Overview
Addressing Merleau-Ponty’s work Phenomenology of Perception, in dialogue with The Visible and the Invisible, his lectures at the Collège de France, and his reading of Proust, this book argues that at play in his thought is a philosophy of “ontological lateness”. This describes the manner in which philosophical reflection is fated to lag behind its objects; therefore an absolute grasp on being remains beyond its reach. Merleau-Ponty articulates this philosophy against the backdrop of what he calls “cruel thought”, a style of reflecting that seeks resolution by limiting, circumscribing, and arresting its object. By contrast, the philosophy of ontological lateness seeks no such finality—no apocalypsis or unveiling—but is characterized by its ability to accept the veiling of being and its own constitutive lack of punctuality. To this extent, his thinking inaugurates a new relation to the becoming of sense that overcomes cruel thought. Merleau-Ponty’s work gives voice to a wisdom of dispossession that allows for the withdrawal of being. Never before has anyone engaged with the theme of Merleau-Ponty’s own understanding of philosophy in such a sustained way as Whitmoyer does in this volume.
Full Product Details
Author: Keith Whitmoyer (Assistant Adjunct Professor, New York City College of Technology, USA)
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Weight: 0.494kg
ISBN: 9781350003972
ISBN 10: 1350003972
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 07 September 2017
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
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Reviews
Whitmoyer has an interesting and original take on Merleau-Ponty's conception of phenomenology. He is particularly illuminating on the difficult later works. -- Eric Matthews, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Aberdeen, UK The Philosophy of Ontological Lateness offers a sustained consideration of the paradoxical matrix of anxiety and desire that shaped Merleau-Ponty's metaphilosophical temperament as profoundly retarde. Embracing this belatedness by turns systematic and lyrical, Whitmoyer interlaces his reading of Merleau-Ponty with an evocative meditation on the precarious contingency of human finitude and the consequent need to come to terms with love and faith as essential conditions of any viable conception of philosophical reason. -- Bryan Smyth, Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, University of Mississippi, USA
Whitmoyer has an interesting and original take on Merleau-Ponty's conception of phenomenology. He is particularly illuminating on the difficult later works. -- Eric Matthews, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Aberdeen, UK
Whitmoyer has an interesting and original take on Merleau-Ponty's conception of phenomenology. He is particularly illuminating on the difficult later works. -- Eric Matthews, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Aberdeen, UK The Philosophy of Ontological Lateness offers a sustained consideration of the paradoxical matrix of anxiety and desire that shaped Merleau-Ponty's metaphilosophical temperament as profoundly retarde. Embracing this belatedness by turns systematic and lyrical, Whitmoyer interlaces his reading of Merleau-Ponty with an evocative meditation on the precarious contingency of human finitude and the consequent need to come to terms with love and faith as essential conditions of any viable conception of philosophical reason. -- Bryan Smyth, Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, University of Mississippi, USA
Author Information
Keith Whitmoyer is Adjunct Assistant Professor at Pace University, the School of Visual Arts, and the New York City College of Technology, USA.
