Philosophy of Ontological Lateness Merleau-Ponty and the Tasks of Thinking
Produktdetaljer
Om bidragsyterne
Keith Whitmoyer is Adjunct Assistant Professor at Pace University, the School of Visual Arts, and the New York City College of Technology, USA.[Whitmoyer's] reading of Merleau-Ponty is accurate and deep, but what makes it original is its tone ... [His] reading of Merleau-Ponty’s texts ... is reliable and often deep and insightful.
Phenomenological Reviews
Whitmoyer has an interesting and original take on Merleau-Ponty's conception of phenomenology. He is particularly illuminating on the difficult later works.
- Eric Matthews, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Aberdeen, UK,
<i>The Philosophy of Ontological Lateness</i> offers a sustained consideration of the paradoxical matrix of anxiety and desire that shaped Merleau-Ponty’s metaphilosophical temperament as profoundly <i>retardé</i>. Embracing this belatedness by turns systematic and lyrical, Whitmoyer interlaces his reading of Merleau-Ponty with an evocative meditation on the precarious contingency of human finitude and the consequent need to come to terms with love and faith as essential conditions of any viable conception of philosophical reason.
- Bryan Smyth, Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, University of Mississippi, USA,
Addressing Merleau-Ponty’s work Phenomenology of Perception, in dialogue with The Visible and the Invisible, his lectures at the Collège 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.
1. Introduction
Part I: Cruel Thought
2. First Chapter, Interrogation, Cruel Thought and Inquisition
3. Second Chapter, Cruel Thought and the Object
4. Third Chapter, Cruel Thought and a Consciousness Without Fissures
5. Fourth Chapter, Transcendental Contamination and the Permanent Dissonance of Being
Part II: The Deflagration of Sense
6. Fifth Chapter, Le sentir and the Genesis of Sense: Perceptual Synthesis and Temporality
7. Sixth Chapter, Temporality disparue
8. Seventh Chapter, Freedom and Lateness to Becoming
Part III: Philosophy of Weakness, Philosophy of Lateness
9. Eighth Chapter, Merleau-Ponty’s Eulogy to Philosophy
10. Ninth Chapter, The Lateness of Philosophy
11. Tenth Chapter, Fugitive Love: At the Point of Departure
12. Conclusion
Formerly Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy; for titles published before September 2012 click here.
Bloomsbury Studies in Continental Philosophy presents cutting-edge scholarship in the field of modern European thought. The wholly original arguments, perspectives and research findings in titles in this series make it an important and stimulating resource for students and academics from across the discipline.