Abstract

The article develops answers to three apparently disparate questions: 1. The epochè of sciences is an integral part of Husserls phenomenological method. What, however, is the status of scientific findings in the phenomenology of Merleau-Ponty? (Part I) 2. In The Visible and the Invisible the phenomenon of reversibility is central. How does this reversibility shed new light on the Schneider case to which Merleau-Ponty devotes many pages in Phenomenology of Perception? (Part II and III) 3. If we read Merleau-Ponty's texts consequentially — not only the ones mentioned above but also Les relations avec autrui chez l'enfant —, do'nt we end up with a convincing though self-willed reading of the mirror stage? (Part IV) The author not only intends to develop these questions and answers , he also integrates these seemingly diverse questions in one paper to demonstrate that they are very much interrelated: the possibility of the epochè of sciences is inversely proportional to the possibility of the mirror stage. In the former case, one has to be able to free oneself from the attraction of something external (texts and theories). In the latter case, one allows the attraction (in particular of an image) to carry on. The question is, however, whether such a switch is possible. The Schneider case shows that some scepticism is justified (Part IV)