A MP MERLEAU-PONTY X “Consciousness is embodied being-in-the-world.”

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Here are some of Merleau-Ponty’s most powerful quotes on consciousness, drawn mainly from Phenomenology of Perception and his later writings:

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Best Quotes (with Gist)

1. On embodied consciousness

   “I am not in front of my body, I am in my body, or rather I am my body.”

   • Gist: Consciousness is not separate from the body — it is lived through it.

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2. On perception as primary

   “The world is not what I think, but what I live through.”

   • Gist: Consciousness doesn’t construct reality intellectually; it engages it directly through perception.

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3. On subject and object unity

   “The perceiving mind is an incarnated mind.”

   • Gist: Consciousness is always both subjective and bodily, never pure abstraction.

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4. On rejecting dualism

   “The body is our general medium for having a world.”

   • Gist: Consciousness is possible only because we inhabit the world bodily.

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5. On lived experience

   “Consciousness is being-towards-the-thing through the intermediary of the body.”

   • Gist: The body is not an object of consciousness but the means of its intentionality.

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6. On intersubjectivity

   “The other’s body and my body are coupled, together they form a system.”

   • Gist: Consciousness is not private—it is relational, rooted in shared embodiment.

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One-line Essence

For Merleau-Ponty, consciousness is not a detached intellect but the living, bodily openness to the world and to others.

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👉 Would you like me to create a single-page “Merleau-Ponty on Consciousness: Quotes + Key Ideas” cheat-sheet (PDF style), so you have both the memorable lines and the gist side-by-side?

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A strong tagline that captures Merleau-Ponty’s view of consciousness could be:

“Consciousness is embodied being-in-the-world.”

Other variations (depending on tone you prefer):

• “We do not think the world; we live it.”

• “The body is the gateway of consciousness.”

• “To be conscious is to be embodied, situated, and open to the world.”

Would you like me to give you a set of academic-style taglines (for papers/lectures) and punchier, short taglines (for presentations or posters)?

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Kastrup’s idealism is the best T.O.E. out there; but it’s not perfect. The idea that selves are analogous to dissociative alters is a wrong step. Dissociative alters lack the very thing - the self/universe boundary - which he is anxious to explicate. (The alters are personalities sharing the same boundary/skin…) A far better model is this: that the self is the perception by the universal consciousness of an extremely tiny part of its history - corresponding to the most recent state of the brain (the hub of the sensory system). Selves are microcosms. They - and the innovative societies they enable - are the latest creation of the universal consciousness. (If this lazy self ever gets round to it, I’ll put a full account out there.)

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Physicist Tom cambell says that consciousness is an information system

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