Abstract

This collection of eight critical essays makes a significant contribution to the secondary literature on Merleau-Ponty. As stated in the preface, the intention of the book is "to bring to expression the levels and directions through which the thought of Merleau-Ponty moved from The Structure of Behavior to The Visible and the Invisible." The first essay, by Gillan, entitled, "In the Folds of the Flesh; Philosophy and Language," sets the context for the essays which follow. It centers around the two "foci" of Merleau-Ponty’s "struggle with the meaning of being": "the language of philosophy and its self-discovery within the corporeal texture of language itself, the flesh of language". Gillan’s comprehensive expose traces the development of Merleau-Ponty’s thought in terms of these two foci. Don Ihde’s "Singing the World; Language and Perception" suggests a certain "priority" for Merleau-Ponty of language over perception. Language is "not just one dimension of being," and the problem of perception, consequently, has become "enigmatic". Ihde also raises the question of whether Merleau-Ponty has overcome the nature-culture dichotomy.