Dimensional this (my body as bearer of dimensions)

A V&I working-note coinage — left in English in MP's French original — for the structure by which the body, while singular and concrete (a this), is also a dimension: a level that organizes the perceptible field. The June 1960 working note compresses the thesis: "Define the mind as the other side of the body... There is a body of the mind, and a mind of the body and a chiasm between them... My body is to the greatest extent what every thing is: a dimensional this." Dimensional-this names the bearer-of-dimensions side of the late-ontology cluster whose other terms are initiation (the opening-event of a dimension) and idea-as-dimension (the established level itself). Where idea-as-dimension names the world's invisible-of-the-visible, dimensional-this names what I am qua participant in that structure.

Key Points

MP's defining passage (V&I working note, June 1960): "There is a body of the mind, and a mind of the body and a chiasm between them. The passage to the limit, the Ueberstieg toward a depth, a dimensionality that is not that of extension, and a transdescendence of the negative toward the sensible. — Hence a body of the mind = sensible ideality. — Reverse what we did at the beginning: now the flesh is not the sensible only in what one senses but the sensible in the twofold sense of what one senses and what senses... My body is to the greatest extent what every thing is: a dimensional this."
Dimensional this is left in English in MP's French original. The term is not a French coinage that has been translated; MP himself reaches into English to name the structure.
Dimensional this is paired with measurant (mesurant): "a sensible that is dimensional of itself, universal measurant." My body does not measure against a standard outside it; it is a measurant — a level that registers other things as variations within its dimension. (Measurant is one of the 23 V&I primary concepts the extraction note lists as having no dedicated wiki page.)
Central but no page (V&I extraction-note line 372: "dimensionality-merleau-ponty / dimensional-this — central but no page"). Listed as one of 23 primary concepts in the V&I extraction note's inventory of load-bearing technical terms.
The structural pair with idea-as-dimension is exact: idea-as-dimension names the world's dimensions (the level "the idea is"); dimensional-this names my body's mode of being-among-and-as such dimensions.

Details

The defining passage

The June 1960 working note (V&I, working notes appendix) is the cardinal anchor:

"Define the mind as the other side of the body — We have no idea of a mind that would not be doubled with a body, that would not be established on this ground. The 'other side' means: the body as 'sensible-sentient' — i.e. as having a sensible relation to itself — — There is a body of the mind, and a mind of the body and a chiasm between them. The passage to the limit, the Ueberstieg (passing-beyond) toward a depth, a dimensionality that is not that of extension, and a transdescendence of the negative toward the sensible. — Hence a body of the mind = sensible ideality. — Reverse what we did at the beginning: now the flesh is not the sensible only in what one senses but the sensible in the twofold sense of what one senses and what senses — — My body is to the greatest extent what every thing is: a dimensional this, universal in its way, dimension of dimensions, Vermöglichkeit."

The passage compresses three theses:

The mind is not above the body but the body's other side — the chiasm's verso.
The body's mode of being is dimensional — it does not occupy a position in a pre-given space (the Cartesian partes extra partes) but opens a dimensionality that is itself a register of being.
My body is a dimensional this: a singular concrete bearer that is also a level / dimension / measurant.

The English-in-French is deliberate. MP reaches for "this" (the demonstrative, the τόδε τι, the haecceity) and then doubles it with "dimensional" — making the singular concrete and the universal level-opening hold together in a single term.

Why "dimensional this" rather than "dimension"

MP could have written dimension alone. The this is doing specific work: it preserves the body's singularity and concreteness against any reduction to abstract dimensionality. The body is not "a dimension" in the geometric sense (length, width, depth as Cartesian coordinates). It is a this — a bearer that is here, now, mine — and a dimension. The combination resists the philosophical temptation to choose between (a) the Aristotelian first-substance (a this that is not a universal) and (b) the Kantian transcendental subject (a universal that is not a this). The dimensional-this is both at once.

