Merleau-Ponty’s Developmental Ontology
ISBN: 9780810137943
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Northwestern University Press
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter
Subjects: Merleau-Ponty Maurice 1908–1961; Ontology -- History -- 20th century; Philosophy Modern; Philosophy of nature;

Winner of the 2020 Edward Goodwin Ballard Prize in Phenomenology

Merleau-Ponty's Developmental Ontology shows how the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, from its very beginnings, seeks to find sense or meaning within nature, and how this quest calls for and develops into a radically new ontology.

David Morris first gives an illuminating analysis of sense, showing how it requires understanding nature as engendering new norms. He then presents innovative studies of Merleau-Ponty's The Structure of Behavior and Phenomenology of Perception , revealing how these early works are oriented by the problem of sense and already lead to difficulties about nature, temporality, and ontology that preoccupy Merleau-Ponty's later work. Morris shows how resolving these difficulties requires seeking sense through its appearance in nature, prior to experience--ultimately leading to radically new concepts of nature, time, and philosophy.

Merleau-Ponty's Developmental Ontology makes key issues in Merleau-Ponty's philosophy clear and accessible to a broad audience while also advancing original philosophical conclusions.

DAVID MORRIS is a professor of philosophy at Concordia University. He is the author of The Sense of Space.

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