Depth and Infinity in Merleau-Ponty

Abstract

Should we not abstain from discussing the matter of infinity in MerleauPonty’s philosophy of “being-in/to-the-world”,¹ which positively refuses to transcend the world? This question may be one of the reasons why there have been, as far as I now know, few papers on this issue. No one can doubt that being-in/to-the-world emphasizes the finitude of our being. We neither can nor should we adopt, as Merleau-Ponty says, “an innocent way of thinking from the infinite, which produced high rationalism” (S 189). But it naturally does not mean that being-in/to-the-world has nothing to do with infinity in every sense. What is important is to reform the notion of infinity so that it may fit into being-in/to-the-world. What kind of infinity is possible in MerleauPonty’s philosophy of perception?