True philosophy is about relearning how to see the world.
Merleau-Ponty, Phénomenologie de la Perception, Galimard
All philosophy obliges us to look at things as if from a high vantage point, so that our gaze can encompass what is essential – from the past to the present, perhaps pointing to some dawn in the future.
Fernando Savater, “The Value of Educating”, Edições Dom Quixote
Every man’s destiny is at the same time his greatest pleasure. And every being is happy when it fulfills its destiny, that is, when it follows the slope of its inclination and its essential need, when it realizes itself, when it is being what it really is.
José Ortega Gasset, “What is Philosophy?”, Edições Cotovia
Merleau-Ponty’s originality will be to recognize that the body itself, as essentially distinct from the objective body, does not only mean the body that I feel is mine, nor only the subjective space of bodily sensations, but also and fundamentally my global pre-reflexive experience of being in the world… lived experience… embodied and characterized by a silent motor commitment in the world.
Luís Umbelino, Philosophy of the body and inventory of pain, Revista Filosófica de Coimbra
