The Story of Matter. The Receptivity of Perception from Empirism to Phenomenology

Jakub Čapek

The study focuses on the receptivity of perception as a motif in the Husserlian and Merleau-Pontyan phenomenology. Part I give a survey of the theory of sense-data or data of perception, since both authors present important criticisms of this theory. Part II outlines Husserl’s idea to understand the receptivity of perception on the basis of the model of captured matter and capturing form. Part II briefly summarizes Merleau-Ponty’s critique of Husserl’s theory of the sensual matter and outlines Merleau-Ponty’s own exposition of receptivity, one grounded in the synaesthetic and motoric meaning of the qualities perceived by the senses.