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The Phenomenological Philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961)

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Part of the Phaenomenologica book series (PHAE,volume 6)

Abstract

Maurice Merleau-Ponty is the author of the first French systematic work which displays the word “phénoménologie” in its main title, the Phénoménologie de la perception. This fact in itself establishes for him an important place in the annals of the Phenomenological Movement. But even apart from that, he has gone further than most other French philosophers, including Sartre, by identifying phenomenology with philosophy as such. This fact would seem to require the inclusion of his entire philosophy in the present account of the French phase. The only circumstance which can free me from such a vast assignment is the relative and, to some extent, intrinsic incompleteness and fluidity of his philosophy at this time.

Keywords

  • Life World
  • Phenomenological Reduction
  • Phenomenological Philosophy
  • Phenomenal Field
  • Phenomenological Movement

These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Selective Bibliography

Major Works

  • La Structure du comportement (1942) (SC)

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  • Phénoménologie de la perception (1945) (PP) Translation: English (Preface only) in Crosscurrents VI (1956), 59–70, by John F. Bannan — fair, not free from serious mistakes.

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  • Humanisme et terreur (1947) (HT) “Le Primat de la perception et ses conséquences philosophiques,” Bulletin de la Société Française de Philosophie,Oct-Dec. 1947 (PPCP)

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  • Sens et non-sens (1948) (SN) “Le Philosophe et la sociologie,” Cahiers Internationaux de Sociologie X (1951) 55–69

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  • Les Sciences de l’homme et la phénoménologie. Cours de Sorbonne. Introduction et première partie. 1951–2 (SP) “L’Homme et l’adversité,” Rencontres internationales de Genève (1952) 51–75 (RI) “Sur la Phénoménologie du langage” Problèmes actuels de la phénoménolo- gie (1952) (PA), 91–109

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  • Éloge de la philosophie (1953) (EP)

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  • Les Aventures de la dialectique (1955) (AD)

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  • Les Philosophes célèbres (1956) (PC)

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Studies on Merleau-Ponty

  • Alquié, F., “Une Philosophie de l’ambiguité: L’existentialisme de Maurice Merleau-Ponty,” Fontaine no. 59 (1947), 47–70

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  • De Waelhens, Alphonse, Une philosophie de l’ambiguité: L’Existentialisme de Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1951)

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Articles in English

  • Bannan, John F., “Philosophical Reflection and the Phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty,” Review of Metaphysics VIII (1954), 418–42.

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  • Bayer, Raymond, “Merleau-Ponty’s Existentialism,” The University of Buffalo Studies 19 (1953), 95–104.

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  • Schuetz, Alfred, “Language, Language Disturbances, and the Texture of Consciousness,” Social Research XVII (1950), 380–2.

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  • Spiegelberg, Herbert, “French Existentialism: Its Social Philosophies,” Kenyon Review XVI (1954), 454–62.

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Most Complete Bibliography up to 1950

  • Douglas, Kenneth A Critical Bibliography of Existentialism (The Paris School) Yale French Studies. Special Monograph no. 1 (1950), items 201–229. (Some omissions)

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© 1971 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Spiegelberg, H. (1971). The Phenomenological Philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961). In: The Phenomenological Movement. Phaenomenologica, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-4744-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-4744-8_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-247-0240-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-4744-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive