„Perception is Already Expression‟. Merleau-Ponty s Initial Lecture Course at the Collège de France

Jan Halák

In his initial lecture course at the Collège de France, Merleau-Ponty attempted to develop a new analysis of rational thought in order to clarify its link with corporeal-perceptive life. The formulation of thought in language as the most elaborate human activity of expression explicitly takes over what we already observe in perception as the implicit and mutual reference between the perceiving subject and that which is perceived. The article reconstructs Merleau-Ponty’s argumentat, based on his preparatory notes for the lectures, and provides an interpretation of the key concepts of “expression” and “body schema”.