梅洛-庞蒂：身体、感知与交织
Maurice Merleau-Ponty — Body, Perception, and Intertwining / 梅洛-庞蒂：身体、感知与交织
Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961), French phenomenological philosopher.
Key passages from Phenomenology of Perception (1945), The Visible and the Invisible (1964, posthumous),
and the essay "The Intertwining — The Chiasm" (L'Entrelacs — Le Chiasme).
莫里斯·梅洛-庞蒂（1908-1961），法国现象学哲学家。
关键段落选自《知觉现象学》（1945）、《可见与不可见》（1964，遗著）
以及论文"交织——交错"（L'Entrelacs — Le Chiasme）。
Note: The following passages are paraphrased and quoted from published English translations
and Chinese editions. Due to copyright, extended passages are presented as close paraphrase
with key quotations marked.
1. The Body-Subject / 身体主体
Source: Phenomenology of Perception (Phénoménologie de la perception, 1945)
English (paraphrase and key quotations)
Merleau-Ponty's central insight is that the body is not an object among objects but the very medium through which the world is accessible to us. The body is not a thing I possess — it is what I am. I do not stand behind my body like a pilot in a ship; I inhabit my body, and through it I inhabit the world.
"The body is our general medium for having a world. Sometimes it is restricted to the actions necessary for the preservation of life, and accordingly it posits a biological world around us; at other times, elaborating upon these primary actions and gliding from their particular to their general significance, it comes to embody a new kernel of significance: this is true of motor habits such as dancing."
The body is not merely a physical mechanism but a lived, experiential structure. When I reach for a cup, I do not calculate the distance, compute the angle of my arm, and execute a motor program. My body knows the cup, reaches toward it in a pre-reflective understanding. This knowledge is not intellectual — it is embodied.
"My body has its world, or rather it is itself a world. It is not a collection of organs but a synergy of functions, a system of 'I cans' that opens onto the world."
Touching reveals a fundamental structure of bodily existence: when I touch an object, I am simultaneously touching and touchable. My hand that touches is also capable of being touched. This reversibility — this being both subject and object of sensation — is the essence of the body.
"When I press my two hands together, I experience a strange phenomenon: my hand passes from the role of toucher to that of touched and back again, in an oscillation that never resolves into pure subject or pure object. This is the fundamental ambiguity of the body: it is both seeing and visible, both touching and touchable."
中文翻译（关键段落）
梅洛-庞蒂的核心洞见在于，身体不是对象中的对象，而是世界对我们而言可以通达的媒介本身。身体不是我拥有的东西——它是我所是的。我不像船中的驾驶员那样站在身体后面；我栖居在我的身体中，通过它栖居于世界。
"身体是我们拥有世界的一般媒介。有时它仅限于维持生命所必需的行动，相应地在我们周围设定一个生物世界；在其他时候，在这些基本行动的基础上精心发展，从它们的特殊性滑向一般意义，它开始体现一个新的意义核心：这就是如舞蹈这样的运动习惯的真实情况。"
身体不仅仅是一个物理机制，而是一个活生生的、经验性的结构。当我伸手去拿杯子时，我不是在计算距离、计算手臂的角度、执行运动程序。我的身体知道杯子，以一种前反思的理解向它伸去。这种知识不是智性的——它是具身的。
"我的身体拥有它的世界，或者说它本身就是一个世界。它不是器官的集合，而是功能的协同，一个'我能'的系统，向世界敞开。"
触摸揭示了身体存在的根本结构：当我触摸一个对象时，我同时是触摸者和可触摸者。我触摸的手也能够被触摸。这种可逆性——同时作为感觉的主体和对象——是身体的本质。
"当我将两只手按压在一起时，我经历了一种奇怪的现象：我的手从触摸者的角色转变为被触摸者的角色，又反复交替，在这种振荡中永远不能归结为纯粹的主体或纯粹的对象。这就是身体的根本含混性：它同时是看的和可见的、触摸的和可触摸的。"
2. The Flesh of the World / 世界的肉
Source: The Visible and the Invisible (Le Visible et l'invisible, 1964), Chapter "The Intertwining — The Chiasm"
English (paraphrase and key quotations)
In his later work, Merleau-Ponty developed the concept of "flesh" (la chair) — not merely the flesh of the body, but a fundamental element of being that characterizes both my body and the world. Flesh is the common tissue, the shared element between perceiver and perceived.
