Methodological fundamentals of visual theory in the philosophical projects of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Gilles Deleuze
Keywords:
the body, the sight, experience of the visual, the affectation, the hapticAbstract
This article aims to outline the methodological fundamentals of a presentational approach within a visual theory. Its supporters consider vision not as an act of objectivation but as a special form of contact between an object and a beholder. The article reconstructs philo- sophical foundations of this approach, basing on the vision theories developed by Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Gilles Deleuze. Therefore, the article outlines three primary principles of understanding vision: (1) visual experience cannot be reduced to the language or de- scribed through the language-derived structures; (2) the vision is an integrally corporeal experience that cannot be considered separately from the body itself; (3) the object takes an active part in the act of vision. Based on the works Merleau-Ponty and Deleuze, the ar- ticle offers terminological refinements that help avoid some methodological controversies of the visual theory. In particular, this refers to the reformulation of «visual experience» into «experience of the visual» — in this way we prevent the limitation of the vision to only its optical component.
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