Abstract
Merleau-Ponty’s relationship with his Sorbonne professor Léon Brunschvicg is usually disregarded or mentioned by scholars as a mere anecdote. Moreover, the rare discussions of the latter’s “critical idealism” usually take at face value Merleau-Ponty’s partial and biased account. In contrast, this paper argues that in order to understand the genesis of Merleau-Ponty’s thought, it is necessary to reassess Brunschvicg’s idealism and his views on the relationship between perception and scientific knowledge. Particular attention is drawn to a specific chapter of Brunschvicg’s masterwork L’Expérience humaine et la causalité physique, entitled “Théorie intellectualiste de la perception”. Therein is articulated the theory of perception that Merleau-Ponty never ceased to contest, and of which his entire oeuvre constitutes a reversal. However, far from highlighting only the elements of opposition, the author also points out the thematic continuity that survives the generational gap between the two authors.
References
Alloa, E. 2017. Resistance of the Sensible World: An Introduction to Merleau-Ponty. Translated by J. Todd. New York: Fordham University Press.10.5422/fordham/9780823275670.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Angelino, L. 2008. “Merleau-Ponty et la critique des ‘intellectualismes.” Philonsorbonne 2: 5–21.10.4000/philonsorbonne.144Search in Google Scholar
Barbaras, R. 2009. “The Turn of Experience: Merleau-Ponty and Bergson.” In Merleau-Ponty and the Possibility of Philosophy: Transforming the Tradition, edited by B. Flynn, W. J. Froman, and R. Vallier, 33–60. Albany: SUNY Press.Search in Google Scholar
Baudart, A., G. Canguilhem, F. Foulatier, H. Grenier, R. Kühn, J.-M. Le Lannou, T. Leterre, J. Muglioni, and G. Pascal. 1995. Jules Lagneau, Alain et l’école française de la perception. Paris: Institut Alain.Search in Google Scholar
Bellantone, A., and J.-L. Vieillard-Baron, eds. 2022. Figures du spiritualisme: de Biran à Boutroux. Paris: Hermann.Search in Google Scholar
Bergson, H. 2001. “The Perception of Change.” In The Creative Mind: An Introduction to Metaphysics. Translated by M. L. Andison, 153–86. New York: Philosophical Library.Search in Google Scholar
Bergson, H. 2004. Matter and Memory. Translated by N. M. Paul, and W. S. Palmer. Mineola: Dover.Search in Google Scholar
Bianco, G. 2015. Après Bergson: portrait de groupe avec philosophe. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Search in Google Scholar
Boccali, R. 2007. “Merleau-Ponty e l’intra-ontologia della scienza contemporanea.” Chiasmi International 9: 47–63. https://doi.org/10.5840/chiasmi2007913.Search in Google Scholar
Brunschvicg, L. 1905. L’Idéalisme contemporain. Paris: Alcan.Search in Google Scholar
Brunschvicg, L. 1922. L’Expérience humaine et la causalité physique. Paris: Alcan.Search in Google Scholar
Brunschvicg, L. 1927. Le Progrès de la conscience dans la philosophie occidentale, 2. Paris: Alcan.Search in Google Scholar
Brunschvicg, L. 1934. Les Âges de l’intelligence. Paris: Alcan.Search in Google Scholar
Brunschvicg, L. 1954. “Science et prise de conscience.” In Écrits Philosophiques. III: Science – Religion, edited by A.-R. Weill-Brunschvicg, and C. Lehec, 48–57. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Search in Google Scholar
Brunschvicg, L. 1964. La Modalité du jugement, 3rd ed. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Search in Google Scholar
Brunschvicg, L. 1972. Les Étapes de la philosophie mathématique, edited by J.-T. Desanti. Paris: Blanchard.Search in Google Scholar
Brunschvicg, L. 2010. Introduction à la vie de l’esprit, edited by A. Simha. Paris: Hermann.Search in Google Scholar
Canales, J. 2015. The Physicist and the Philosopher. Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate that Changed our Understanding of Time. Princeton, Oxford: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400865772Search in Google Scholar
Chimisso, C. 2008. Writing the History of the Mind: Philosophy and Science in France, 1900 to 1960s. Aldershot: Ashgate.Search in Google Scholar
De Saint Aubert, E. 2005. Le Scénario cartésien: recherches sur la formation et la cohérence de l’intention philosophique de Merleau-Ponty. Paris: Vrin.Search in Google Scholar
Descartes, R. 1996. Meditations on First Philosophy, with Selections from the Objections and Replies, Revised ed., edited by J. Cottingham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511805028Search in Google Scholar
Derrida, J. 1989. Edmund Husserl’s Origin of Geometry: An Introduction. Translated by J. P. LeaveyJr. Lincoln-London: University of Nebraska Press.Search in Google Scholar
Desanti, J.-T. 1968. Les Idéalités mathématiques. Paris: Seuil.10.3406/raipr.1969.1283Search in Google Scholar
Fedi, L. 2021. “Du primat du jugement à l’édification de l’esprit: éléments d’interprétation pour une lecture de Léon Brunschvicg.” Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale 3: 287–305. https://doi.org/10.3917/rmm.213.0287.Search in Google Scholar
