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Sensation Rebuilt: Carnal Ontology in Levinas and Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The phenomenological approaches to embodiment presented by Levinas and Merleau-Ponty cannot provide an adequate account of bodily identity because their methodological commitments forbid them from admitting the central role that sensation plays in the constitution of experience. This neglect is symptomatic of their tradition's suspicion toward sensation as an explanatory concept, a suspicion stemming from Kant's critique of empiricist metaphysics and Husserl's critique of psychologism and objectivism. By contrast, I suggest that only with a robust theory of sensation can the integrity of the body and its relations be fully captured. I therefore develop--contra Kant and Husserl's idealism--a realist conception of sensation that is at once materialist and phenomenological.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
PhD
Level thesis:degree_level
Immediate Access
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Philosophy
Year dc:date.available
2010

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Sparrow, Tom
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Fred Evans
  • George Yancy
  • Silvia Benso
  • Daniel Selcer

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

Language dc:language
English

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Repository record dc:identifier
https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1228
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:dsc.duq.edu:etd-2244

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Duquesne
Base URL
dsc.duq.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Sparrow, Tom. Sensation Rebuilt: Carnal Ontology in Levinas and Merleau-Ponty. Immediate Access thesis, 2010. https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/1228