Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The World of Perception - Timothy R. Quigley

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IntroductionTHOMAS BALDWINMAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY (1908–61)Merleau-Ponty was one of the most creative philosophers ofthe twentieth century. He combined a new way of thinkingabout the basic structures of human life with reflections on art,literature and politics which draw on this new philosophy.These lively radio talks from 1948 show him at the height ofhis powers, moving easily between philosophical themes anddiscussions of painting and politics; the emphasis on paintingis indeed specially notable here, as is the way in which he usesthis to indicate his philosophical themes. The result is a brieftext which provides the best possible introduction to his philosophy,especially since this is dominated by a larger and morecomplex text published in 1945 – Phenomenology of Perception. 1But these talks should also be valued in their own right, for inmany respects the contrasts with the past which Merleau-Ponty1
draws and the anxieties which he articulates are still ours. In myown introduction, after a brief account of Merleau-Ponty’slife and philosophy, I shall say a little about each talk (‘lecture’),connecting them with Merleau-Ponty’s other writings, and alsoreflecting briefly on their significance for us.LIFEMerleau-Ponty’s father died in 1913 while he was still a smallchild, and, along with his brother and sister, he was brought upin Paris by his widowed mother. This situation of growing upwithout a father was one which he shared with Jean-Paul Sartreand Albert Camus, and was indeed common throughoutEurope after the First World War. 2 In Merleau-Ponty’s case,despite the absence of a father, this period seems to have beenone of exceptional happiness and intimacy, and he carried thememory of it throughout his life:It is at the present time that I realize that the first twentyfiveyears of my life were a prolonged childhood, destinedto be followed by a painful break leading eventually toindependence. If I take myself back to those years as Iactually lived them and as I carry them within me, myhappiness at that time cannot be explained in terms ofintroduction
Page 5 and 6: First published in French as Causer
Page 8 and 9: ForewordThe seven lectures collecte
Page 10: are preceded by a number. We have e
Page 15 and 16: shortly before the war. This second
Page 17 and 18: After his death Merleau-Ponty’s r
Page 19 and 20: empiricism is not of this kind. Thi
Page 21 and 22: The central theme of Merleau-Ponty
Page 23 and 24: acknowledgement of its special stat
Page 25 and 26: world of perception can be dismisse
Page 27 and 28: When Merleau-Ponty says that scienc
Page 29 and 30: Florentine Renaissance, or, in a Fr
Page 31 and 32: photograph in which the feet look a
Page 33 and 34: intrinsic properties which explain
Page 35 and 36: which our own life has been disturb
Page 37 and 38: only contingently connected to a ph
Page 39 and 40: imagining that our dependence upon
Page 41 and 42: Merleau-Ponty now extends this aest
Page 43 and 44: etter conception of reason (e.g. di
Page 46: The World of Perception
Page 50 and 51: The world of perception, or in othe
Page 52 and 53: explain the illusions of long- and
Page 54 and 55: provide all the answers at a time w
Page 56: exercise of a pure and unsituated i
Page 60 and 61: It has often been said that modern
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which effect certain changes in the
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along lines running from the painte
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In the footsteps of science and pai
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LECTURE 3Exploring the World of Per
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worlds of sight, smell, touch and s
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touch. 2 To say that honey is visco
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complexes. This is what Cézanne me
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us and above all in the found objec
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In the first three lectures, we arg
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children and the sick was held back
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person must remain open to these ab
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flow from the centre of the ‘body
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delegation to identify this monumen
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Thus far we have tried to look at s
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haunts a body and we seem to see a
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ack to the real experience of anger
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we have received from without and w
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which makes us crave their assent o
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LECTURE 6Art and the World of Perce
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world once more, as if in an exchan
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that the painter takes hold of a fr
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do explain why, hitherto, there hav
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looks at the things themselves with
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LECTURE 7Classical World, Modern Wo
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In modernity, we have a representat
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Proust himself who raises them. As
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works of intellectuals, then to see
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with a feeling of completion or per
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NotesFOREWORD1 Merleau-Ponty’s te
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20 Although Merleau-Ponty usually t
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6 Sartre, ‘L’Homme et les Chose
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5 Paul Valéry, passim. See, for ex
Page 135 and 136:
freedom 27-8Freud 76Galileo 21geome
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Maurice Merleau-Ponty: The World of Perception - Timothy R. Quigley

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