Abstract

It is my contention that there is a significant relationship between “Phenomenology of Perception” (Merleau-Ponty) and “The Second Sex” (de Beauvoir). The two authors give great importancc to the lived body (Leib), either from a neutral perspective, either from a perspective feminine. This key concept of the phenomenology allows us to understand the lived experience of women and their possible relationship with feminism. From this corporeal sense we analyze the Merleau-Pontinian redefinition of subjectivity and reason. We emphasize his criticism of reductionism, both epistemological as ontological. We refute certain feminists accusations against Merleau-Ponty. To do this, we study all his work in search of traces of women, we place them in context, while we study his own hermeneutics of psychoanalysis in order to highlight the contribution of it to the deconstruction of stereotypes about femininity. We conclude by showing the main keys of this phenomenology for· the current feminist Philosophy.