As a tenacious and rigorous reader of the Cartesian corpus, Merleau-Ponty payed special attention to its ambiguities. On the one hand, the intellectualism of the Cartesian theory of perception (Dioptrique) goes along with a mechanistic physiology (Traité de l’Homme) and also with the substantial dualism of the first Méditations Métaphysiques. On the other, Descartes always insisted
on hylomorphism, composition, permixtio and even substantial union. Thereby, the human body becomes endowed with such peculiar properties as its inner binding, indivisibility and a biological self-interest, instilling a certain teleology into a part of extension.
García, E., & Castelli, P. (2013). See and think. Cartesian mechanistic physiology and phenomenology of the body. Revista De Filosofía, 69, Pág. 133–150. Retrieved from https://revistaei.uchile.cl/index.php/RDF/article/view/30123
