摘要：Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology opens up theinterpretation that human beings are social and intersubjective bynature. First, his concept of the flesh presents a solution against thesolipsistic tendency of Cartesian philosophy. The perception of one’sown being implies a perception of the shared flesh. Even the perceptionof the pain of another person elicits a feeling of pain that is not totallyalien to one’s own flesh. Second, the concept of perception is a dialecticbetween proximity and distance, such that perception of the being ofanother person is not solely given through proximity, but perceptionis primarily characterized by distance. To perceive is to perceive at adistance, never imposing one’s structure of understanding orcategories to the object of perception, but letting the thing be itself.Furthermore, this perceptual distance can also be interpreted as anethical distance that allows the Other to be free from the confines ofone’s own perception.