"The flesh is not matter, it is not mind, it is not substance. I shall call it an element, using this term in the sense in which it was used to speak of water, air, earth, and fire — a general thing, midway between the spatio-temporal individual and the idea, a sort of incarnate principle that brings a style of being wherever there is a fragment of being."
The flesh is not something that separates me from the world but connects me to it. My body is made of the same flesh as the world. When I see a tree, it is not that a separate subject looks at a separate object; rather, my seeing and the tree's visibility are two sides of one flesh, one tissue.
"The visible can thus be said to be a palpation of the visible, and the seer is caught, encompassed by what he sees. He cannot even say that it is he who sees; rather, it is the visible that sees itself in him, as it is he who sees himself in the visible."
This is the concept of the chiasm or intertwining (l'entrelacs): perception is not a one-way street from subject to object but a crossing, a mutual implication. I see the world, but the world also "sees" me — not with eyes, but in the sense that I am part of the visible, that my seeing is inscribed within the visible field.
"We are saying that our body is a being of two leaves, from one side a thing among things and otherwise what sees them and touches them; we say, because we catch it in the act, that it is caught in the fabric of the world, and the world is caught in its fabric."
中文翻译（关键段落）
在后期著作中，梅洛-庞蒂发展了"肉"（la chair）的概念——不仅仅是身体的肉，而是一种存在的基本元素，同时表征着我的身体和世界。肉是共同的基质，是感知者与被感知者之间的共享元素。
"肉不是物质，不是心灵，不是实体。我将称它为一种元素，在这个词的意义上——如同用来谈论水、气、土、火——一种一般的事物，介于时空个体与观念之间，一种具身的原则，在存在的每一片段中带来一种存在的风格。"
肉不是将我与世界分离的东西，而是将我与世界连接起来的东西。我的身体由与世界相同的肉构成。当我看一棵树时，不是一个分离的主体在看一个分离的对象；而是我的看与树的可见性是同一种肉、同一种基质的两面。
"因此可以说可见者是可见者的触摸，而看者被他所看到的一切所捕获、所包围。他甚至不能说是他在看；毋宁说是可见者在他之中看自己，正如他在可见者之中看自己。"
这就是交错或交织（l'entrelacs）的概念：感知不是从主体到对象的单向街道，而是一种交叉、一种相互蕴含。我看世界，但世界也"看"我——不是用眼睛，而是在我属于可见者的一部分这个意义上，我的看被铭刻在可见的领域中。
"我们说我们的身体是一个有两片叶子的存在，一方面它是事物中的事物，另一方面它是看它们、触摸它们的；我们说，因为我们在行动中捕获了它，它被捕获在世界的织物中，而世界被捕获在它的织物中。"
3. Intercorporeality / 身体间性
Source: Phenomenology of Perception and The Visible and the Invisible
English (paraphrase and key quotations)
Merleau-Ponty's concept of intercorporeality describes how bodies communicate with each other before any intellectual understanding. When I see another person smile, I do not first see a physical movement and then infer the emotion — I directly perceive the joy in the smile. The other's body speaks to my body.
"The communication or comprehension of gestures comes about through the reciprocity of my intentions and the gestures of others, of my gestures and the intentions which can be read in the behavior of others. It is as if the other's intention inhabited my body, or as if my intentions inhabited his body."
This is not empathy in the intellectual sense — it is a pre-reflective, bodily attunement. A mother knows her infant's distress not by inference but through her own body. Dancers in a couple move as one without calculating each other's steps. Two lovers touching each other's hands experience a mutual palpation that neither can fully separate into "toucher" and "touched."
"The other's body and my own are a whole, two sides of one and the same phenomenon. The anonymous existence that underlies my personal project also makes up the other. Every body bears within it a manner of being toward the world."
