Morris, David (2010) The Enigma of Reversibility and the Genesis of Sense in Merleau-Ponty. Continental Philosophy Review, 43 (2). pp. 141-165. ISSN 1573-1103
Preview |
Text (application/pdf)
194kBReversibility_Sense_Genesis_post_print.pdf - Accepted Version |
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11007-010-9144-7
Abstract
This article clarifies Merleau-Ponty’s enigmatic, later concept of reversibility by showing how it is connected to the theme of the genesis of sense. The article first traces reversibility through “Eye and Mind” and The Visible and the Invisible, in ways that link reversibility to a theme of the earlier philosophy, namely an interrelation in which activity and passivity reverse to one another. This linkage is deepened through a detailed study of a passage on touch in the Phenomenology’s chapter on “Sensing,” which shows how reversibility is important to the genesis of sense, not from some already given origin, but through a creative operation within being, beyond the perceiver, wherein the field of perception internally diverges into active and passive moments. The article connects this point about the genesis of sense to themes in Merleau-Ponty’s lectures on institution and passivity. Altogether the article shows how reversibility is a sign of a divergence and thence of a sort of gap or excess in being that allows for a genesis of sense within being itself.
| Divisions: | Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Philosophy |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Article |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| Authors: | Morris, David |
| Journal or Publication: | Continental Philosophy Review |
| Date: | May 2010 |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI): | 10.1007/s11007-010-9144-7 |
| Keywords: | Merleau-Ponty; phenomenology; reversibility; genesis of sense; meaning; touch; activity; passivity; institution |
| ID Code: | 6802 |
| Deposited By: | David Morris |
| Deposited On: | 03 Aug 2010 17:35 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Jan 2018 17:29 |
References:
Barbaras, Renaud. 2001. Merleau-ponty and nature. Research in Phenomenology 31:22-38.Cataldi, Sue L. 1993. Emotion, depth, and flesh: A study of sensitive space -- reflections on Merleau-Ponty's philosophy of embodiment. Albany: SUNY Press.
Claudel, Paul. 1929. Art poétique: Traité de la co-naissance au monde et de soi-mème. Sixième édition. Paris: Mercure de France.
Derrida, Jacques. 1981. Plato's pharmacy. In Dissemination, ed. Barbara Johnson, 61-171. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dillon, M.C. 1987. Apriority in Kant and Merleau-ponty. Kant-Studien 78:403-423.
———. 1988. Merleau-ponty's ontology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Grosz, Elizabeth. 1999. Merleau-ponty and Irigaray in the flesh. In Merleau-ponty, interiority and exteriority, psychic life and the world, eds. Dorothea Olkowski and James Morley, 145-166. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Hass, Lawrence. 1999. Sense and alterity: Rereading Merleau-Ponty's reversbility thesis. In Merleau-ponty, interiority and exteriority, psychic life and the world, eds. Dorothea Olkowski and James Morley, 91-105. Albany: State University of New York Press.
———. 2008. Merleau-ponty's philosophy. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hölldobler, Bert, and Edward O. Wilson. 2009. The superorganism: The beauty, elegance, and strangeness of insect societies. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Irigaray, Luce. 1993. An ethics of sexual difference. London: Althone Press.
Kelly, Sean Dorrance. 2005. Seeing things in Merleau-Ponty. In The cambridge companion to merleau-ponty, eds. Taylor Carman and Mark B.N. Hansen, 74-110. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kleinberg-Levin, David Michael. 1999. The philosopher's gaze: Modernity in the shadows of enlightenment. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lawlor, Leonard. 2002. Verflechtung: The triple significance of Merleau-Ponty’s course notes on Husserl’s “The Origin of Geometry”. In Maurice Merleau-Ponty: Husserl at the limits of phenomenology, ed. Leonard Lawlor, ix-xxxvii. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press.
———. 2003. Thinking through French philosophy: The being of the question. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
———. 2006. Implications of immanence: Toward a new concept of life. New York: Fordham University Press.
Levin, Michael. 2005. Left-right asymmetry in embryonic development: A comprehensive review. Mechanisms of Development 122:3-25.
Mallin, Samuel B. 1979. Merleau-Ponty's philosophy. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1945. Phénoménologie de la perception. Paris: Gallimard.
———. 1962. Phenomenology of perception. Translated by Colin Smith. Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: The Humanities Press. Original edition, 1945.
———. 1964. Eye and mind. In The primacy of perception, 159-190. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
———. 1964. L'oeil et l'esprit. Paris: Gallimard.
———. 1964. Le visible et l'invisible. Paris: Gallimard.
———. 1964. Signs. Translated by Richard C. McCleary. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
———. 1965. The structure of behaviour. Translated by Alden L. Fisher. London: Methuen. Original edition, 1941.
———. 1968. The visible and the invisible. Translated by Alphonso Lingis. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. Original edition, 1964.
———. 1995. La nature: Notes, cours du Collége de france. Paris: Seuil.
———. 2002. Husserl at the limits of phenomenology. Translated by Leonard Lawlor. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
———. 2003. L'institution/ la passivité: Notes de cours au Collège de France (1954-1955). Paris: Editions Belin.
———. 2003. Nature: Course notes from the Collége de France. Translated by Robert Vallier. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.
———. 2007. New working notes from the period of The Visible and the Invisible. In The Merleau-Ponty reader, eds. Ted Toadvine and Leonard Lawlor, 415-446. Evanston, Il: Northwestern University Press.
Morris, David. 2008. The time and place of the organism: Merleau-Ponty's philosophy in embryo. Alter: Revue de phénoménologie 16:69-86.
Seeley, Thomas D. 1995. The wisdom of the hive: The social physiology of honey bee colonies. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Seeley, Thomas D., and P. Kirk Visscher. 2004. Quorum sensing during nest-site selection by honeybee swarms. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 56:594-601.
Seeley, Thomas D., P. Kirk Visscher, and Kevin M. Passino. 2006. Group decision making in honey bee swarms. American Scientist, May-June, 220-229.
Vallier, Robert. 2005. Institution: The significance of Merleau-Ponty's 1954 course at the collège de france. Chiasmi International 7:281-302.
van Cleve, James, and Robert E. Frederick, (eds). 1991. The philosophy of right and left: Incongruent counterparts and the nature of space. Dordrecht: Springer.
Vasseleu, Cathryn. 1998. Textures of light: Vision and touch in Irigaray, Levinas, and Merleau-Ponty. London: Routledge.
Zahavi, Dan. 2002. Merleau-ponty on Husserl: A reappraisal. In Merleau- ponty's reading of Husserl, eds. Ted Toadvine and Lester E. Embree, 3-30. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
All items in Spectrum are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved. The use of items is governed by Spectrum's terms of access.
Repository Staff Only: item control page
Download Statistics
Download Statistics