Resistance of the Sensible World: An Introduction to Merleau-Ponty

by Emmanuel Alloa, Renaud Barbaras (Foreword), Jane Marie Todd (Translator)

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a comprehensive analysis of the three main phases of Merleau-Ponty’s thinking and a thorough knowledge of his many unpublished manuscripts, the author traces how Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy evolved and exposes the remarkable coherence that structures it from within.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.

152 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 2017

Reviews

[Eros Carvalho · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this short and illuminating essay on Merleau-Ponty's work, the author defends that resistance to transparency, that is, the idea that our practical mode of understanding the world can be fully made explicit, is the main theme unifying all his reflections. Despite the title, this book is not really meant to be an introduction to Merleau-Ponty's philosophy.