The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World

Abram introduces phenomenology as a philosophical framework from which to understand the contrast between the experienced worlds of Indigenous cultures and the modern Western world. This framework, particularly based on Edmund Husserl’s work, challenges the modern assumption of a single, objective reality, tracing its roots back to René Descartes’s separation of mind and matter. Husserl’s phenomenology aims to return to “the things themselves” (34), focusing on the world as experienced in its immediate presence rather than as an object of scientific analysis. This approach emphasizes the subjective, lived experience as the foundation upon which all knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is built.

Abram discusses how Husserl’s work confronts the solipsism critique by highlighting the body’s role in mediating between subjective experiences and the intersubjective world shared with other beings. This leads to the recognition of a collective, experienced world that precedes and underlies scientific conceptualization. Husserl identifies this preconceptual world as the “lifeworld,” or the realm of direct, lived experience that is influenced by cultural practices and ways of engaging with the world. Despite the diversity of the lifeworld across cultures, Husserl suggests that shared structures or layers exist and that the earth itself provides a fundamental, grounding experience common to all.

Abram notes Husserl’s radical assertion that, phenomenologically speaking, the earth does not move, challenging the Copernican model from the standpoint of lived experience. This highlights a clash between scientific convictions and sensory perception, revealing a schism in the modern worldview. Husserl’s late work emphasizes the earth as the “secret depth” of the lifeworld, the common ground of all human experience and cognition.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s work advances Husserl’s phenomenology by emphasizing the lived experience of the body as central to understanding perception. Rejecting the notion of a disembodied, transcendental ego, Merleau-Ponty identifies the subject of experience as the bodily organism itself. He argues that without the body, there is no experience and no contact with the world, and thus the body is the true subject of experience. This perspective challenges the conventional view of the self as incorporeal, instead highlighting the body’s role in shaping human engagement with the world.

Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology considers the body an active participant in perception, not a passive recipient of sensory inputs. Its interactions with the world are fluid and dynamic, adjusting to the ever-shifting environment. This interaction is not deterministic but open and creative, allowing for genuine contact with the new and the unexpected. Perception, then, is an ongoing dialogue between the body and the world, characterized by mutual influence and reciprocity.

In his work, Merleau-Ponty uses active language to describe the perceptual world as animate and lively, challenging the traditional view of the sensible as passive. He argues that the most immediate human experience of things is active, engaging entities that enter into a communicative relationship with their bodies. This approach underscores the active participation of both the perceiver and the perceived in perception, suggesting that sensory engagement with the world is inherently animistic.

Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology thus offers a rethinking of perception as participatory, wherein the sensing body and the sensible world intertwine in a dynamic interplay. This perspective not only bridges the gap between subject and object but also reaffirms embodied experience as the foundation of understanding and interaction with the world. Perception, in this view, is not merely a cognitive process but a bodily practice that situates individuals within a more-than-human world of relations and exchanges.

To illustrate the participatory nature of perception, Abram cites the craft of sleight-of-hand magicians, who rely on active engagement between the body and the world to create magic. The magician’s tricks, such as making a coin vanish and reappear, rely on spectators’ senses to fill in gaps with impossible events. This engagement showcases that imagination is not a separate mental faculty but an inherent aspect of the senses, extending beyond the immediately perceivable to interact with the unseen aspects of the sensible.

Merleau-Ponty’s work highlights the reciprocal and interdependent relationship between the perceiver and the perceived. This idea aligns closely with Indigenous worldviews, which consider the environment sensate and responsive, necessitating respectful and mindful interaction. This recognition of perceptual reciprocity could inspire an environmental ethic that emphasizes empathy with the living land.

The blending of the senses, or synesthesia, is a fundamental aspect of perception, highlighting the interconnectivity of sensory experiences. This challenges the conventional separation of senses and suggests a deeper, embodied engagement with the world. Such engagement reveals the animate nature of all perceived things and is intended to foster connection with the environment. Merleau-Ponty’s later work emphasizes the common matrix underlying both the sentient and the sensible, suggesting continuity between the human body and the world. This perspective reveals language as a mediator of human-world relationships, capable of either enhancing sensory engagement with the environment or deadening it, depending on the cultural context.

In Indigenous cultures, language affirms and enriches the sensorial experience, speaking to and with the more-than-human world, fostering a sense of kinship and reciprocity. In contrast, Western language often distances from direct sensory engagement, privileging abstract thought over embodied experience. Abram argues that understanding this divergence in the role of language is crucial to rekindling a participatory, respectful relationship with the natural world.