the "Mind"-"Body" problem for phenomenology: Excusing the question
Troubled by my inability to address such a canonical question as how brain chemistry relates to the lived body, I have had several mini-epiphanies as of the last few days. The first relates to my issues with language that I alluded to. By asking the mind-body question in terms of consciousness and physicalism, it becomes virtually impossible for
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As far as Harvard goes, I can only think of Stanley Cavell, who wrote a lot about film's realtion to philosophy and, more generally, aesthetics. I think he retired a while back, though. He could, however, still be hanging around the University as an Emeritus prof. (philosophers are wont to do that...)
As far as art leaving the everyday, I think there is a double meaning to this. In a certain sense, it has left the everday in terms of its accessibility to other folks, but on the other hand, it is totally embedded in the everyday because its goal now is largely political. That latter part of his claim sounds like he wants to avocate for a politically engaged art... seems to me that he already has his way! Of course, I haven't read the book, so I should refrain from comment... :-)
I hope you enjoy the M-P book! I think you are one of the first people to read it on my recommendation, so I hope you don't think it is too horrible. If anything else, Merleau-Ponty is a beautiful writer. Oh, but I should probably tell you where to find it, since it is an essay that is available by itself only in french--I would advise library copies because the books are kind of costly. There are translations in Galen Johnson's Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader as well as Merleau-Ponty's collection of essays The Primacy of Perception. If you are into aesthetics in general, I would advise the first one, since if you like the essay you would have more to read in the same vein.
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