Merleau-Ponty's Philosophy

by Lawrence Hass

The work of French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty touches on some of the most essential and vital concerns of the world today, yet his ideas are difficult and not widely understood. Lawrence Hass redresses this problem by offering an exceptionally clear, carefully argued, critical appreciation of Merleau-Ponty's philosophy. Hass provides insight into the philosophical methods and major concepts that characterize Merleau-Ponty's thought. Questions concerning the nature of phenomenology, perceptual experience, embodiment, intersubjectivity, expression, and philosophy of language are fully and systematically discussed with reference to main currents and discussions in contemporary philosophy. The result is a refreshingly jargon-free invitation into Merleau-Ponty's important and transformational way of understanding human experience.

Genres: Philosophy, Biography

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 11, 2008

Reviews

[Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

After reading the excellent At the Existentialist Cafe, I became curious to learn more about Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology. I chose Lawrence Hass’ introduction and I think this was the correct approach, seeing it would have been pretty difficult to read several of the original texts without much preparation.

I think the Merleau-Ponty ontology of expression (language, ideas) and the interconnected self-things-others (visible world) is a modern and credible approach, replacing the dualistic mind / body type approaches of Descartes and others. And I enjoyed reading a philosophical book after a long break and using words like phenomenology in a review :)

[Alan Lengel · Rating 4 out of 5]

One morning, the instructor in an art studio placed an apple on a table and told the students to get busy. Those students with a Cartesian background presented the ideal apple with perfect shape and shine and extras like a stem and deep, iridescence. Theirs was a mental 're-presentation' of the external. The existentialists, on the other hand, painted the actual apple with flaws in shape and color, bruises and even a fly attending to a small fissure in its skin. Included in the scene were depictions of the table, the cloth below the apple and even a vague reflection of the apple in a mirror. The phenomenological method
expects a perception of the visible world as a Gestalt synergy of inter-relationships and inter-subjectivities of focal points (actual selves or things) present in a field or background that provides meaning. The one Buddhist in the class possessed great equanimity as she complemented the work by all the students. Her own depiction was, of course, empty.

[Pavlogreen]

Lawrence Hass se marca con este libro una introducción original y completa al pensamiento de Mauricio Merlo-Puente, como me gusta llamar al amigo Maurice. La materia prima filosófica es brutal, claro está, pero el enfoque, el estilo y la inteligencia en la exposición del autor hacen que la propia filosofía de Merleau-Ponty resulte aún más luminosa. No se deja nada en el tintero y ofrece explicaciones claras de algunos de los conceptos más complejos de la obra de un autor cuya lectura y comprensión no siempre es fácil. Hay muchas páginas a las que no he podido sacarles todo el partido que me gustaría porque son complejas, no nos engañemos, y más sin un conocimiento amplio de la obra del francés, que yo no tengo, pero eso solo es una invitación a volver a leerlo y a sumergirme directamente en libros como la Fenomenología de la percepción o Lo visible y lo invisible. Habrá que.

[Kamakana · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you like this review i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

??? 2000s: favourite book on merleau-ponty (2010), though it might be this is just the latest read. i wish he had not died so relatively young for a philosopher, though i find it easier to read about his thoughts than to read his own work. i am steeped in continental philosophy, i began with sartre and have gone on to m-p, then some heidegger, and while sartre is the best writer it is particularly the ideas of embodied being from m-p that i find most convincing. there is a certain indefinable pleasure in feeling i understand ideas of his philosophy...

more
Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Basic Writings
Phenomenology of Perception
The Visible and the Invisible
Merleau-Ponty's Last Vision: A Proposal for the Completion of "The Visible and the Invisible"
The Retrieval of the Beautiful: Thinking Through Merleau-Ponty’s Aesthetics
Ark of the Possible: The Animal World in Merleau-Ponty
The Merleau-Ponty Aesthetics Reader: Philosophy and Painting
Merleau-Ponty's Ontology
The Being of the Phenomenon: Merleau-Ponty's Ontology
Merleau-Ponty: Critical Assessments of Leading PhilosophersMerleau-Ponty's Phenomenology: The Problem of Ideal Objects
Merleau-Ponty and Buddhism

[David Markwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lawrence Hass' treatment of Merleau-Ponty's is thorough and well written. While I agree with Hass' assessment, regarding Merleau-Ponty's philosophy as a philosophy of expression, he only really develops this view at the end of the book, and as such, the book suffers from being too much of an introduction to Merleau-Ponty's philosophy and not an elaboration of that thought. All in all though I think this would be a readable introduction for someone who has never encountered Merleau-Ponty.

[Mkp · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing is prolix and sometimes maddening, but this is a surprisingly good book. The author's description of the Visible and the Invisible is valuable, and his extensive efforts to explicate his ideas pay off. This is a book that I will come back to.