Merleau-Ponty and Epistemology Engines

One of us coined the notion of an “epistemology engine.” The idea is that some particular technology in its workings and use is seen suggestively as a metaphor for the human subject and often for the production of knowledge itself. In this essay, we further develop the conceptand claim that Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological commitments, although suggestive, did not lead him to appreciate the epistemological value of materiality. We also take steps towards establishing how an understanding of this topic can provide the basis for reinterpreting the history of phenomenology.

[1]  Hubert L. Dreyfus,et al.  Mind over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer , 1987, IEEE Expert.

[2]  Friedrich Engels,et al.  The Marx-Engels Reader , 1972 .

[3]  Manuel De Landa,et al.  War in the Age of Intelligent Machines , 1991 .

[4]  A. Gurwitsch,et al.  Studies in Phenomenology and Psychology , 1967 .

[5]  B. Latour.  Science in Action , 1987 .

[6]  Robert P Crease,et al.  Dreyfus on expertise: The limits of phenomenological analysis , 2002 .

[7]  D. Ihde.  Bodies in Technology , 2001 .

[8]  Hélène Mialet.  Do Angels Have Bodies? Two Stories About Subjectivity in Science: , 1999 .

[9]  S. Shapin,et al.  Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life , 1987 .

[10]  Don Ihde,et al.  Technology and the lifeworld , 1990 .

[11]  Joseph T Rouse.  Merleau-Ponty and the existential conception of science , 1986, Synthese.

[12]  Don Ihde,et al.  Philosophy of Technology: An Introduction , 1998 .

[13]  Evan Selinger.  The necessity of embodiment: The Dreyfus-Collins debate , 2003 .

[14]  Maurice Merleau-Ponty.  Phenomenology of Perception , 1964 .

[15]  Don Ihde,et al.  Chasing Technoscience: Matrix for Materiality , 2006 .

[16]  D. Ihde.  Expanding Hermeneutics: Visualism in Science , 1998 .

[17]  J. Searle,et al.  Minds, Brains and Science , 1988 .

[18]  D. Hockney.  Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters , 1969 .

[19]  J. Sanders,et al.  Merleau-Ponty, Gibson, and the materiality of meaning , 1993 .

[20]  Maurice Merleau-Ponty.  The structure of behavior , 1963 .

[21]  P. Galison.  Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time , 2003 .

[22]  Hubert L. Dreyfus,et al.  What computers still can't do - a critique of artificial reason , 1992 .

[23]  K. Popper,et al.  Conjectures and Refutations , 1963 .

[24]  B. Latour.  Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies , 1999 .

[25]  M. Litch,et al.  Philosophy Through Film , 2002 .