The experience of being touched by another person reveals the deepest structure of intercorporeality. When someone takes my hand, there is a zone of overlap between their touch and my being-touched — a space where the boundary between self and other becomes fluid, where I cannot clearly say where their hand ends and mine begins.
"In the handshake, there is a reversibility that is never complete but always promised: I feel the other's hand touching mine, and simultaneously I feel my hand touching theirs. The boundary between active and passive, between self and other, is in this moment not erased but made ambiguous."
中文翻译（关键段落）
梅洛-庞蒂的身体间性概念描述了身体如何在任何理智理解之前就已经相互沟通。当我看到另一个人微笑时，我不是先看到一个物理运动然后推断情感——我直接在微笑中感知到快乐。他者的身体向我的身体言说。
"手势的交流或理解通过我的意图与他者手势的相互性、我的手势与可以在他者行为中解读的意图的相互性而产生。仿佛他者的意图栖居在我的身体中，或者我的意图栖居在他的身体中。"
这不是理智意义上的共情——这是一种前反思的、身体的调谐。母亲不是通过推断而是通过她自己的身体知道婴儿的痛苦。共舞的情侣不计算彼此的舞步却如同一个整体移动。两个相爱的人触摸彼此的手，经历着一种双方都无法完全分离为"触摸者"和"被触摸者"的相互触摸。
"他者的身体和我自己的身体是一个整体，是同一个现象的两个侧面。支撑我个人规划的那个匿名存在同样构成了他者。每一个身体都承载着一种朝向世界的方式。"
被另一个人触摸的经验揭示了身体间性的最深结构。当有人握住我的手时，在他们的触摸和我的被触摸之间有一个重叠的区域——在这个空间中，自我与他者的边界变得流动，我无法清楚地说出他们的手在哪里结束、我的手在哪里开始。
"在握手中，有一种永远不会完全实现但始终被承诺的可逆性：我感受到他者的手在触摸我的手，同时我感受到我的手在触摸他们的。主动与被动之间、自我与他者之间的界限，在这一刻没有被抹去，而是变得含混。"
4. The Seer and the Visible / 看者与可见者
Source: The Visible and the Invisible, "The Intertwining — The Chiasm"
English (paraphrase and key quotations)
Merleau-Ponty's most radical claim is that seeing is not a sovereign act of a disembodied consciousness but an immersion in the visible. The one who sees is also visible — and this visibility is not accidental but constitutive.
"Every vision takes place somewhere in the visible. The seeing body is itself a visible thing. I cannot see the world without being part of what I see. My gaze does not survey the visible from above — it is caught within it."
This means that perception is never a neutral recording of an independent reality. My seeing is always already involved in what I see. When I gaze at a landscape, I am part of that landscape. When I look at another person's face, my looking is already inscribed in their experience.
"He who sees cannot possess the visible unless he is possessed by it, unless he is of it. [...] From within, as the vision that sees from the heart of the visible."
The concept of the chiasm (from the Greek χίασμα, "crossing") describes this fundamental crossing: the seer is in the visible as the visible is in the seer. This is not metaphor but the literal structure of perception. My eye is part of the visible world, made of the same flesh as what it sees.
"Things have us as we have things. The world sees itself in me as I see myself in the world. We are not two substances facing each other but two folds of one flesh, turned toward one another."
