Merleau-Ponty Edited by Taylor Carman and Mark B

Cambridge University Press 0521809894 - The Cambridge Companion to Merleau-Ponty Edited by Taylor Carman and Mark B. N. Hansen Frontmatter More information

the cambridge companion to MERLEAU-PONTY

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961) was described by Paul Ricoeur as “the greatest of the French phenomenologists.” Thenewessaysin this volumeexaminethefullscopeof Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy, from his central and abiding concern with the nature of perception and the bodily consti- tution of intentionality to his reflections on science, nature, art, history, and politics. Theauthors explorethehistorical origins and context of his thought as well as its continuing relevance to contemporary work in phenomenology, philosophy of mind, cognitive science, biology, art criticism, and political and social theory. What emerges is a fresh image of Merleau-Ponty as a deep and original thinker whose philosophical importance has been underestimated, in part owing to the influence of in- tellectual movements such as existentialism and structuralism, into which his work could not be easily assimilated. New readers will find this the most convenient and acces- sible guide to Merleau-Ponty currently available. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent de- velopments in the interpretation of Merleau-Ponty.

Taylor Carman is AssociateProfessorof Philosophy at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Mark B. N. Hansen is Associate Professor of English at Princeton University.

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 0521809894 - The Cambridge Companion to Merleau-Ponty Edited by Taylor Carman and Mark B. N. Hansen Frontmatter More information

other volumes in the series of cambridge companions:

ABELARD Edited by jeffreye. brower and kevin guilfoy ADORNO Edited by thomas huhn AQUINAS Edited by norman kretzmann and eleonore stump HANNAH ARENDT Edited by dana villa ARISTOTLE Edited by jonathan barnes AUGUSTINE Edited by eleonore stump and norman kretzmann BACON Edited by markku peltonen SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR Edited by claudia card DARWIN Edited by jonathan hodge and gregoryradick DESCARTES Edited by john cottingham DUNS SCOTUS Edited by thomas williams EARLY GREEK PHILOSOPHY Edited by a. a. long FEMINISM IN PHILOSOPHY Edited by miranda fricker and jennifer hornsby FOUCAULT Edited by garygutting FREUD Edited by jerome neu GADAMER Edited by robert j. dostal GALILEO Edited by peter machamer GERMAN IDEALISM Edited by karl ameriks GREEK AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHY Edited by david sedley HABERMAS Edited by stephen k. white HEGEL Edited by frederick beiser HEIDEGGER Edited by charles guignon HOBBES Edited by tom sorell HUME Edited by david fate norton HUSSERL Edited by barrysmith and david woodruff smith WILLIAM JAMES Edited by ruth anna putnam KANT Edited by paul guyer KIERKEGAARD Edited by alastair hannay and gordon marino LEIBNIZ Edited by nicholas jolley LEVINAS Edited by simon critchley and robert bernasconi LOCKE Edited by vere chappell MALEBRANCHE Edited by stephen nadler MARX Edited by terrell carver MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY Edited by a. s. mcgrade MEDIEVAL JEWISH PHILOSOPHY Edited by daniel h. frank and oliver leaman MILL Edited by john skorupski NEWTON Edited by i. bernard cohen and george e. smith NIETZSCHE Edited by bernd magnus and kathleen higgins OCKHAM Edited by paul vincent spade PASCAL Edited by nicholas hammond PEIRCE Edited by cheryl misak PLATO Edited by richard kraut PLOTINUS Edited by lloyd p. gerson QUINE Edited by roger f. gibson RAWLS Edited by samuel freeman THOMAS REID Edited by terence cuneo and ren´evan woudenberg ROUSSEAU Edited by patrick riley BERTRAND RUSSELL Edited by nicholas grifﬁn SARTRE Edited by christina howells SCHOPENHAUER Edited by christopher janaway THE SCOTTISH ENLIGHTENMENT Edited by alexander broadie SPINOZA Edited by don garrett THE STOICS Edited by brad inwood WITTGENSTEIN Edited by hans sluga and david stern

The Cambridge Companion to MERLEAU-PONTY

Edited by Taylor Carman Barnard College, Columbia University

Mark B. N. Hansen Princeton University

published bythe press syndicate of the universityof cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

cambridge universitypress TheEdinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru,UK 40 West 20th Street, New York, ny10011 -4211, USA 477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vic 3207, Australia Ruiz deAlarc on´ 13, 28014 Madrid, Spain Dock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa http://www.cambridge.org

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First published 2005

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A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The Cambridge companion to Merleau-Ponty / edited by Taylor Carman and Mark B. N. Hansen. p. cm. – (Cambridgecompanions to philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 0-521-80989-4 – isbn 0-521-00777-1 (pbk.) 1. Merleau-Ponty, Maurice, 1908–1961. I. Carman, Taylor, 1965- II. Hansen, Mark B. N. III. Series. b2430.m3764c36 2004 194 –dc22 2003069683