Geraets, T. F. 1971. Vers une nouvelle philosophie transcendantale: la genèse de la philosophie de Maurice Merleau-Ponty jusqu’à la Phénoménologie de la perception. The Hague: Nijhoff.10.1007/978-94-010-2984-1Search in Google Scholar
Granel, G. 1962. “Michel Alexandre et l’école française de la perception.” Critique 183–4: 758–88.Search in Google Scholar
Husserl, E. 1970. “Appendix VI [The Origin of Geometry].” In The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: An Introduction to Phenomenological Philosophy, edited by D. Carr, 353–78. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Husserl, E. 2002. “Foundational Investigations of the Phenomenological Origins of the Spatiality of Nature: The Originary Ark, the Earth, Does Not Move.” In M. Merleau-Ponty, Husserl at the Limits of Phenomenology, edited by L. Lawlor, and B. Bergo, 117–31. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Janet, P. 1903. Les Obsessions et la psychasthénie, Vol. 2. Paris: Alcan.Search in Google Scholar
Landes, D. A. 2013. Merleau-Ponty and the Paradoxes of Expression. London: Bloomsbury.Search in Google Scholar
Lawlor, L. 2003. Thinking through French Philosophy: The Being of the Question. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.10.2307/j.ctt200603vSearch in Google Scholar
Leibniz, G. W. 1996. New Essays in Human Understanding, edited by P. Remnant, and J. Bennett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139166874Search in Google Scholar
Matherne, S. 2016. “Kantian Themes in Merleau-Ponty’s Theory of Perception.” Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 98 (2): 193–230. https://doi.org/10.1515/agph-2016-0009.Search in Google Scholar
Matherne, S. 2018. “Merleau-Ponty on Abstract Thought in Mathematics and Natural.” European Journal of Philosophy 26 (2): 780–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejop.12315.Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 1964a. “The Primacy of Perception.” In The Primacy of Perception and Other Essays on Phenomenological Psychology, the Philosophy of Art, History and Politics. Translated by J. M. Edie, 12–42. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 1964b. “Eye and Mind.” In The Primacy of Perception and Other Essays. Translated by J. M. Edie, 159–92. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 1964c. “Einstein and the Crisis of Reason.” In Signs. Translated by R. C. McCleary, 192–7. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 1968. The Visible and the Invisible. Translated by A. Lingis. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 1997a. “L’agrégation de philosophie.” In Parcours, 1935–1951, edited by J. Prunair, 55–9. Paris: Verdier.Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 1997b. “Le Mouvement Philosophique Moderne.” In Parcours, 1935–1951, edited by J. Prunair, 66–8. Paris: Verdier.Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 2001. “La philosophie de l’existence.” In Parcours deux, 1951–1961, edited by J. Prunair, 247–66. Paris: Verdier.Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 2002. “Résumé of the Course: Husserl at the Limits of Phenomenology.” In Husserl at the Limits of Phenomenology, 5–10. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 2003. Nature: Courses Notes from the Collège de France. Translated by R. Vallier. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 2012. Phenomenology of Perception. Translated by D. A. Landes. London: Routledge.10.4324/9780203720714Search in Google Scholar
Merleau-Ponty, M. 2016. Entretiens avec Georges Charbonnier et autres dialogues, 1946–1959, edited by J. Melançon. Paris: Verdier.Search in Google Scholar
Mooney, T. D. 2022. Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception: On the Body Informed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781009223416Search in Google Scholar
Piaget, J. 1972. Insights and Illusions of Philosophy. Translated by W. Mays. New York: The World Publishing Company.Search in Google Scholar
Pradelle, D. 2011. “La phénoménologie des objets mathématiques chez Desanti.” Revue Germanique Internationale 13: 75–94. https://doi.org/10.4000/rgi.1126.Search in Google Scholar
Ricœur, P. 2009. “Merleau-Ponty: Between Husserl and Heidegger.” In Merleau-Ponty and the Possibility of Philosophy: Transforming the Tradition, edited by B. Flynn, W. J. Froman, and R. Vallier, 25–32. Albany: SUNY Press.Search in Google Scholar
Rockmore, T. 2011. Kant and Phenomenology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226723419.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Smith, A. D. 2007. “The Flesh of Perception: Merleau-Ponty and Husserl.” In Reading Merleau-Ponty, edited by T. Baldwin, 1–22. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Terzi, P. 2022. Rediscovering Léon Brunschvicg’s Critical Idealism: Philosophy, History and Science in the Third Republic. London: Bloomsbury.10.5040/9781350171701Search in Google Scholar
Worms, F. 2009. La Philosophie en France au XXe siècle: moments. Paris: Gallimard.Search in Google Scholar
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