中文翻译（关键段落）
梅洛-庞蒂最激进的主张是，看不是一个去身体化意识的主权行为，而是沉浸在可见者之中。看的人本身也是可见的——这种可见性不是偶然的，而是构成性的。
"每一种视觉都发生在可见者的某处。看的身体本身就是可见的事物。我不能不成为我所看的东西的一部分而看世界。我的注视不是从上方俯瞰可见者——它被捕获在其中。"
这意味着感知永远不是对独立现实的中性记录。我的看已经总是卷入我所看的东西之中。当我凝视一片风景时，我是那片风景的一部分。当我看着另一个人的脸时，我的看已经铭刻在他们的经验之中。
"看的人不能拥有可见者，除非他被可见者所拥有，除非他是可见者的一部分。……从内部，如同从可见者之心的视觉。"
交错（源自希腊词χίασμα，"交叉"）的概念描述了这种根本性的交叉：看者在可见者之中，如同可见者在看者之中。这不是隐喻，而是感知的字面结构。我的眼睛是可见世界的一部分，由与它所看之物相同的肉构成。
"事物拥有我们，如同我们拥有事物。世界在我之中看自己，如同我在世界中看自己。我们不是两个面对面的实体，而是同一种肉的两个褶皱，朝向彼此。"
5. Touching and Being Touched — The Double Sensation / 触摸与被触摸——双重感觉
Source: The Visible and the Invisible
English (paraphrase and key quotations)
The experience of one hand touching the other reveals the deepest truth of bodily existence: every sensation is double. I cannot touch without being touchable. I cannot see without being visible.
"When my right hand touches my left hand while it is palpating an object, the 'touching subject' passes over to the rank of the touched. This phenomenon of double sensation is the clearest manifestation of the body's fundamental ambiguity."
This is not merely a curiosity of physiology. It reveals that subjectivity itself is structured by this reversibility. I am never purely a subject looking at the world — I am always also part of the world being looked at. And the Other who looks at me is, in turn, also lookable-at. We are woven into one another.
"This fundamental narcissism of all vision — that the seer is caught in what he sees, that he sees himself seeing — does not mean that vision is solipsistic. It means that vision is always already social, always already shared."
中文翻译（关键段落）
一只手触摸另一只手的经验揭示了身体存在最深层的真理：每一种感觉都是双重的。我不能不成为可触摸者而触摸。我不能不成为可见者而看。
"当我的右手触摸正在触摸对象的左手时，'触摸的主体'转入了被触摸者的行列。这种双重感觉现象是身体根本含混性最清晰的显现。"
这不仅仅是生理学的奇趣。它揭示了主体性本身是由这种可逆性所建构的。我从来不是纯粹地作为一个注视世界的主体——我始终也是被注视的世界的一部分。而注视我的他者，反过来，也是可以被注视的。我们被编织在彼此之中。
"所有视觉的这种根本自恋——看者被他所看到的所捕获，他看自己在看——并不意味着视觉是唯我论的。它意味着视觉已经总是社会性的，已经总是共享的。"
6. Summary: Key Concepts / 总结：关键概念
| Concept / 概念 | Merleau-Ponty's Formulation / 梅洛-庞蒂的表述 |
|---|---|
| Body-Subject / 身体主体 | The body as the medium of all experience, not an object but what I am / 身体作为一切经验的媒介，不是对象而是我所是的 |
| Flesh (La Chair) / 肉 | The common element of being shared by body and world / 身体与世界共享的存在共同元素 |
| Chiasm / Intertwining / 交错/交织 | The mutual implication of seer and visible, toucher and touchable / 看者与可见者、触摸者与被触摸者的相互蕴含 |
| Intercorporeality / 身体间性 | Pre-reflective bodily communication between bodies / 身体之间前反思的身体沟通 |
| Reversibility / 可逆性 | The body's capacity to be both toucher and touched, seer and seen / 身体同时作为触摸者与被触摸者、看者与可见者的能力 |
| The Visible / 可见者 | Not passive matter but that which "calls" to the gaze / 不是被动的物质，而是"召唤"注视的东西 |
| Double Sensation / 双重感觉 | Every act of sensing is also an act of being-sensible / 每一个感觉行为同时也是一个可感行为 |
English passages are paraphrased and quoted from Colin Smith's translation of "Phenomenology of Perception" (Routledge, 1962) and Alphonso Lingis's translation of "The Visible and the Invisible" (Northwestern University Press, 1968). Chinese passages are paraphrased and quoted from published Chinese editions (姜志辉译, 商务印书馆).
英文段落来自科林·史密斯翻译的《知觉现象学》（劳特利奇出版社1962年版）和阿方索·林吉斯翻译的《可见与不可见》（西北大学出版社1968年版）。中文段落取自已出版的中文译本（姜志辉译，商务印书馆）。