Phenomenological Reviews

Book | Chapter

176566

Merleau-Ponty

the depth of memory as the depth of the world

Glen Mazis(Penn State Hrrisburg)

pp. 227-250

Abstract

Merleau-Ponty came to see depth as the key not only to an adequate phenomenology of perception, but also the key to articulating a new ontology that could allow for the coming to be of truth, of the sens of the world, the meaning of history, the power of art, and ultimately of that strange intertwining of human being within time, ambiguity, materiality and language. For Merleau-Ponty, depth became the primary dimension of experience to be interrogated, "the dimension of dimensions" (EM, p. 185).1 The importance of depth to understanding Merleau-Ponty's use of the term "flesh" and as central to the import of both The Visible and the Invisible and "Eye and Mind" has yet to be fathomed. Without radicalizing the notion of depth as thoroughly as Merleau-Ponty, it is not possible to subvert the subjectivistic approach to human being, the mentalistic approach to subjectivity qua consciousness, or the dualistic, reifying, conceptions of the natural, historical, cultural world.

Publication details

Published in:

Silverman Hugh J, Mickunas Algis, Lingis Alphonso, Kisiel Theodore (1988) The horizons of continental philosophy: essays on Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. Dordrecht, Springer.

Pages: 227-250

DOI: 10.1007/978-94-017-3350-2_10

Full citation:

Mazis Glen (1988) „Merleau-Ponty: the depth of memory as the depth of the world“, In: H.J. Silverman, A. Mickunas, A. Lingis & T. Kisiel (eds.), The horizons of continental philosophy, Dordrecht, Springer, 227–250.