The Sensible World And The World Of Expression

The Sensible World and the World of Expression presents the lecture notes for a course taught by Maurice Marleau-Ponty, a central figure of phenomenological philosophy, at a key point in his career.

This volume of the collected writings of John Sallis presents a two-semester lecture course on Maurice Merleau-Ponty given at Duquesne University from 1970 to 1971. Devoted primarily to a close reading of the French philosopher's magnum opus, Phenomenology of Perception, the course begins with a detailed analysis of The Structure of Behavior. The central topics considered in the lectures include the functions of the phenomenological body; beyond realism and idealism; the structures of the lived world; spatiality, temporality, language, sexuality; and perception and knowledge. Sallis illuminates Merleau-Ponty's first two works and offers a thread to follow through developments in his later essays. Merleau-Ponty's notion of the primacy of perception and his claim that "the end of a philosophy is the account of its beginning" are woven throughout the lectures. For Sallis's part, these lectures are foundational for his extended engagement with Merleau-Ponty's The Visible and the Invisible, which was published in Sallis's Phenomenology and the Return to Beginnings.

In this book, Emmanuel Alloa offers a handrail for venturing into the complexities of the work of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–61). Through a comprehensive analysis of the three main phases of Merleau-Ponty’s thinking and a thorough knowledge of his many unpublished manuscripts, the author traces how Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy evolved and exposes the remarkable coherence that structures it from within. Alloa teases out the continuity of a motive that traverses the entire oeuvre as a common thread. Merleau-Ponty struggled incessantly against any kind of ideology of transparency, whether of the world, of the self, of knowledge, or of the self’s relation to others. Already translated into several languages, Alloa’s innovative reading of this crucially important thinker shows why the issues Merleau-Ponty raised are, more than ever, those of our time.

Merleau-Ponty has long been known as one of the most important philosophers of aesthetics, yet most discussions of his aesthetics focus on visual art. This book corrects that balance by turning to Merleau-Ponty's extensive engagement with literature. From Proust, Merleau-Ponty developed his conception of “sensible ideas,” from Claudel, his conjoining of birth and knowledge as “co-naissance,” from Valéry came “implex” or the “animal of words” and the “chiasma of two destinies.” Literature also provokes the questions of expression, metaphor, and truth and the meaning of a Merleau-Pontian poetics. The poetic of Merleau-Ponty is, the book argues, a poetic of the flesh, a poetic of mystery, and a poetic of the visible in its relation to the invisible. Ultimately, theoretical figures or “figuratives” that appear at the threshold between philosophy and literature enable the possibility of a new ontology. What is at stake is the very meaning of philosophy itself and its mode of expression.

This volume presents the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, a great philosopher and social theorist of mid-twentieth century, as a viable alternative to both modernism and postmodernism. Douglas Low argues that Merleau-Ponty's philosophy offers explanations and solves problems that other philosophies grapple with, but do not resolve, given their respective theoretical presuppositions and assumptions. Low brings the work of Merleau-Ponty into critical contact with important thinkers, including Sartre, Heidegger, Derrida, and Marx. He highlights Merleau-Ponty's connection to the early Hegel, especially with regard to the criticism of modernism's "representational consciousness" and its subsequent skepticism with regard to our being in the world. Merleau-Ponty made a concerted effort to solve the problems that come about due to a wide variety of Western dualisms: body and mind, perception and conception, self and other, etc. He frequently does so by demonstrating the connection between these disparate terms, the connection of perception with affect and interest, fact with value, and a broadened view of science with moral and philosophical judgment. Merleau-Ponty's unique contribution is his focus on the lived-through perceiving body and its relationship to abstract thought and language. In his detailed analysis of the work of Merleau-Ponty, Low brings attention to a twentieth-century master capable of altering the landscape of modern and social philosophy in the twenty-first century.

Leading scholars explore the later thought of Merleau-Ponty and its central role in the modernism-postmodernism debate.

List of members in v. 1, 6, 12.

The articles in this volume reflect upon the intersections of corporeity and affectivity in Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology. They illuminate the meaning of his phenomenology regarding corporeity and affectivity from various phenomenological perspectives. Corporeity and Affectivity explores his invaluable contribution in interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary respect, including the humanities, the arts and the sciences. Contributors include: Alexei Chernyakov (†), Jagna Brudzińska, Universität Köln, IFiS PAN Warschau, Nicola Zippel, Sapienza University of Rome, Department of Philosophy, Karel Novotný, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University of Prague, James Mensch, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Humanities, Annabelle Dufourcq, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Humanities, Juho Hotanen, University of Helsinki, Silvia Stoller, Universität Wien, Pierre Rodrigo, Université de Bourgogne, Dijon, Antonino Firenze, University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Shaun Gallagher, University of Memphis, Department of Philosophy, Kwok-ying Lau, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Monika Murawska, The Academy of Fine Arts, Warsaw, Irene Breuer, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Mauro Carbone, Université “Jean Moulin” Lyon 3, Faculté de philosophie, László Tengelyi, Bergische Universität Wuppertal, Björn Thorsteinsson, University of Oceland, Institute of Philosophy, Mikkel B. Tin, Telemark University College, Porsgrunn, Tamás Ullmann, ELTE University of Budapest, Institute of Philosophy, Johann P. Arnason, La Trobe University, Melbourne; Charles University, Faculty of Humanities, Prague, Michael Staudigl, Vienna University, Department of Philosophy, Suzi Adams, Flinders University, Adelaide