Body Merleau Ponty Aesthetics

This thesis starts from the problem of subject-object opposition in art theory, regards the body-mind split as its philosophy source , and tries to solve the problem with the use of Merleau- Ponty's concept of body, which sets out from perception. For Merleau-Ponty, the perception does not only refer to feeling, but also thinking. The body is not a corpus without consciousness, or a purely self-thinking subject. The body can be a subject which sees, and an object which is seen, at the same time. In other words, it can take initiative and also examine itself. Thus merleau-ponty's concept of body overthrows the traditional body-mind dualism, and adds new sight to the study of aesthetics and art theory.