The concept of depth is central to Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology and informed not only his philosophy of perception but also his thinking about psychology, art and politics. This article traces the ways the notion of depth appears in Merleau-Ponty’s thinking in these fields, contrasting it with Husserl’s own phenomenological investigations. The article starts with a comparison of the function of perception in Husserl’s phenomenology and then proceeds with an analysis of how the issue of depth reappears in Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception, phenomenology of art and political philosophy. I argue that while Husserl’s approach to phenomenology led him to analyses of aesthetics stemming from works of art as random examples, and to non-participation in politics, Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology leads to the opposite approach, inviting concrete criticism in art and active participation in politics. It is argued that Merleau-Ponty’s approach is more philosophically consistent. The choice of particular works of art, and the particular political engagements, can retrospectively clarify the transcendental phenomenological investigations themselves.

深度的概念是梅洛-庞蒂现象学的核心，不仅为他的感知哲学提供了信息，而且为他关于心理学，艺术和政治的思想提供了信息。本文追溯了梅洛-庞蒂在这些领域的思想中出现的深度概念的方式，并将其与胡塞尔自己的现象学研究进行了对比。本文首先比较了胡塞尔现象学中的感知功能，然后分析了梅洛-庞蒂的感知现象，艺术现象和政治哲学中深度问题如何重现。我认为，尽管胡塞尔的现象学方法使他对作为随机实例的艺术作品进行的美学分析以及对政治的不参与，但梅洛-庞蒂的现象学却导致了相反的方法，邀请艺术界提出具体批评并积极参与政治。有人认为，梅洛-庞蒂的方法在哲学上更加一致。对特定艺术作品的选择以及特定的政治参与可以追溯地澄清先验现象学研究本身。