The cluster: initiation, idea-as-dimension, dimensional-this, measurant

The V&I extraction note's inventory of 23 primary concepts includes four terms that operate as a single late-ontology cluster:

initiation — the event by which a dimension is opened.
idea-as-dimension — the persistent level the event opens; the world's mode of bearing dimensions.
dimensional-this — my body's mode of being-among-and-as such dimensions.
measurant (mesurant) — the function the dimensional-this performs (it does not measure against an external standard; it is a measurant). No dedicated page yet.

The four together articulate MP's late-ontology answer to the question: how do bodies and worlds share a dimensional structure such that perception is possible? Idea-as-dimension is the world-side answer; dimensional-this is the body-side answer; initiation is the event-side answer; measurant is the function-side answer. The four are not strictly distinct concepts — they are angles on a single structural insight.

Why the term is silent

The dimensional-this is named in a working note, not in a chapter of the main text. It carries the weight of MP's late-ontology theory of the body, but it carries that weight under more visible names — primarily flesh and chiasm. The V&I extraction note flags it as "central but no page" because (a) it is named explicitly, (b) it is structurally load-bearing, but (c) it has been absorbed into flesh-as-element and chiasm without ever standing on its own as a wiki concept. The 2026-04-30 lint surfaced 2 dead links to [[dimensional-this]] from initiation and the V&I extraction; this page resolves them.

Positions

The wiki's reading: dimensional-this is the late-MP formulation of the body's mode of being qua bearer-of-dimensions. The reading depends on the V&I extraction-note's inventory of 23 primary concepts and on the structural pairing with idea-as-dimension, initiation, and the as-yet-unpaged measurant.

The reading is compatible with Beith's generative-passivity thesis (the body's mode of being is generative — it opens dimensions rather than occupying them) and with Carbone's sensible-ideas thesis (sensible ideas are dimensions; the body is the bearer that makes such dimensions perceivable). It is novel on the wiki in that no prior wiki page has named the dimensional-this as a distinct technical term.

Connections

is structurally paired with idea-as-dimension — idea-as-dimension is the world-side of the structure; dimensional-this is the body-side; both are V&I working-note coinages from the same 1959–60 cluster.
is presupposed by initiation — initiation opens dimensions for a dimensional-this; without a dimensional-this there is no bearer for the opened level.
enacts the measurant / mesurant structure — "sensible that is dimensional of itself, universal measurant" (June 1960 note).
is a reformulation of MP's earlier corps propre in late-ontology vocabulary — what PhP called corps propre becomes, in V&I, dimensional this.
contrasts with the Cartesian body (extended substance, partes extra partes) — the dimensional-this is not extended in the Cartesian sense; its dimensionality "is not that of extension."
is the body-side of chiasm — the chiasm requires a body that is both sensible and sentient; the dimensional-this is what makes that doubling possible.
is the bearer of MP's fundamental narcissism — the body's relation-to-itself is the fundamental narcissism's structural condition, and the dimensional-this is what makes that relation-to-itself dimensional rather than reflexive in a Cartesian sense.

Open Questions

What is the French original? MP wrote a dimensional this in English within French prose. The English term is the gesture; whether the working notes or marginalia contain a French equivalent (ce dimensionnel, un dimensionnel-ci) is worth tracking. The pattern — leaving a term in English to name a structure French resists — recurs in MP's late writing (cf. the Wesen (verbal) passage from Heidegger's German).
How does the dimensional-this relate to MP's earlier corps propre and body schema? The dimensional-this is recognizably the V&I successor to corps propre. Whether the change of vocabulary marks a substantive change in doctrine — or only a redescription in late-ontology terms — is a question the wiki's body-schema page does not yet engage.
Is "dimensional this" intended as a play on the haecceity tradition? Duns Scotus's haecceitas names the singular thisness that resists any further determination. MP's "dimensional this" sounds like a deliberate doubling: the haecceity is also a dimension. Whether MP read Scotus through the medieval-philosophy tradition or through Heidegger (who engages the haecceitas in early lectures) is unsettled.

Sources

merleau-ponty-1968-visible-and-invisible — primary source. The defining passage is the June 1960 working note (V&I working notes appendix). Listed as one of 23 primary concepts in the V&I extraction note's inventory; flagged at extraction-note line 372 as "central but no page" (paired with idea-as-dimension in the same flag).