October 04, 2005

Body is Vibration

Binghamton University Discussion Forum
Merleau-Ponty Circle
Wave-Structure-of-Matter theory proposes that all particles are results of an infinity of spherical waves in space aether interferring to create localized densities perceived as "stuff of the world".
Body is yet a higher-level vibratory density stability, reflecting upon itself, locating and identifying its relationship to other density stabilities, and forming ensembles of meaning.
Your idea sounds very much like Deleuze's conception of "intensities," but what you are saying sounds much more "literal." As bodies, you would be saying that we are concentrated intersections (interferences) of spherical waves. We (somehow consciously), and this is where it sounds Cartesian, "match up" our likeness with others to build communties, meaning, language, etc. This "reflection upon itself" part could lead to a theory of subjectivity, that, like Deleuze's "intensities," would manifest, exponentially, more concentrated wave interaction (i.e. in itself, in the body; of the body itself), leading to thought? It's a very good idea, it just needs to successfully make the leap, in your conception, to some kind of consciousness, and this is where you may run into trouble. But, on the other hand, as a more chiasmic ontology, it works holistically.
While this is an interesting idea, a look at the Structure of Behavior, the Phenomenology, the course notes on Nature, as well as the Visible/Invisible will provide some convincing arguments as to why your wave-fronts approach is seriously mistaken. Most obviously, it is important to remind oneself of MP's arguments against physicalist reduction - an approach to human behavior and intersubjectivity cannot be approached from the third-person (i.e. objective) perspective of physics. Human meaning is to be found at the level of humans, not that of microphysics; at least this is what MP (amongst others) argues.

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