Language and silence and Merleau-Ponty
This dissertation examines Merleau-Ponty's conception of the relation between language and silence, and argues that from his early to his later works there is a change in his position. In the early works, the relation between language and silence is conceived as a relation of 'founding'. According to this conception, linguistic expression makes explicit the genesis of meaning already at work in pre-linguistic perceptual experience, while this pre-linguistic experience exists only in its appropriation by reflection. Hence while the meaning of experience is brought to expression by reflection, this meaning is nonetheless experience's own. The 'purity' of this meaning is guaranteed, as the pre-reflective is kept outside reflection as its limit. However, as long as experience and expression are thought of as the two poles of the relation, they cannot relate to each other except negatively, and in the <I>Phenomenologie</I> <I>de la perception</I> we find that the silent experience is described as an 'original past' that has never been present. However, the <I>Phenomenologie</I> remains unclear as to what this anteriority of experience to expression consists in, resulting in two apparently conflicting tendencies
Hung, W.-S. H.
Language and silence and Merleau-Ponty. This dissertation examines Merleau-Ponty's conception of the relation between language and silence, and argues that from his early to his later works there is a change in his position. In the early works, the relation between language and silence is conceived as a relation of 'founding'. According to this conception, linguistic expression makes explicit the genesis of meaning already at work in pre-linguistic perceptual experience, while this pre-linguistic experience exists only in its appropriation by reflection. Hence while the meaning of experience is brought to expression by reflection, this meaning is nonetheless experience's own. The 'purity' of this meaning is guaranteed, as the pre-reflective is kept outside reflection as its limit. However, as long as experience and expression are thought of as the two poles of the relation, they cannot relate to each other except negatively, and in the <I>Phenomenologie</I> <I>de la perception</I> we find that the silent experience is described as an 'original past' that has never been present. However, the <I>Phenomenologie</I> remains unclear as to what this anteriority of experience to expression consists in, resulting in two apparently conflicting tendencies
language silence merleau_ponty examines merleau_ponty conception relation language silence argue early later_work change position early_work relation language silence conceive relation founding according conception linguistic_expression make_explicit genesis meaning already work pre linguistic perceptual_experience pre linguistic experience exist appropriation reflection hence mean experience bring expression reflection mean nonetheless experience own purity mean guarantee pre reflective keep outside reflection limit however long experience expression think pole relation relate except negatively perception silent experience describe original past never present however remain unclear experience expression consist result two_apparently conflict tendency