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Addressing Merleau-Ponty's work Phenomenology of Perception, in
dialogue with The Visible and the Invisible, his lectures at the
College de France, and his reading of Proust, this book argues that
at play in his thought is a philosophy of "ontological lateness".
This describes the manner in which philosophical reflection is
fated to lag behind its objects; therefore an absolute grasp on
being remains beyond its reach. Merleau-Ponty articulates this
philosophy against the backdrop of what he calls "cruel thought", a
style of reflecting that seeks resolution by limiting,
circumscribing, and arresting its object. By contrast, the
philosophy of ontological lateness seeks no such finality-no
apocalypsis or unveiling-but is characterized by its ability to
accept the veiling of being and its own constitutive lack of
punctuality. To this extent, his thinking inaugurates a new
relation to the becoming of sense that overcomes cruel thought.
Merleau-Ponty's work gives voice to a wisdom of dispossession that
allows for the withdrawal of being. Never before has anyone engaged
with the theme of Merleau-Ponty's own understanding of philosophy
in such a sustained way as Whitmoyer does in this volume.
The Possibility of Philosophy presents the notes that Maurice
Merleau-Ponty prepared for three courses he taught at the CollEge
de France: "The Possibility of Philosophy Today," given in the
spring semester of 1959; and "Cartesian Ontology and Ontology
Today" and "Philosophy and Nonphilosophy since Hegel," both given
in the spring semester of 1961. The last two courses remain
incomplete due to Merleau-Ponty's unexpected death on May 3, 1961.
Nonetheless, they provide indications of the new ontology that
informed The Visible and the Invisible, a posthumously published
work that was under way at the same time. These courses offer
readers of Merleau-Ponty's late thought a wealth of references-to
painting, literature, and psychoanalysis, and to the works of
Husserl, Heidegger, Descartes, Hegel, and Marx-that fill in some of
the missing pieces of The Visible and the Invisible, especially its
often terse and sometimes cryptic working notes. We see more
clearly how Merleau-Ponty's attempt to bring forth a new ontology
indicates a fundamental revision in what it means to think, an
attempt to reimagine the possibility of philosophy.
Addressing Merleau-Ponty's work Phenomenology of Perception, in
dialogue with The Visible and the Invisible, his lectures at the
College de France, and his reading of Proust, this book argues that
at play in his thought is a philosophy of "ontological lateness".
This describes the manner in which philosophical reflection is
fated to lag behind its objects; therefore an absolute grasp on
being remains beyond its reach. Merleau-Ponty articulates this
philosophy against the backdrop of what he calls "cruel thought", a
style of reflecting that seeks resolution by limiting,
circumscribing, and arresting its object. By contrast, the
philosophy of ontological lateness seeks no such finality-no
apocalypsis or unveiling-but is characterized by its ability to
accept the veiling of being and its own constitutive lack of
punctuality. To this extent, his thinking inaugurates a new
relation to the becoming of sense that overcomes cruel thought.
Merleau-Ponty's work gives voice to a wisdom of dispossession that
allows for the withdrawal of being. Never before has anyone engaged
with the theme of Merleau-Ponty's own understanding of philosophy
in such a sustained way as Whitmoyer does in this volume.
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