phainomena

PHAINOMENA XXV/98-99
THE HORIZONS OF EMBODIMENT
organism moves, that is, it perceives something; the organism perceives, that is,
it moves in a certain direction. The movement presupposes perception, and vice
versa, but they never exactly coincide. Movement and perception are modalities of
the living being, expressions of its organic totality. The organism is a totality that
organizes itself, a psychosomatic unity open to a world that is meaningful for it.
Goldstein’s approach deeply influenced the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-
Ponty. He writes:
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“Finally, if it were established that the nerve processes in each situation
always tend to re-establish certain states of preferred equilibrium, these
latter would represent the objective values of the organism and one
would have the right to classify behaviour as ordered or disordered,
significant or insignificant, with respect to them. These denominations,
far from being extrinsic and anthropomorphic, would belong to the
living being as such. (Merleau-Ponty 1942: 38)”
In these analyses, there is no longer a classification based on a hierarchy
from the simplest to the most complex, but a phenomenological description of
behavior: “These facts are essential for us, therefore, because they bring to light
a directed activity between blind mechanism and intelligent behaviour, which is
not accounted for by classical mechanism and intellectualism” (Merleau-Ponty
1942: 40; italics mine).
3. Being behavior
In this light, it is possible to define the organism as subjectivity. Here, it might
be useful to take recourse to the work of Viktor von Weizsäcker. Weizsäcker
proposed an interesting approach to the understanding of the organism as
subjectivity. The organism is open to the world through the act of creativity, of
authentic improvisation. The point of departure here is the definition of movement
as an orientation within-and-towards the world. The movement of an organism is
never pure action, but it is also never a simple reaction caused by environmental
factors. On the contrary, the auto-movement bears witness to the subjectivity of
the organism: the organism is capable of behaving spontaneously and creatively,