This paper takes five different perspectives on kinesthesia, beginning with its evolution across animate life and its biological distinction from, and relationship to proprioception. It proceeds to document the historical derivation of “the muscle sense,” showing in the process how analytic philosophers bypass the import of kinesthesia by way of “enaction,” for example, and by redefinitions of “tactical deception.” The article then gives prominence to a further occlusion of kinesthesia and its subduction by proprioception, these practices being those of well-known (...) phenomenologists, practices that exemplify an adultist perspective supported in large part by the writings of Merleau-Ponty. Following this extended critical review, the article shows how Husserl’s phenomenology enlightens us about kinesthesia and in doing so offers us substantive clues to the phenomenology of learning as it takes place in the development and acquisition of skillful movement. It shows further how phenomenological methodology contrasts markedly with existential analysis, most significantly in its recognition of, and its ability to set forth a developmental history, a veritable genetic phenomenology that is basically a phenomenology of learning anchored in kinesthesia. After showing how that phenomenology of learning finds mutual validation in a classic empirical study of infant movement, the article ends by highlighting how human “I cans” are grounded in “I move,” specifically, in the pan-human ability to learn one’s body and learn to move oneself. (shrink)

Topology has been characterized as an unsuitable mathematical framework for the investigation of geometric-perceptual phenomena. This has been attributed to the highly abstract nature of topology leading to failures in tasks such as making distinctions between geometrical figures (e.g., a cube versus a sphere) in which the human perceptual system succeeds easily. An alternative thesis is proposed on both philosophical and empirical grounds. The present analysis applies the Müller-Lyer (ML) illusion as a method of investigation to examine the suitability of (...) topology in raising questions about geometric-perceptual phenomena and formulating potential answers to these questions. Not only will it be concluded that topology is a suitable mathematical framework in which one can formulate relevant questions and potential answers with respect to perceptual phenomena such as the ML illusion, it will also be discussed that topology will not be replaced by other means of spatial representation consistent with the findings that indicate its contributions to our daily spatial behavior along with other means such as Euclidean geometry. In addition, the analysis will be discussed with respect to two relevant themes: 1) the implications of the proposed view in relation to Husserl’s phenomenology and 2) the effect of developmental stages and education that may change the involvement of topology in such perceptual responses over time. (shrink)