Merleau-Ponty and Derrida : Intertwining Embodiment and Alterity

Jack Reynolds

ISBN 10: 0821415921 / ISBN 13: 9780821415924

Published by Ohio University Press Aug 2004, 2004

About this Item

Neuware - While There Have Been Many Essays devoted to comparing the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty with that of Jacques Derrida, there has been no sustained book-length treatment of these two French philosophers. Additionally, many of the essays presuppose an oppositional relationship between them, and between phenomenology and deconstruction more generally. Jack Reynolds systematically explores their relationship by analyzing each philosopher in terms of two important and related issues--embodiment and alterity. Focusing on areas with which they are not commonly associated (e.g., Derrida on the body and Merleau-Ponty on alterity) makes clear that their work cannot be adequately characterized in a strictly oppositional way. Merleau-Ponty and Derrida: Interwining Embodiment and Alterity proposes the possibility of a Merleau-Ponty-inspired philosophy that does not so avowedly seek to extricate itself from phenomenology, but that also cannot easily be dismissed as simply another instantiation of the metaphysics of presence. Reynolds argues that there are salient ethico-political reasons for choosing an alternative that accords greater attention to our embodied situation. As the first full-length monograph comparing the philosophers, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida will interest scholars and students in European philosophy and teachers of courses dealing with deconstruction.

Seller Inventory # 9780821415924

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Merleau-Ponty and Derrida : Intertwining Embodiment and Alterity
• Publisher: Ohio University Press Aug 2004
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0821415921
• ISBN 13: 9780821415924
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 216W x 140H x 0D millimeters 216 millimeters width by 140 millimeters height by 0 millimeters depth
• Weight: 538 grams

About this title

Synopsis

While there have been many essays devoted to comparing the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty with that of Jacques Derrida, there has been no sustained book-length treatment of these two French philosophers. Additionally, many of the essays presuppose an oppositional relationship between them, and between phenomenology and deconstruction more generally.

Jack Reynolds systematically explores their relationship by analyzing each philosopher in terms of two important and related issues—embodiment and alterity. Focusing on areas with which they are not commonly associated (e.g., Derrida on the body and Merleau-Ponty on alterity) makes clear that their work cannot be adequately characterized in a strictly oppositional way. Merleau-Ponty and Derrida: Intertwining Embodiment and Alterity proposes the possibility of a Merleau-Ponty-inspired philosophy that does not so avowedly seek to extricate itself from phenomenology, but that also cannot easily be dismissed as simply another instantiation of the metaphysics of presence. Reynolds argues that there are salient ethico-political reasons for choosing an alternative that accords greater attention to our embodied situation.

As the first full-length monograph comparing the philosophers, Merleau-Ponty and Derrida will interest scholars and students in European philosophy and teachers of courses dealing with deconstruction.

About the Author

Jack Reynolds is a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Tasmania. He is the continental area editor of the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy and editor of Acumen Press’s Major Movements in Modern Thought Series. He is the coeditor of Understanding Derrida and author of the forth-coming Understanding Existentialism.