The conduct, the speech and the judgment: ethical assumptions from Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

The present article addresses the possibility analysis of an ethical foundation from the experience of the other understood as a carnal presence and a gesture concrete realization. The familiarity stamped between the I and the other in how dealing with mundane things and the dissimilarity in many intentional behaviors, leads the I to open a range of reflections about himself, making an ethical logos possible. Gestures and words are the main elements of the intersubjective experience, establishing the status of an ethical reflection. Hence, meanings will be emerged from speech, showing that the language widens the opening of common world among the speaking subjects. In the intersubjective opening established by language, values and expressions are contextualized in cultural experiences, which are irreconcilable in many aspects. As a result, the reflection of consciousness is activated since it is already ingrained in the world through meanings.