Toccare l'alterità: fenomenologia e percezione tattile

The paper explores the idea of a philosophy of the sense of touch, according to the phenomenological tradition - from Husserl to Irigaray, passing through Merleau-Ponty and Levinas. In fact, the question of touch leads to a more essential philosophy of flesh which is the fundamental counterpart of the rehabilitation of the sensible as transcendental immanence. By touching an object, I experience my Body as a "sensitive object". In representing the tactile features of external object, touching also involves a tactile experience of the Body itself. So the sensation is localized in the body, thereby constituting two things at the same time: the sensed object (tactile features of the object) and the sensing Body (Body as a sensitive organ). The localization of all other sensations occurs by virtue of a previous constitution of the Body by touch. This is a key theme of the paper, to enhance the reflection on whether a phenomenology of touch can be thought as being a philosophy of the flesh