Merleau-Ponty and Buber on seeing and not seeing the Other: inclusion and exclusion in education

Abstract

Merleau-Ponty's theory of ‘embodiment’, of the body as mediator of the world, has been very influential in philosophical and educational circles. This is to say, according to the theory of ‘embodiment’, the body is central to one's ‘understanding’ of the world, to one's engagement with Others, as well as to one's self-transformation. As such, a fundamental question arises: what are the implications for the individual's interaction with Others when one of the body's senses, such as sight, is impaired in one way or another? In this article, we engage with this question by way of focusing on the issue of blindness and how it affects one's interation with the Other. Following from this, we will propose that ‘dialogical education’ as conceived by Martin Buber is a powerful tool in breaching the gap that very often exists between non-sighted and sighted individuals. In so doing, we also provide a justification and an approach advancing inclusive education.

Keywords:

• inclusion
• blindness
• Merleau-Ponty
• Buber

Notes on contributors

Alexandre Guilherme is Director of the Paulo Freire Centre for the Study of Critical Pedagogy, and Lecturer in Philosophy of Education at Liverpool Hope University.

Ida Mara Freire is Professor of Education at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Notes

1 Semi-structured interviews were carried out with eight non-sighted and three sighted participants of the Potlach Dance Group between 2003 and 2005. Interviews were taped, kept as a field diary and an interpretative phenomenological analysis was used in accordance to themes (e.g. blindness; body; dance; perception of the Other). This passage was selected because it instantiates the manifestation of the Other in the life of a non-sighted individual. ‘Judith’ is not her real name. The Potlach Dance Group is a project that involves individuals who are blind or visually impaird from the Santa Catarina Association for the Integration of the Blind (ACIC), Brazil as well as connected to the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (UFSC), Brazil. This study was published in Freire (2008).

2 A semi-structured questionnaire was used and the participant was asked to provide answers in writing describing her experiences with blindness. This took place in 2004 and an interpretative phenomenological analysis was used. This participant was selected because of her experiences as both a sighted and a non-sighted individual. This passage was chosen because it instantiates her experiences with sight and blindness. ‘Sophia’ is not her real name. This study was published in Freire (2005).

3 It is important to draw attention to the German word Du, which is present in the original German title as well as in the foundational concept Ich-Du. Walter Kauffman in his important and modern translation of the work points out that Du is the German personal pronoun one uses to address friends or family, people with whom one has a close relationship. Du is the informal personal pronoun and this is in contrast with Sie which is the personal pronoun used to address people one is not familiar with or that one does not have a close relationship with or that is used as a sign of respect (e.g. to elders). This distinction is present in many languages (e.g. French: Tu and Vous); however, it has been lost in English. The English archaic personal Thou, which was the equivalent of Du, has lost its informal connotation in modern times, and as such it does not capture the idea of informality present in Buber's text. Perhaps, Du is better translated in English as you, which is something Kauffman actually does in his translation – he only kept the original Thou of the title (cf. Buber 1972). That said, I have opted to keep Thou throughout the text so to follow the conventional terminology of the secondary literature.

4 This is an ethnographic study. A semi-structured interview was conducted with a non-sighted actor and dancer in Nottingham in 2002, and an interpretative phenomenological analysis was used. This passage was selected because it instantiates the perception of the I and the Other in the life of a non-sighted individual. ‘Michael’ is not his real name. This study was published in Freire (2003).