Body Between Perception and Power: An Analysis of Merleau-Ponty’s Philosophy and its Contemporary Social Contexts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35516/Hum.2026.9677Keywords:
Body, Perception, Resistance, Merleau-Ponty, Technology.Abstract
Objectives: This study aimed to explore the body as a perceptual and social mediator that reshapes the relationship between the Self and world through the phenomenological philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961). It also aimed to examine the dynamics of power and resistance exercised on or through the body, with a particular focus on social movements as spaces for renegotiating individual and collective identities. Additionally, the study aimed to investigate the impact of technology and cultural transformations on the construction of the body and identity, highlighting its role as an agent of change in addressing contemporary challenges.
Methods: The study employed a critical philosophical analysis of Merleau-Ponty’s conceptualization of the body, alongside a comparative critique of his ideas with those of Foucault (1926-1984) and Arendt (1906-1975). Contemporary examples from social movements and digital technologies are integrated to contextualize the analysis.
Results: The study results showed that the body transcends its materiality to function as a dynamic medium for creative interaction and social resistance. It also revealed that technology redefines the body’s role as a site of conflict between freedom and domination, while also offering new possibilities for cultural and political transformation.
Conclusions: This study concludes that the body incarnates a dynamic center that intertwines perception, resistance, and creativity, enabling the reconfiguration of social and political relations. However, it faces significant challenges in the age of modern technology and institutional surveillance, necessitating a comprehensive philosophical vision that reinforces its role as a tool for liberation and change.
Downloads
References
Arendt, H. (1958). The Human Condition. University of Chicago Press.
Bishara, A. (2021). Sectarianism Without Sects. Oxford University Press.
Butler, J. (1993). Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of sex. New York & London: Routledge.
Carman, T. (2008). Merleau-Ponty. Routledge.
Crossley, N. (2006). Reflexive Embodiment in Contemporary Society. England: Open University Press.
Daniels, E. A., Gillen, M. M., & Markey, C. H. (Eds.). (2018). Body Positive: Understanding and Improving Body Image in Science and Practice. Cambridge University Press.
Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. London: Pantheon Books.
Gadamer, H. (1975). Truth and Method. Continuum Publishing Group.
Gallagher, S. (2005). How the Body Shapes the Mind. England: Clarendon Press.
Gallagher S., & D. Schmicking (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of Phenomenology and Cognitive Science. Springer.
Gurwitsch, A. (1979). Human Encounters in the Social World. PA: Duquesne University
Press.
Honneth, A. (1995). The Struggle for Recognition: The Moral Grammar of Social Conflicts. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Howley, A., Hansen, B., Faiella, C. M., & Kroeger, S. D. (Eds.). (2020). Inclusive education: A systematic perspective. Information Age Publishing, Incorporated.
Johnson, M. (1993). The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and
Reason. University of Chicago Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1945). Phenomenology of Perception. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1947). Humanism and Terror. USA: Beacon Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1973). Adventures of the Dialectic. Northwestern University Press
Metzinger, T. (2009). The Ego Tunnel: The Science of the Mind and the Myth of the Self.
Basic Books.
Nashif, E. (2008). Palestinian Political Prisoners: Identity and Community. New York:
Routledge.
Ricoeur, P. (1966). Freedom and Nature: the Voluntary and the Involuntary. Illinois: Northwestern University Press.
Yuill, Ch. (2007). The Body as Weapon: Bobby Sands and the Republican Hunger
Strikes. Sociological Research,12(2), 111-121.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.1348
Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for Human Future at the
New Frontier of Power. PublicAffairs.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
