生態現象學初探：以梅洛龐蒂閱讀《莫比•迪克》，以梅爾維爾回饋梅洛龐蒂

哲學家們近年來已注意到現象學與環境主義交互滋養的潛能，前者興起於對現代科學的反動，也和後者同樣抱持著對二元式思維的不滿，指其剝奪了生活世界的意義與價值。本論文將聚焦於梅洛龐蒂身體、感官與肉理論。在梅氏哲學生涯當中，他從批判西方認識論出發，進而發展出根據「纏繞織結」原理運作的新本體論。心靈與身體、內與外、實存與超越之屏障均化入世界織錦的紋理之中。梅氏思想至為重要之處，在於他將身體視為自文化、歷史、社會、生物以及自然基質之浮顯，猶如浪花浮蕊般稍縱即逝。咸以為梅氏現象學乃「以生態為導向」，原因是它允諾了人與世界的親密關係，而這在傳統人文主義思維當中向來是相互拮抗的。另外，雖則梅洛龐蒂與梅爾維爾所處之歷史脈絡截然不同，兩者挑戰數學化科學的方法卻極其類似──強調觸覺與視覺的相互跨侵。在《莫比・迪克》中，梅爾維爾對身體的重新思索，呼應了梅洛龐蒂之觸覺主體的概念。身體疆界並非屏障，強行阻絕外在衝擊，而是宛如膜片溝通內外。身體的動作順服於物質世界之潮起潮落，而在美國浪漫主義者的想像當中，世界就是個海洋般的整體。因此觸覺主體亦是情「動」主體，原因是觸覺正是引領身體「動」的主因。筆者認為亞哈的「情動不適症」可視為身體順從世界情動之流的反證。除此之外，梅爾維爾在〈鯨之白〉當中對色彩與情動聯結的思索，與梅洛龐蒂〈眼與心〉中所提出之現代主義美學相互應和，藉此可看出對他們而言意義既不屬於內亦不屬於外，而是隨身體在世界中的「動」孕化而生。由此而知，意義乃是肉質的。將意義歸還給世界，梅洛龐蒂邁向去人類中心式的思考，也開始構想出內含共存倫理學的新本體論。最適合例證此和平姿態之可能性的，或許是以實瑪利在觀察鯨類時所採取的現象學態度。簡而言之，筆者希望藉由以梅洛龐蒂現象學詮釋《莫比・迪克》讓兩者的生態潛能得以揭示，並促使生態主體能被正確評價。

關鍵字

梅洛龐蒂；生態現象學；莫比・迪克；情動；觸覺主體；肉質意義；動物性；共存倫理學

並列摘要

In recent years, philosophers have noticed the potential of cross-fertilization between phenomenology and environmentalism. Rising against modern science, phenomenology shares a common ground with environmentalism in their dissatisfaction with the dualistic thinking that deprives the living world of meanings and values. In my dissertation, I would focus solely on the ecological potential in Merleau-Ponty’s theory of body, senses, and flesh. The trajectory of his philosophical career has evolved from his critique of western epistemology to the development of a new ontology which operates according to the principle of “intertwining.” The barrier between mind and body, inside and outside, imminence and transcendence in metaphysics is dissolved into the texture of the tapestry of the world. What is especially important in Merleau-Ponty’s thinking is his discussion of the body as an ephemeral emergence from a cultural, historical, social, biological, and natural matrix larger than individual life. His phenomenology, I argue, is “ecological-oriented” in that it promises an intimate relationship between humans and the world, which is conceptualized to be confrontational in traditional humanistic thought. Moreover, although situated in historical contexts quite different from each other, Merleau-Ponty and Melville challenge the hegemony of the mathematicalized science in a very similar way—emphasizing the mutual encroachment of touch and vision. In Moby-Dick, Melville’s reconsideration of the body corresponds to the notion of the tactile subject in Merleau-Pontian phenomenology. The boundary of the body does not serve as a barrier adamant to exterior impacts. Rather, it is like a membrane that facilitates communication between the inside and the outside. The movement of the body is subject to the ebb and flow of the material world imagined by American Romantics as the oceanic whole. A tactile subject is therefore also an emotional subject in that its tactility directs the “motions” of the body. Ahab’s e-motional dis-ease, I argue, can be regarded as a counterexample of surrendering one’s body to the e-motional flow of the world. In addition, Melville’s contemplation between color and emotion in “The Whiteness of the Whale” echoes the aesthetics of modernist paintings elaborated on by Merleau-Ponty in “Eye and Mind.” This similarity lays bare the fact that, for both, meaning lies neither in the inside nor in the outside, but is engendered through the “movement” of the body in the world. The meaning, therefore, is corporeal. Returning the meaning to the world, Merleau-Ponty, heading toward a de-anthropocentric mode of thinking, began to forge a new ontology which implies an ethics of coexistence. The possibility of the act of peace can best be illustrated by the phenomenological attitude that Ishmael adopts in his observation of the cetacean animals. In brief, through interpreting Moby-Dick in terms of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, I hope to reveal the environmental potential of both and to appreciate the value of eco-subject.

並列關鍵字

Merleau-Ponty ； eco-phenomenology ； Moby-Dick ； e-motion ； tactile subject ； corporeal meaning ； animality ； ethics of coexistence

參考文獻

Gordon, Haim, and Shlomit Tamari. Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception: A Basis for Sharing the Earth. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 2004.

Liang, Sun-Chieh. “The Face of a Dog: Levinas and the Animal.” Chung Wai Literary Quarterly 34.8 (2006): 123-50.

Abram, David. “Merleau-Ponty and the Voice of the Earth.” Environmental Ethics 10.2 (Summer 1998): 101-20.

---. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.

Benjamin, Walter. “Doctrine of the Similar.” 1933. Trans. Knut Tarnowski. New German Critique 17(1979): 65-69.

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生態現象學初探：以梅洛龐蒂閱讀《莫比•迪克》，以梅爾維爾回饋梅洛龐蒂

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