isbn 0 521 80989 4 hardback isbn 0 521 00777 1 paperback

contents

List of Contributors page vii

Introduction 1 taylor carman and mark b. n. hansen

1 Merleau-Ponty and the Epistemological Picture 26 charles taylor

2 Sensation, Judgment, and the Phenomenal Field 50 taylor carman

3 Seeing Things in Merleau-Ponty 74 sean dorrance kelly

4 Motives, Reasons, and Causes 111 mark a. wrathall

5 Merleau-Ponty and Recent Cognitive Science 129 hubert l. dreyfus

6 TheSilent,Limping Body of Philosophy 151 richard shusterman

7 Merleau-Ponty and the Touch of Malebranche 181 judith butler

vi Contents

8 A Phenomenology of Life 206 renaud barbaras 9 TheEmbryology of the(In)visible 231 mark b. n. hansen 10 Merleau-Ponty’s Existential Conception of Science 265 joseph rouse 11 Between Philosophy and Art 291 jonathan gilmore 12 Understanding the Engaged Philosopher: On Politics, Philosophy, and Art 318 lydia goehr 13 Thinking Politics 352 claude lefort References 381 Index 393

contributors

RENAUD BARBARAS is Professor of Contemporary Philosophy at theUniversityof Paris-I Panth eon–Sorbonne.´ He is the author of Del’etreˆ du phenom´ ene:` Sur l’ontologie de Merleau-Ponty (1991, 2001), La perception: Essai sur le sensible (1994), Le Tournant de l’experience:´ Recherches sur la philosophie de Merleau-Ponty (1998), and Le desir´ et la distance: Introduction a` une phenom´ enologie´ de la perception (1999). Del’etreˆ du phenom´ ene` and Le desir´ et la distance areboth forthcoming in English translation.

JUDITH BUTLER is Maxine Elliot Professor in the Departments of Rhetoricand ComparativeLiteratureattheUniversityof Califor- nia, Berkeley. She is the author of Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990), Bodies That Matter: On the Dis- cursive Limits of “Sex” (1993), The Psychic Life of Power: Theories of Subjection (1997), Antigone’s Claim: Kinship between Life and Death (2000), and numerous articles and contributions to philosophy and feminist and queer theory.

TAYLOR CARMAN is AssociateProfessorof Philosophy at Barnard College, Columbia University. He has written articles on topics in phenomenology and is the author of Heidegger’s Analytic: Interpre- tation, Discourse, and Authenticity in “Being and Time” (2003). He is currently writing a book on Merleau-Ponty.

HUBERT L. DREYFUS is Professor of Philosophy in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Michel Foucault: Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics (with Paul Rabinow) (1983), Mind over Machine (with Stuart Dreyfus)

vii

viii Contributors

(1986), Being-in-the-World: A Commentary on Heidegger’s “Being and Time,” Division I (1991), What Computers (Still) Can’t Do (1992), and On the Internet (2001).

JONATHAN GILMORE is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He has written articles in the philosophy of art, art history, and legal theory. He is the author of The Life of a Style: Begin- nings and Endings in the Narrative History of Art (2000).

LYDIA GOEHR is Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. Sheis theauthor of The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music (1992) and The Quest for Voice: Music, Politics, and the Limits of Philosophy (1998). Sheis currently working on music and critical theory, one example of which appears in The Cambridge Companion to Adorno (2004).

MARK B. N. HANSEN is Associate Professor of English at Princeton University. Heis theauthor of Embodying Technesis: Technology beyond Writing (2000), New Philosophy for New Media (2004), Bodies in Code: Interfaces with New Media (forthcoming); and essays on cultural theory.

SEAN DORRANCE KELLY is Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Jonathan Edwards Bicentennial Preceptor at Princeton University. His principal interests lie at the intersection of phenomenology, philosophy of mind, and cognitive neuroscience. He was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in recognition of his work in these areas.

CLAUDE LEFORT teaches social and political theory at the Ecole´ des Hautes Etudes´ en Sciences Sociales in Paris. His work has ap- peared in English translation under the titles The Political Forms of Modern Society: Bureaucracy, Democracy, Totalitarianism (1986), Democracy and Political Theory (1988), and Writing: The Political Test (2000).

JOSEPH ROUSE is Hedding Professor of Moral Science and Chair of the Science in Society Program at Wesleyan University. He is theauthor of Engaging Science: How to Think about Its Practices

Contributors ix

Philosophically (1996), Knowledge and Power: Toward a Political Philosophy of Science (1987), and How Scientific Practices Matter: Reclaiming Philosophical Naturalism (2002).

RICHARD SHUSTERMAN is Professor of Philosophy at Temple University, Philadelphia, and the College` International de Philoso- phie,Paris. Heis theauthor of Pragmatist Aesthetics: Living Beauty, Rethinking Art (2d ed., 2000), Practicing Philosophy: Pragmatism and the Philosophical Life (1997), Performing Live: Aesthetic Alter- natives for the Ends of Art (2000), and Surface and Depth: Dialectics of Criticism and Culture (2002). Heis also theeditorof Bourdieu: A Critical Reader (1999).

CHARLES TAYLOR is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at McGill University, Montreal. He is the author of The Explanation of Be- haviour (1964); two volumes of collected essays, Human Agency and Language and Philosophy and the Human Sciences (1985); Sources of the Self (1989); The Ethics of Authenticity (1991); Philosophical Arguments (1995); and Varieties of Religion Today: William James Revisited (2002).

MARK A. WRATHALL is AssociateProfessorof Philosophy at Brigham Young University. He has published articles on topics in the history of philosophy and philosophy of languageand mind, draw- ing on both theanalytic and continentaltraditions in philosophy. He recently edited Religion after Metaphysics (2003) and coedited Heidegger Reexamined (2002), Heidegger, Authenticity, and Moder- nity (2000), Heidegger, Coping, and Cognitive Science (2000), and Appropriating Heidegger (2000).