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The development of the political philosophy of Merleau-Ponty

Humanism and the rejection of terror

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Abstract

This article follows the development of Merleau-Ponty’s political philosophy from his 1947 text, Humanism and Terror, through a number of essays in the Adventures of the Dialectic, to the Preface to Signs published in 1959. It shows the process by which Merleau-Ponty escaped the “grip of marxism” as a philosophy of history. It notes the link between his philosophy of history and the concrete historical events of his times, particularly the Russian Revolution and its degeneration into Stalinism. It suggests a certain analogy between Merleau-Ponty’s reflection on the October Revolution and Kant’s reflection on the French Revolution. The notion of the universal class of the proletariat is the guiding thread in the analyses of both Merleau-Ponty’s proximity to marxism and the process by which he frees himself from its grip. We observe the role that this concept plays in Humanism and Terror and in the essays on Weber and Lukacs in the Adventure of the Dialectic where we eventually see its dissolution. It is argued that Merleau-Ponty arrives at a new conception of historical meaning which is neither totalizing or empiricist. The paper concludes by presenting an outline of the direction that his philosophy of history took after he extricated himself from marxism. This new philosophy took the form of a critical reflection on the role of the “notion of the hero” in 20th century political philosophy in general, particularly in Heidegger and Sartre.

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Notes

  1. Furet (1981).

  2. Merleau-Ponty (1969).

  3. Kant (1987).

  4. Kant (1970).

  5. Kant (1970, p. 53).

  6. Hegel (1951).

  7. Marx (1967).

  8. Lukacs (1971).

  9. Marx (1965).

  10. Merleau-Ponty (1969, pp. 115–116).

  11. Merleau-Ponty (1969, xvii).

  12. Merleau-Ponty (1969, pp. 147–148).

  13. Merleau-Ponty (1969, p. 153).

  14. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1955).

  15. Ibid., p. 5.

  16. Ibid., p. 228.

  17. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1970).

  18. Adventures of the Dialectic, p. 16.

  19. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1964).

  20. Adventures of the Dialectic, p. 21.

  21. Ibid., p. 45.

  22. Ibid., p. 54.

  23. Idid.

  24. Ibid., p. 55.

  25. Ibid., p. 94.

  26. Ibid., p. 91.

  27. Ibid., p. 205.

  28. Ibid., p. 207.

  29. Ibid., p. 222.

  30. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1992).

  31. Ibid., p. 127.

  32. Ibid., p. 1.

  33. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1960).

  34. I would be inclined to take a certain distance from Heidegger’s reading of Nietzsche here. See B. Flynn (1994).

  35. Ibid.

  36. Signs, p. 35.

  37. Ibid.

  38. Lefort (2007).

  39. Signs, p. 35.

References

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  • Furet, F. (1981). Interpreting the French Revolution, tr. E. Forster. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

  • Kant, E. (1970). Perpetual peace: A philosophical sketch, Kant’s political writings tr. H. B. Nisbet. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University, p. 86.

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  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (1970). Resume de Cours: College de France 1952–1960, tr. John O’Neill. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, pp. 33–34

  • Merleau-Ponty, M. (1992). The Discovery of History, Texts and Dialogues, tr. Michael Smith. London: Humanities Press, p. 126.

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  1. Empire State College, State University of New York, 225 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10014, USA

    Bernard Flynn

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Flynn, B. The development of the political philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. Cont Philos Rev 40, 125–138 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-007-9053-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11007-007-9053-6

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