Volume 21, 1996
Douglas Low
Pages 377-390
Merleau-Ponty and the Foundations of Multiculturalism
I attempt to present Merleau-Ponty here as one of the West’s first multiculturalists. He developed his characteristically balanced position some forty to fifty years ago, and he managed to do so without completely abandoning Western claims of rational justification. What he does abandon is a preestablished reason and its claim to absolute certainty. For Merleau-Ponty, rationality always remains to be established and always remains partial and incomplete. Yet his position does not fall into the skepticism and relativism of most of the postmodernist philosophies that have developed since his death in 1961, that have developed without a full appreciation of the explanatory power of his writings.