none other than the perceived world. Merleau-Ponty thus undertakes a work of rehabilitation of the body. This rehabilitation of the body also sheds light on the ethical and bioethical issues facing our society today. As the human body is the support of the person it inherits the person's moral properties. It has a value but no price. To put a price on the body its parts and its products is to undermine human dignity.