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The Problem of Habitual Body and Memory in Hegel and Merleau-Ponty

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2017

Elisa Magrì
Elisa Magrì*
Affiliation:
University College Dublin, Irelandelisa.magri@ucd.ie
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Abstract

In this paper, I shall focus on the relation between habitual body and memory in Hegel’s Philosophy of Subjective Spirit and Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception. Both Hegel and Merleau-Ponty defend a view of the self that is centred on the role of habituality as embodied activity situated in a context. However, both philosophers avoid committing to what Edward Casey has defined habitual body memory, i.e., an active immanence of the past in the body that informs present bodily actions in an efficacious, orienting and regular manner. I shall explore the reasons why neither Hegel nor Merleau-Ponty develops an explicit account of habitual body memory. This will shed light not only on Hegel’s account of lived experience, but also on Hegel and Merleau-Ponty’s common concern with the habitual body.

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Articles
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Hegel Bulletin , Volume 38 , Special Issue 1: Hegel and Phenomenology , May 2017 , pp. 24 - 44
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Copyright
© The Hegel Society of Great Britain 2017 

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