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The Being of the Phenomenon: Merleau-Ponty's Ontology.

Article Excerpt
Barbaras, R. (2002). The Being of the Phenomenon: Merleau-Ponty's Ontology (T. Toadvine & L. Lawlor, Trans.). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 368 pp., ISBN 0-253-21645-1, $24.95 (Softcover).

"Merleau-Ponty's ontology does not break with phenomenology, rather it is phenomenology's most significant achievement." (Barbaras, p. 312)

Readers of this Journal will need no convincing that Merleau-Ponty's contribution to phenomenological psychology can't be overestimated. So, when a major philosophical commentary is published, it behooves us to pay this work some attention. Published in French in 1991, and translated into English by Ted Toadvine and Leonard Lawlor (themselves accomplished Merleau-Ponty scholars) in 2002, this text may be slow reading to the non-specialist but worth the effort if one seeks an authoritative account of the full trajectory of Merleau-Ponty's thought.

Because they are so explicitly directed toward philosophical psychology, many readers will be acquainted with Merleau-Ponty's early works: The Structure of Behavior and the magnum opus Phenomenology of perception. But, as it is less overtly directed toward psychology, and actually outright rejects psychological nomenclature, few psychologists will have encountered the full power of Merleau-Ponty's final ontology in The Visible and the Invisible. This is unfortunate as it is this final stage of Merleau-Ponty's thought that is viewed by specialists as the most appropriate framework for grasping the actual significance of these earlier more psychologically oriented works. Only through the lens of the latter ontology can we best grasp the far-reaching intention behind Merleau-Ponty's appropriation of psychology.

While no second person exegesis can replace one's own personal encounter with primary sources, there is a place for commentaries such as this one. Here is where expert commentary can be extremely...