The enigma of vision: the possibilities of the body in Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of looking at the work of art from the ontology. In the beginning investigates the assumptions which, since Plato, made the image (eidos) a philosophical element for excellence. The approach separates from the platonic philosophy and the notion of look like episteme and takes the discussion to the scope of the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty, who thinks and understands the reality by looking in a double meaning that sees himself and is also seen by him. The art of work, in this context, is not just an object that reveals something to be contemplated, but emerging and creates its own world where the man makes sense. The text follows the idea of the ontology of the work of art, while driving the thinking for the search of the place and importance of art which is originally as poetic dwelling of the man. The look in art not only reveals something, but in its own action of view, founds the poetic world. In this process, the vision has a key role because transformed under new aspects the world around us and allows the man to pass also to be understood differently from that. The issue of look is not restricted to the limitations of the body, but instead endows the body of a renewed possibility view that, at the same time, states and transposes the sensitive restriction. For pursuing these issues the article is divided into three topics: the first treats briefly of the importance of looking in Greek mythology; the second exposes the classic look on the philosophy and the third discusses the possibility of a phenomenological gaze evoked by art.