Dominique Pagani refers to Merleau-Ponty almost always through In Praise of Philosophy, his inaugural lecture at the Collège de France. He regularly quotes its line "if the philosopher were a rebel, he would shock less," which he applies to Socrates, who is more dangerous to the city than a mere rebel. He borrows from him the triangle of the self, the true and the others: we go towards the true with others, but others are not gods, and being with them is not enough1. He also takes up the image of philosophy that limps, the idea of a philosophy that challenges people and that must be renewed after being put into books, and the episode of Bergson's refusal of the Pétain regime2. He presents him as a great author, less in the media than Sartre and Camus, and recalls his critique of Sartre's "ultra-Bolshevism." In his view, Merleau-Ponty saves the honour of postwar philosophy and, without being a Marxist, never dragged Marxism through the mud3. Finally, he regrets that we have gone from Merleau-Ponty to Onfray.
Summary produced automatically from 32 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.
Who is this?
Maurice Jean Jacques Merleau-Ponty ( MUR-loh PON-tee; French:; 14 March 1908 – 3 May 1961) was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. The constitution of meaning in human experience was his main interest and he wrote on perception, art, politics, religion, biology, psychology, psychoanalysis, language, nature, and history. He was the lead editor of Les Temps modernes, the leftist magazine he established with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir in 1945. […]
11:44Once one starts giving reasons, others oppose them and respect disappears.
1:24:58In Praise of PhilosophySets out the triangle of self, the true and others: it is with others that one reaches the true, but being with them is not enough.
2:20In Praise of PhilosophyHe saw that the philosopher is always at odds with the city, and thought through the triangle "myself, the true, and others."
Talks · 14 Jul 2022From Plato to world revolution
