Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy

Lawrence Hass is Professor of Philosophy at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He is editor (with Dorothea Olkowski) of Re-Reading Merleau-Ponty: Essays Beyond the Continental-Analytic Divide.

"One would think that scholarship on Merleau-Ponty nearly a half-century after his death would consist largely of mopping up disputed details. But longtime Merleau-Ponty scholar Hass (Muhlenberg College) contends that central points of Merleau-Ponty's philosophy, particularly his understanding of cognition, remain largely misunderstood. Hass's aim is twofold: (1) to interpret and defend major strands in Merleau-Ponty's overall thought, including his phenomenological method, work on perception, embodiment, intersubjectivity, and ontology in a way accessible to relative beginners; and (2) to excavate his theory of expression. For Merleau-Ponty, conceptualization and language are not representational products of the mind's access to an ideal or transcendental realm, but rather evidences of the multifaceted expressive possibilities of bodily life. After extensive stage-setting, Hass delves into philosophy of mathematics to make t! he case that Merleau-Ponty's model of cognition is a compelling alternative to current theories. Along the way, he considers many of Merleau-Ponty's most influential critics, including Foucault and Derrida, to arrive at a nuanced assessment of Merleau-Ponty's weaknesses as well as his strengths. The result is a valuable contribution to scholarship bridging analytic and Continental concerns. While clear and largely jargon-free, it remains bracing going. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates through faculty/researchers. —Choice"— A. B. Curry, St. Joseph College, January 2009"[T]his ambitious text is well worth reading. . . Toadvine offers a bold, yet carefully constructed reading of the early ontology oriented by Merleau-Ponty's later self-evaluations of it.Winter 2010"—Environmental Ethics"[T]his is one of the few [Merleau-Ponty books] that is genuinely important.Volume 15, Issue 2, Fall/Automne 2011"—Symposium". . . a valuable contribution to scholarship bridging analytic and Continental concerns. . . . clear and largely jargon-free. . . . Recommended.January 2009"—Choice"Hass has a profound understanding of Merleau-Ponty's thought."—Leonard Lawlor, University of Memphis"This book will quickly become the staple Merleau-Ponty reference for both graduate and undergraduate students."—Dorothea Olkowski, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsList of Abbreviations of Texts by Merleau-PontyIntroduction: Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy: "Singing the World"Prelude: Scenes from the Cartesian Theater1. The Sensation Fallacy: Toward a Phenomenology of Perception2. The Secret Life of Things3. Singing the Living Body Electric4. Elemental Alterity: Self and Others5. Later Developments: Ecart, Reversibility, and the Flesh of the World6. Expression and the Origin of Geometry7. Behold "The Speaking Word": The Expressive Life of LanguageConclusion: The Visible and the InvisibleAppendix: The Multiple Meanings of Flesh in Merleau-Ponty's Late WritingsNotesBibliographyIndex