Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-m9kch Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-03T05:32:16.505Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Reflections on Feminist Merleau-Ponty Skepticism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Abstract

Shannon Sullivan's critique of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception is based on the argument that, due to his concept of the “anonymous body,” his theory of intersubjectivity omits the particularities of bodies, such as gender. I argue that Merleau-Ponty's “anonymous body” (le corps phénoménal) is not in fact “neutral” as Sullivan suggests, and moreover that he does not ignore differences but rather provides us with the idea of difference as a process of differentiation. Additionally, I argue that Sullivan's concept of “hypothetical construction,” which is introduced as an alternative to Merleau-Ponty, turns out to be a conscious construction, not reflecting upon its very conditions. Thus, Sullivan's account fails by presupposing what in fact needs to be explained: the particularities.

Type
Comment/Reply
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, Jeffner. 1993. Through the wild region: An essay in phenomenological feminism. In Merleau‐Ponty and psychology, ed. Hoeller, Keith. New Jersey: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1989. Sexual ideology and phenomenological description. A feminist critique of Merleau‐Ponty's Phenomenology of perception. In The thinking muse: Feminism and modern French philosophy, ed. Allen, Jeffner and Young, Iris Marion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Merleau‐Ponty, Maurice. 1945. Phénoménologie de la perception. Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Merleau‐Ponty, Maurice. 1962. Phenomenology of perception. Trans. Smith, Colin. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Merleau‐Ponty, Maurice. 1988. Merleau‐Ponty à la Sorbonne. Résumé de cours 1949–1952. Grenoble: Cynara.Google Scholar
Meyer‐Drawe, Käte. 1987. Leiblichkeit und Sozialität. München: Fink.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Shannon.1997. Domination and dialogue in Merleau‐Ponty's Phenomenology of perception. Hypatia 12 (1): 119.Google Scholar
Waldenfels, Bernhard. 1994. Antwortregister. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar