CFP - The Enduring Contemporary Relevance of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (IPJP)
Jean du Toit
Call for papers
Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology
Special issue
The Enduring Contemporary Relevance of Maurice Merleau-Ponty
edited by Jean du Toit (University of Fort Hare)
Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s philosophical work may be understood either as continuing Husserl’s imperative to ‘return to the things themselves’, or as advancing the phenomenological movement to the pinnacle of its most radical expression. In either case, Merleau-Ponty represents one of the key philosophers of the 20th century and his magnum opus, Phenomenology of Perception, remains a revolutionary work of existential phenomenology. Even his posthumously published corpus stands as a conceptual treasure trove, charting new territory through generative concepts such as la chair as ontology of being, reversibility, and perceptual faith. Arguing that consciousness is always incarnate, and therefore that our ideas are similarly incarnate, Merleau-Ponty’s description of “the basic structures of human experience from a first person perspective” continues to inform scholarship today (Carman, 2002: viii).
The phenomenological project, for him, entails an attempt to “relearn to look at the world” in a way that renders it “strange and ambiguous” (Matthews, 2010: 17; PP xiii) – not to overlook everyday things, but to uncover them. For Merleau-Ponty the world is already there as an inalienable presence before reflection begins; and phenomenology serves to give philosophical status to the description of one’s experience through the “direct and primitive contact” of the individual with the world (PP vii). It is because we are through and through compounded of relationships with the world that the only way to become aware of this fact is to suspend the resultant activity, to put it ‘out of play’, to refuse it our complicity (to look at it ohne mitzumachen, as Husserl often said).
Merleau-Ponty suggests that “the theory of the body is already a theory of perception”; that perception is founded in one’s primordial engagement with a world grounded in contingent and temporal corporeal experience (PP 235). He describes how (1) perception is the individual’s entire bodily inhabiting of its environment (relating closely to contemporary theories of 4E cognition); that (2) perception is perspectival and finite from the body (PP 81); that (3) through perception the individual is absorbed within and directed towards objects within the world, and ‘forgets’ the essence of consciousness in perception (PP 67, VI 213); and that (4) perceptual experience of the world extends to the perspectival structure of all human experience and understanding (in The Visible and the Invisible) (Carman, 2008: 1–3).
Merleau-Ponty’s ceaseless meditation on the senses, specifically vision (LeFort, 2002: xvii), also informs his reflections on language, history, and politics. His writing on language seeks its secret through the vision of the painter (LeFort, 2002: xviii) and his account of perception is fundamental to his views on Marxism and politics (LeFort, 2002: xix). Moreover, his work on embodiment continues to stimulate debate and insight in contemporary cognitive science, animal studies, and in terms of technology (e.g. scaffolded cognition). Similarly, his examination of topics such as emotions, action, intersubjectivity and our relation to others, dreaming, human freedom, the cultural world, time and space, and aesthetics suggest new directions for theorizing.
It is the aim of this special issue to promote reinvigoration and sustained interest in the work of Merleau-Ponty, to develop scholarship that describes a state of ‘wonder’ in the face of the world (PP xiv–xv).
Topics of discussion could include (but are not limited to) the following:
- -Merleau-Ponty in conversation with classic and contemporary philosophers.
- -The relevance of Merleau-Ponty to Artificial Intelligence, the contemporary technosphere, and digital societies.
- -Merleau-Ponty and contemporary health care, medicine, and wellness.
- -Merleau-Ponty’s contributions for addressing climate change and environmental destruction, including new insights for environmental philosophy and ethics.
- -Cognitive science and major recent scientific insights, including Big Science and animal studies.
- -The relation of his thought to feminist, queer, and transgender issues.
- -Merleau-Ponty in conversation with the Global South, particularly African thought.
- -Merleau-Ponty and (the) media, as broadly construed.
- -The political implications and possible contributions of Merleau-Ponty’s thought to topics such as authoritarianism, economic inequality, and armed conflict.
- -The relationship between Merleau-Ponty and imagination.
- -The contributions of Merleau-Ponty’s later work to contemporary thought.
The contributors must submit their papers by 31 July 2025, with expected publication of papers towards the end of the year.
Guidelines for authors:
https://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?show=instructions&journalCode=ripj20
Journal information:
https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/ripj20/about-this-journal
Submit manuscripts to online IPJP editorial system and
also send a copy to Jean du Toit (editor of special issue) - jdu...@ufh.ac.za
References:
Carman, T. 2002. Foreword. (In Merleau-Ponty, M., 2002. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by C. Smith. London: Routledge).
Carman, T. (2008) Merleau-Ponty. London: Routledge.
Husserl, E. 1900/1901. Logical Investigations, edited by Dermot Moran. 2nd ed. 2 vols. London: Routledge. Reprint, Routledge, 2001.
LeFort, C. 2002. Maurice Merleau-Ponty. (In Merleau-Ponty, M., 2002. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by C. Smith. London: Routledge).
Matthews, E. 2010. Merleau-Ponty: A guide for the perplexed. Continuum.
Merleau-Ponty, M. 1968. The Visible and the Invisible, edited by Claude Lefort and translated by Alphonso Lingis. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.
Merleau-Ponty, M., 2002. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by C. Smith. London: Routledge.