J. van der Veken - Böcker

This volume evaluates the contribution of Merleau-Ponty to various philosophical problems, from the culminative point of view of more than 30 years of continental philosophy since the time of his death. However, as the various essays gathered here confirm, the title of the volume risks a certain irony that which is involved in trying to place into vision (albeit now in only too silent and invisible a manner), namely an original thought whose creative unfolding still awaits its future. As the various papers of this volume are intended to attest, Merleau-Ponty is a contemporary philosopher who offers directions for philosophical interrogation, whose discussion of the issues remains pertinent for our time. Like recent collections of essays on Merleau-Ponty, the present volume offers a critical and interpretive look backward to his works from a relatively differentiated and stable vantage point from which they might come definitively into view, but beyond this the present volume is unique in also moving forward to the works of Merleau-Ponty just as we now move in an exploratory way toward the future of philosophy.

This work considers philosophy to be more than mere reflection. Through philosophy, humankind can give meaning to the world. In part, this book re-evaluates the philosophy of Leo Apostel, who dedicated his life to the investigation of the use of philosophy in everyday life. But it is also a presentation of international research carried out along the lines of the "Worldview" project. The contributions address not only professional philosophers, but also students, teachers, academics and everyone interested in the relationship between philosophy and the world.

Merleau-Ponty in contemporary perspective: this was the theme of the conference at the Institute of Philosophy, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K. U. L. ) from 29 November to 1 December 1991. Thirty years after Merleau­ Ponty's untimely death, it seemed appropriate to bring together scholars from Europe and from the United States of America to reappraise his philosophy. In fact, a significant body of scholarship has emerged which would seem to attest to the continuing importance of his thought for a variety of disciplines within the humanities, the social sciences, and the philosophy of nature. In the present volume, Gary Brent Madison addresses the issue whether Merleau-Ponty can be considered to be a classical philosopher. The fact that his work is one of the highlights of the phenomenological tradition and is of continuing inspiration for researchers in various domains seems to justify that claim. Yet, it is the feeling of many of the contributors to this volume that the so-called "second Merleau-Ponty" is still not really known. The unfinished state of The Visible and the Invisible and the cryptic condition of many of the "Working Notes" may be responsible for that. More research should be done, to uncover "the unsaid" of Merleau-Ponty. lowe to a remark of Paul Ricoeur in his introduction to the work of G. B. Madison, La Phenomenologie de Merleau-Ponty. Une recherche des limites de la conscience (Paris, Klincksieck, 1973, p.