Phenomenological reduction and self-recognition : An encounter between Merleau-Ponty and Utpaladeva

Lorandou, Eleni and Ram-Prasad, Chakravarthi (2023) Phenomenological reduction and self-recognition : An encounter between Merleau-Ponty and Utpaladeva. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This PhD submission aims at initiating a dialogue between two philosophers, Merleau-Ponty and Utpaladeva, who, within their respective philosophical traditions and through their unique itineraries, offer valuable insights on the constitution and the possibilities of human experience. Through a parallel exploration of the main themes that traverse their philosophies, the reflective thesis attempts to follow the development of the thought that gave rise to the processes of self-recognition and the phenomenological reduction that are central to their systems. This cross-cultural encounter will allow the reader to approach each system from a new angle: look at self-recognition through the experience of the embodied subject and explore the phenomenological reduction through the transcendental dynamics of the self. The joint exploration of the two systems will reveal unexpected relations between them that do not necessarily rely on terminological equivalences but on hermeneutical depth. This will offer the reader the opportunity to rethink the relations of consciousness and matter, body and mind and explore views on the nature of being that challenge all conceptual dichotomies. The aim is to show that both self-recognition and phenomenological reduction are not just theoretical accounts on experience but forms of experience. Understanding the performative value of the two processes will highlight the movement of transcendence that traverses our most ordinary experiences, a movement we tend to ignore despite being inscribed in it by the very fact of our embodiment.