Journal of Literary Criticism

Journal of Literary Criticism

Phenomenology of Lived Experience in Confrontation with Artificial Intelligence: A Narrative-Cognitive Reading of Merleau-Ponty's and Heidegger's Views in Ted Chiang's Short Story Collection "Exhalation"

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
2 Ph.D. Graduated in TEFL, Tehran university, Tehran
3 Postdoctoral Research Fellow in English Language and Literature, University of Mazandaran
10.22034/jlc.2026.559189.1793
Abstract
This paper examines the fundamental confrontation between human "lived experience" and the nature of artificial intelligence through the lens of Merleau-Ponty's embodied phenomenology and Heidegger's temporal ontology. Focusing on the narrative structures of three stories from Ted Chiang's collection "Exhalation"—"The Lifecycle of Software Objects," "The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling," and "Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom"—this study employs a mixed-methods approach of quantitative and qualitative content analysis and narratology to demonstrate that human lived experience is grounded in three fundamental pillars: embodiment, temporality, and Being-in-the-World. An analysis of 3,650 semantic units revealed that 87% of dialogues concerning "digients" emphasize embodiment, 94% of human interactions are disrupted under conditions of absolute certainty, and 78% of users of the Prism device suffer from analysis paralysis. Statistical findings indicate a strong positive correlation (r=0.89) between the lack of embodiment and the inability to comprehend qualitative experiences, and a strong negative correlation (r=-0.92) between absolute certainty and the depth of human relationships. These results clearly demonstrate that artificial intelligence, due to its lack of the ontological foundations of lived experience, is fundamentally incapable of understanding or replicating the depth of human experience. By adopting a systematic interdisciplinary approach, this study tests abstract philosophical concepts within literary narratives, ultimately arguing that "Exhalation" stands as a literary bulwark against technological reductionism, preserving the complexity, ambiguity, and profundity of human existence.
Keywords

Subjects



Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 18 February 2026

  • Receive Date 11 November 2025
  • Revise Date 06 February 2026
  • Accept Date 18 February 2026